One painter of Dutch glass landscapes called Maruyama Okyo
一位名叫圆山应举的荷兰镜风景画家
shrewdly focused on revered Japanese subjects,
很有眼光地专攻备受尊崇的日本主题
like the medieval Hollyhock Festival,
例如中世纪的葵祭
infusing them with a new sense of depth.
并为其赋予了新的深度
Soon his reputation grew.
他很快便声名鹊起
Okyo began to win more serious commissions.
圆山开始获得更郑重的委托
On a pair of temple screens,
他在一对寺庙屏风上
he painted bamboo with more delicately observed naturalism
绘制的竹子精巧自然 栩栩如生
than anything yet seen in Japanese art.
在日本艺术史上绝无仅有
On one side, buffeted by the wind...
一侧修竹迎风而立
On the other, in the rain,
另一侧 雨打竹枝
heavily laden and still.
饱受摧残却依然坚韧挺拔
But it was for his masterpiece
但日本艺术史上
that Okyo combined everything he knew
最美的旷世佳作之一
from both eastern and western traditions
却源于圆山对所掌握的
in one of the most breathtakingly beautiful
东西方传统风格的
of all Japanese works.
融会贯通
It's so subtle, so minimal a work of art
它如此精致 又如此简洁
that it almost feels like it isn't there,
让人几乎无迹可寻
and everything about it feels ephemeral and frail.
拥有一种短暂而脆弱之美
It's painted on paper, not canvas as in the west,
此作绘于纸上 而不是西方所用的帆布
and great expanses of it are just white, blank areas
大面积的留白中空无一物
that seem almost untouched by the artist,
就好像作者未动一笔
and yet all of that belies the fact
但它却是我所知的
that this is one of the most sophisticated works
意蕴最深刻复杂的
of cultural synthesis that I know.
文化融合作品
It shows a sheet of ice, presumably on a lake,
画中是一层薄冰 可能是在湖面上
and these broken, jagged cracks in the ice
冰上参差不齐的裂痕
disappear into the mist.
消失在薄雾中
The effect is three-dimensional space.
这种处理展现出立体空间的效果
Now, that is European vanishing-point perspective,
它采用了欧式消失点透视法
and yet this, one of Okyo's masterworks,
但圆山的这幅杰作
just could not be more Japanese,
却蕴含着浓浓的日本精神
because it's a philosophical contemplation
因为它表达了对佛教中
of two concepts fundamental to Buddhism -
两大基本概念的哲学思考