文明（2018）

Civilisations S01E06

Part 6 Feb. 24, 2021, 4:16 p.m.

most never left their native soil.
大部分人仍旧从未离乡
As far as we know, the artist Jan Vermeer
据我们所知艺术家维米尔
hardly ventured further than the small, Dutch city of Delft.
几乎没出过荷兰小城代尔夫特
Vermeer is not an artist known for wide horizons.
维米尔不是以大场景成名的画家
Most of his paintings are famously intimate.
他的大部分作品都以贴近生活而著称
They're set within the neat, ordered,
他的画作取材于整洁有序
almost claustrophobic world of the Dutch home.
近乎全然封闭的荷兰家庭世界
What Jan Vermeer specialised in was the art of everyday life.
维米尔尤善于表现风俗日常之美
And his world was an interior world.
他的世界是在室内
What he captured on canvas was simple, fleeting moments.
被他捕捉在画布上的是转瞬即逝的平凡画面
A young girl laughing when an officer leans towards her.
一位在军官向她偏身时含笑的年轻女孩
A woman reading a letter by an open window.
临窗专心读信的女子
Another woman in the middle of a music lesson.
还有一位正在上音乐课的女子
And each of those scenes is bathed in a delicate light
这些场景都沐浴在
that pours in from a side window.
从侧窗中照进的柔和日光中
But that only serves to emphasise
但其目的仅仅是
the fact that we're in an enclosed room,
强调我们所看到的是封闭的室内
and that the rest of the world is hidden from sight,
其余的世界则无从探视
that it's somewhere out there.
只存在于窗外某处
But if you look a little more closely at the details,
但如果你更注意观察细节
at the objects that have been placed on the tables,
看看桌上摆放着的物品
at the maps that hang on the walls,
还有墙上挂着的地图
what you realise is that Vermeer's seemingly interior,
你会发现维米尔画中那看似家庭室内的空间里
domestic space is infused
实则遍布着
with the globalism of the Dutch golden age.
荷兰黄金时代的全球主义
You see it in the Chinese pottery
这在画中有很多体现例如
that the artisans of Delft learned to copy.
由代尔夫特尔工匠研习仿制的中国瓷器
And on the rugs from the Orient that were highly regarded.
那些高档的东方地毯
A hat made from North American beaver fur.
北美洲海狸皮毛制成的帽子
A geographer, wearing a fashionable Japanese robe,
一位聚精会神看着图表的
pores over his charts.
穿着时兴日式长袍的地理学者
There's a globe perched on his cupboard.
还有橱柜上放着的地球仪
Though Vermeer never shows us the view out of the window,
尽管维米尔从未向世人展现过窗外的风景
he constantly hints at the rich,
他一直在画中透露着
complex universe that lies beyond.
一个超越日常生活的复杂世界
While Vermeer's window offers us glimpses of the wider world,
当我们从维米尔的窗中可以一瞥外面世界时
another artist takes us through that window
另一位艺术家带我们穿越那扇窗
on a journey of discovery.
走上探索的旅程
The name Maria Sibylla Merian is now largely forgotten.
玛丽亚·西碧拉·梅里安的名字几乎已被遗忘
Yet she was one of the greatest biologists of her time.
但她曾是当时最伟大的生物学家之一
As a German immigrant to Amsterdam,
作为移♥民♥阿姆斯特丹的德国人
she benefited from its freedoms,
这个城市的自♥由♥
in particular its freedoms for women.
尤其是女性的自♥由♥让她受益
In Amsterdam, she was able to promote
在阿姆斯特丹她可以推广自己
her ground-breaking studies of insects and their life cycles,
开创性的昆虫及其生命周期的研究
illustrated with exquisite works of art.
并配有精致细腻的图画
At the time, many people believe that insects emerged
在那时许多人认为昆虫是从土地里
fully formed, spontaneously, from the Earth.
无中生有自发冒出来的
That somehow they were born out of the mud.
它们以某种方式从泥土中诞生
But Maria explained and painted their life cycle.
但玛丽亚做出了阐释并绘制了它们的生命周期
Their metamorphosis from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly.
从毛毛虫到蝶蛹再到蝴蝶的完全变♥态♥发育
She not only explained that process,
她不仅解释了这一过程
she showed which plant species
还展示了每种蝴蝶
each butterfly species was dependent upon.
所依存的植物种类
This book revolutionised the study of insects in Europe.
这本书彻底改变了欧洲昆虫学研究
But it also helped Maria raise the funds to embark upon a journey
也为玛丽亚的研究筹到更多资金
to study the more exotic creatures
使她能前往荷兰帝国的热带地区
that she knew she would find
研究她相信可以找到的
in the tropical regions of the Dutch empire.
更多异国生物
Seduced, like so many others,
像其他人一样
by the Dutch Republic's connections to faraway lands...
被荷兰共和国与遥远土地的联♥系♥所诱惑
In 1699, Maria Sibylla set sail
玛丽亚·西碧拉在1699年
for South America and the Dutch colony of Suriname,
前往南美洲位于热带加勒比海沿岸的
on the tropical Caribbean coast.
荷兰殖民地苏里南
Maria Sibylla spent two years exploring Suriname,
玛丽亚·西碧拉花了两年时间探索苏里南
sketching and painting local plants and animals.
描绘当地动植物
Many of them were previously unknown to Europeans.
它们中许多都不曾为欧洲人所知
Her work encapsulates the spirit of curiosity
她的工作满含着好奇心
that helped fuel the scientific revolution.
而正是好奇心推动了科技革命
Just like the Dutch in Japan, the story of the British in India
正如荷兰人在日本一样英国人在印度的故事
began with their merchants operating very much on the margins...
起初也是商人在当地如履薄冰
Obliged to flatter the local princes
他们必须讨好当地亲王
and the Mughal emperors who ruled then.
以及当时统治印度的莫卧儿帝国君主
But this story would mark a profound shift
但这个故事会标志着一个
from the age of discovery to a new, 19th-century age,
从地理大发现到全新十九世纪的重大转折
where Europe's imperial ambitions came to dominate the globe.
此时欧洲帝国的雄心开始称霸全球
That shift from trade to rule
从贸易到统治的转变
was captured in the work of two artists
在两位艺术家的作品中
from different sides of the encounter.
通过会面的双方表现而展示出来
Ghulam Ali Khan,
吴拉姆·阿里·汗
resident painter in the royal court of India's Mughal dynasty...
是印度莫卧儿王朝的的宫廷画师
And Johan Zoffany,
约翰·佐法尼
who came to India after making his name
则为在英国皇室画画而成名之后
painting for the British royal court.
来到印度
For German-born Zoffany,
对于德国出生的佐法尼来说
India was an escape and a chance for a fresh start.
印度是逃离也是重新开始的机会
In Britain, he'd wrecked his glittering career
他因为对皇家专门调查委员会态度轻蔑
by offending the royal family
从而冒犯皇室
with his cavalier approach to a Royal Commission.
毁了自己在英国的金饭碗
In 1783, he arrived in Kolkata,
1783年他来到加尔各答
the main trading post of the British East India Company.
英国东印度公♥司♥的主要贸易站
Zoffany's come here to rebuild his career and to make some money.
佐法尼来这里重振事业赚点钱
He's not exactly fallen on hard times,
他并没有真到难以为继的地步
but he's alienated a swathe of London society.
但他已不被容于伦敦上流社会
So this is a place where he can make a lot of money.
所以这里是能让他挣大钱的地方
That's what he's here to do.
他来这儿就是为了这个
He's described by a contemporary
一位和他同时代的人说
of setting out to come to India to roll in gold dust.
他是去印度在金粉里打滚的
Fortunes are being made,
这儿能赚钱
everybody in London knows that
伦敦所有人都知道
huge amounts of money are being made here.
在这里能发大财
And that this is a place where you can start again.
而且在这里你能重新开始
You can rewrite your story.
你能重写你的人生
Within a year of his arrival,
到这里一年不到
Zoffany produced one of the most astonishing insights
佐法尼就惊人地洞察到了
into the early relationship
早期英国商人
between the British traders and their Indian clients.
和印度客户之间的关系
This is a painting that depicts an event that actually took place.
这幅画描绘的是一个真实事件
A cockfight organised by Colonel John Mordaunt
1784年东印度公♥司♥的
of the East India Company, in 1784,
约翰·莫当特上校为他的顾客
in the city of Lucknow for his client, the Nawab of Oudh -
奥德纳瓦布在勒克瑙组织了一场斗鸡
two men who were almost living metaphors
这两个人可以说是
for what was happening in India in the late 18th century.
十八世纪晚期印度社会的鲜活实例
Colonel John Mordaunt
约翰·莫当特上校
was the illegitimate son of a British aristocrat.
是一位英国贵族的私生子
He was a man on the make, trying to build his fortune.
他很有野心想发财
The Nawab of Oudh was a playboy.
奥德纳瓦布则是个花♥花♥公♥子♥
He'd already signed away much of his authority and some of his wealth
他已经签字把许多权力和部分财产
to the East India Company.
转让给了东印度公♥司♥
And Zoffany hints at the direction that he thinks
而佐法尼在画中暗示他觉得
the relationship between the British and the Nawab is heading,
这个英国人和纳瓦布之间的关系会如何发展
by the fact that he has the British cockerel
他让英国小公鸡
The painting is full of little, subversive details.
画中有很多细小却具有颠覆性的细节
There's gambling.
有赌博
The men are trying to seduce the women.
男人正试着勾引女人
There is a British redcoat, right on the edge of frame,
这里有位英国士兵就在画面的边上
slinking off into the distance with his Indian mistress.
正和他的印度情妇偷偷溜走
This is the British and the Indians,
这是英国人和印度人
enjoying one another's company.
互相享受着对方的陪伴
Socialising, interacting together in easy informality.
放松随意地交流着