雕像为啥都是破鼻子？ / 四六文摘

The most common question that curator Edward Bleiberg fields from visitors to the Brooklyn Museum's Egyptian art galleries is a straightforward but salient one: Why are the statues' noses broken?

布鲁克林博物馆埃及艺术画廊的馆长爱德华·布莱伯格·菲尔兹向参观者提出的一个最常见的问题是:为什么雕像的鼻子断掉了?

Bleiberg, who oversees the museum's extensive holdings of Egyptian, Classical and ancient Near Eastern art, was surprised the first few times he heard this question.

布莱伯格负责管理博物馆的大量藏品，包括埃及、古典和古代近东地区的艺术品。

He had taken for granted that the sculptures were damaged; his training in Egyptology encouraged visualizing how a statue would look if it were still intact.

雕像被损坏他已经习以为常了；他在埃及学方面的训练促使他去想象一尊雕像如果完好无损会是什么样子。

But this simple observation led Bleiberg to uncover a widespread pattern of deliberate destruction, which pointed to a complex set of reasons why most works of Egyptian art came to be defaced in the first place.

但这一简单的观察让布莱伯格发现了一种普遍存在的蓄意破坏的模式，它指向了为什么大多数埃及艺术品一开始就遭到破坏的一系列复杂的原因。

Bleiberg's research is now the basis of the poignant exhibition "Striking Power: Iconoclasm in Ancient Egypt."

布莱伯格的研究现在是令人沉痛的展览“惊人的力量:古埃及的反圣像运动”的基础。

A selection of objects from the Brooklyn Museum's collection will travel to the Pulitzer Arts Foundation later this month under the co-direction of the latter's associate curator, Stephanie Weissberg.

本月晚些时候，在普利策艺术基金会副馆长斯蒂芬妮·韦斯伯格的共同指导下，布鲁克林博物馆藏品的一部分将被送往普利策艺术基金会。

Pairing damaged statues and reliefs dating from the 25th century BC to the 1st century AD with intact counterparts, the show testifies to ancient Egyptian artifacts' political and religious functions -- and the entrenched culture of iconoclasm that led to their mutilation.

此次展览将公元前25世纪至公元1世纪的受损雕像和浮雕与完好无损的文物进行比对，证明了古埃及文物的政治和宗教功能，以及导致这些文物残缺不全的根深蒂固的反偶像文化。

In our own era of reckoning with national monuments and other public displays of art, "Striking Power" adds a germane dimension to our understanding of one of the world's oldest and longest-lasting civilizations, whose visual culture, for the most part, remained unchanged over millennia.

在我们这个对国家纪念碑和其他公共艺术展览进行反思的时代，《惊人的力量》为我们对世界上最古老、最持久的文明之一的理解增加了一个密切相关的内容。

This stylistic continuity reflects -- and directly contributed to -- the empire's long stretches of stability.

这种风格的连续性反映了——也直接促成了——帝国的长期稳定。

But invasions by outside forces, power struggles between dynastic rulers and other periods of upheaval left their scars.

但外部势力的入侵、王朝统治者之间的权力斗争和其他动荡时期也留下了他们的伤疤。

"The consistency of the patterns where damage is found in sculpture suggests that it's purposeful," Bleiberg said, citing myriad political, religious, personal and criminal motivations for acts of vandalism.

“在雕塑中发现的破坏模式的一致性表明，它是有目的的，”布莱伯格说，他列举了破坏行为的无数政治、宗教、个人和犯罪动机。

Discerning the difference between accidental damage and deliberate vandalism came down to recognizing such patterns.

辨别意外伤害和故意破坏的区别归结于要识别出这种模式。

A protruding nose on a three-dimensional statue is easily broken, he conceded, but the plot thickens when flat reliefs also sport smashed noses.

他承认，立体雕像上突出的鼻子很容易被打破，但当扁平浮雕上的鼻子也被砸碎时，情节就变得复杂起来。

The ancient Egyptians, it's important to note, ascribed important powers to images of the human form.

值得注意的是，古埃及人把重要的权力赋予了人类形体的形象。

They believed that the essence of a deity could inhabit an image of that deity, or, in the case of mere mortals, part of that deceased human being's soul could inhabit a statue inscribed for that particular person.

他们相信，神的本质可以存在于那个神的形象中，或者，在凡人的情况下，那个死去的人的灵魂的一部分可以存在于为那个特定的人雕刻的雕像中。

These campaigns of vandalism were therefore intended to "deactivate an image's strength," as Bleiberg put it.

因此，正如布莱伯格所言，这些破坏行为意在“破坏图像的力量”。

Tombs and temples were the repositories for most sculptures and reliefs that had a ritual purpose.

坟墓和寺庙是大多数具有仪式目的的雕塑和浮雕的储存库。

"All of them have to do with the economy of offerings to the supernatural," Bleiberg said.

布莱伯格说:“所有这些都与这种向超自然力量提供祭品的经济有关。”

In a tomb, they served to "feed" the deceased person in the next world with gifts of food from this one.

在一个坟墓里，他们用来自这个世界的食物作为礼物来“喂养”来世的死者。

In temples, representations of gods are shown receiving offerings from representations of kings, or other elites able to commission a statue.

在庙宇里，神的代表被展示接受来自国王的代表的供品，或其他有资格被塑成雕像的贵族。

"Egyptian state religion," Bleiberg explained, was seen as "an arrangement where kings on Earth provide for the deity, and in return, the deity takes care of Egypt." Statues and reliefs were "a meeting point between the supernatural and this world," he said, only inhabited, or "revivified," when the ritual is performed.

“埃及的国教，”布莱伯格解释说，被视为“这样的一种安排，在地球上的国王提供给神贡品，作为回报，神就会照顾埃及。”他说，雕像和浮雕是“超自然世界和这个世界之间的交汇点”，只有在举行仪式时雕像里才有神附身，或“复活”。

And acts of iconoclasm could disrupt that power.

打破神像的行为可能就会破坏这种力量。

"The damaged part of the body is no longer able to do its job," Bleiberg explained.

布莱伯格解释说:“身体受损的部分将已经无法再正常工作。”

Without a nose, the statue-spirit ceases to breathe, so that the vandal is effectively "killing" it.

没有鼻子，雕像的灵魂就会停止呼吸，所以破坏者实际上是在“杀死”它。

To hammer the ears off a statue of a god would make it unable to hear a prayer.

而用锤子敲掉神像的耳朵则会使它无法听到祈祷。

In statues intended to show human beings making offerings to gods, the left arm -- most commonly used to make offerings -- is cut off so the statue's function can't be performed (the right hand is often found axed in statues receiving offerings).

在展示人类向神供品的雕像中，左臂(最常用来呈上供品)被切断，因此雕像的功能无法发挥(在接受供品的雕像中，常常发现右手被砍断)。

"In the Pharaonic period, there was a clear understanding of what sculpture was supposed to do," Bleiberg said.

布莱伯格说:“在法老时期，人们对雕塑的作用有清晰的认识。”

Even if a petty tomb robber was mostly interested in stealing the precious objects, he was also concerned that the deceased person might take revenge if his rendered likeness wasn't mutilated.

即使一个小盗墓者最感兴趣的是盗窃珍贵的物品，他也担心如果死者的肖像没有被毁损，他可能会报复。

The prevalent practice of damaging images of the human form -- and the anxiety surrounding the desecration -- dates to the beginnings of Egyptian history.

破坏人体形象的普遍做法——以及关于亵渎的焦虑——可以追溯到埃及历史的开端。

Intentionally damaged mummies from the prehistoric period, for example, speak to a "very basic cultural belief that damaging the image damages the person represented," Bleiberg said.

例如，故意损坏史前时期的木乃伊，说明了一种“非常基本的文化信仰，即破坏图像会损害所代表的人，”布莱伯格说。

Likewise, how-to hieroglyphics provided instructions for warriors about to enter battle: Make a wax effigy of the enemy, then destroy it.

同样，象形文字也为即将投入战斗的战士提供了指导:即制作敌人的蜡像，然后摧毁它。

Series of texts describe the anxiety of your own image becoming damaged, and pharaohs regularly issued decrees with terrible punishments for anyone who would dare threaten their likeness.

他们有一系列的文字都描述了对自己形象受损的焦虑，法老经常颁布法令，对任何胆敢威胁自己形象的人施以可怕的惩罚。

Indeed, "iconoclasm on a grand scale...was primarily political in motive," Bleiberg writes in the exhibition catalog for "Striking Power."

的确，“大规模的反神像运动……主要是出于政治动机，”布莱伯格在《惊人的力量》展览目录中写道。

Defacing statues aided ambitious rulers (and would-be rulers) with rewriting history to their advantage.

毁损雕像有助于雄心勃勃的统治者(以及未来的统治者)改写历史，为自己谋利。

Over the centuries, this erasure often occurred along gendered lines: The legacies of two powerful Egyptian queens whose authority and mystique fuel the cultural imagination -- Hatshepsut and Nefertiti -- were largely erased from visual culture.

几个世纪以来，这种抹去经常沿着性别界线发生:两位强大的埃及女王——哈特谢普苏特和

纳芙蒂蒂——她们的权威和神秘感激发了文化想象力，而她们的遗产在很大程度上都被从视觉文化中抹去了。

"Hatshepsut's reign presented a problem for the legitimacy of Thutmose III's successor, and Thutmose solved this problem by virtually eliminating all imagistic and inscribed memory of Hatshepsut," Bleiberg writes.

布莱伯格写道:“哈特谢普苏特的统治给图特摩斯三世继承人的合法性带来了一个问题，而图特摩斯三世几乎消除了所有对哈特谢普苏特的形象记忆和铭刻记忆，从而解决了这个问题。”

Nefertiti's husband Akhenaten brought a rare stylistic shift to Egyptian art in the Amarna period (ca. 1353-36 BC) during his religious revolution.

而纳芙蒂蒂的丈夫阿赫那吞则在他的宗教革命时期(约公元前1353年至公元前36年)给埃及艺术带来了罕见的风格转变。

The successive rebellions wrought by his son Tutankhamun and his ilk included restoring the longtime worship of the god Amun; "the destruction of Akhenaten's monuments was therefore thorough and effective," Bleiberg writes.

他的儿子图坦卡蒙及其同门相继发动叛乱，包括恢复对阿蒙神的长期崇拜;布莱伯格写道:“因此，对阿肯纳坦古迹的破坏是彻底而有效的。”

Yet Nefertiti and her daughters also suffered; these acts of iconoclasm have obscured many details of her reign.

而纳芙蒂蒂和她的女儿们也到了牵连；这些破坏传统的行为掩盖了她统治时期的许多细节。

Ancient Egyptians took measures to safeguard their sculptures.

古埃及人也采取了措施来保护他们的雕塑。

Statues were placed in niches in tombs or temples to protect them on three sides.

雕像被放置在坟墓或寺庙的壁龛中，以保护它们的三面。

They would be secured behind a wall, their eyes lined up with two holes, before which a priest would make his offering.

他们会被锁在一堵墙后面，眼睛上有两个洞，祭司会在洞前献祭。

"They did what they could," Bleiberg said.

“他们已经尽力了，”布莱伯格说。

"It really didn't work that well."

“不过却并未奏效。”

Speaking to the futility of such measures, Bleiberg appraised the skill evidenced by the iconoclasts.

在谈到这些措施的无效时，布莱伯格评价了破坏者们所展示的作法。

"They were not vandals," he clarified.

“他们不是破坏者，”他澄清道。

"They were not recklessly and randomly striking out works of art."

“他们并不是鲁莽地、随意地将艺术品打破。”

In fact, the targeted precision of their chisels suggests that they were skilled laborers, trained and hired for this exact purpose.

事实上，他们凿子的精准度表明，他们是熟练的工人，经过培训并被雇佣，就是为了这个目的。

"Often in the Pharaonic period," Bleiberg said, "it's really only the name of the person who is targeted, in the inscription.

This means that the person doing the damage could read!"

“通常发生在法老时期，”布莱伯格说，“铭文上只有被攻击者的名字。这意味着搞破坏的这个人是识字的。”

The understanding of these statues changed over time as cultural mores shifted.

随着文化习俗的转变，人们对这些雕像的理解也在不断变化。

In the early Christian period in Egypt, between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, the indigenous gods inhabiting the sculptures were feared as pagan demons; to dismantle paganism, its ritual tools -- especially statues making offerings -- were attacked.

在公元1世纪至3世纪的埃及早期基督教时期，居住在雕塑中的土著神被视为异教恶魔;为了废除异教，它的仪式工具——尤其是供奉祭品的雕像——遭到了攻击。

After the Muslim invasion in the 7th century, scholars surmise, Egyptians had lost any fear of these ancient ritual objects.

学者推测，在公元7世纪穆斯林入侵埃及之后，埃及人对这些古老的祭祀物品已经不再恐惧。

During this time, stone statues were regularly trimmed into rectangles and used as building blocks in construction projects.

在此期间，石像被定期修剪成长方形，并在建筑工程中用作建筑材料。

"Ancient temples were somewhat seen as quarries," Bleiberg said, noting that "when you walk around medieval Cairo, you can see a much more ancient Egyptian object built into a wall."

“古庙在某种程度上被视为采石场，”布莱伯格说。他指出，“当你在中世纪的开罗漫步时，你可能会在墙上看到古埃及文物。”

Such a practice seems especially outrageous to modern viewers, considering our appreciation of Egyptian artifacts as masterful works of fine art, but Bleiberg is quick to point out that "ancient Egyptians didn't have a word for 'art.'

这样的做法对现代观众来说似乎特别令人发指，因为我们把对埃及艺术品视为精湛的艺术品，但布莱伯格很快指出，“古埃及人没有'艺术’这个词。”

They would have referred to these objects as 'equipment.'"

他们会把这些物体称为'装置’。”

When we talk about these artifacts as works of art, he said, we de-contextualize them.

他说，当我们把这些手工艺品说成是艺术品时，我们已经让它们脱离了历史背景了。

Still, these ideas about the power of images are not peculiar to the ancient world, he observed, referring to our own age of questioning cultural patrimony and public monuments.

不过，他指出，这些关于图像力量的观点并不只存在于古代世界，他指的是我们这个也会质疑文化遗产和公共古迹的时代。

"Imagery in public space is a reflection of who has the power to tell the story of what happened and what should be remembered," Bleiberg said.

布莱伯格说:“公共空间中的意象反映了谁有能力讲述发生了什么，以及应该记住什么。”

"We are witnessing the empowerment of many groups of people with different opinions of what the proper narrative is."

“我们见证了许多群体的力量，他们对正确的叙述有不同的看法。”

Perhaps we can learn from the pharaohs; how we choose to rewrite our national stories might just take a few acts of iconoclasm.

也许我们也可以向法老学习;我们可以选择如何改写我们的国家故事，可能只需要一些打破传统的行为。