Читать книгу Art in Theory - Группа авторов - Страница 129

From the time of his death until the early years of the twenty‐first century, the artistic reputation of William Hodges was in eclipse; indeed, his career ended in failure and poverty. It looks rather different now. Hodges not only travelled far beyond Europe, he made important paintings and prints of the places he saw and wrote about them. Both his visual images and his written texts have, somewhat predictably, been read by post‐colonialist art historians for traces of his complicity in an ‘imperial aesthetic’ and the construction of a Eurocentric ‘Orientalism’. Undoubtedly, Hodges was a man of his time: he uses tropes of ‘curiosity’ and of the ‘picturesque’ to describe what he saw. He draws on the contemporary ‘stadial’ theory of human social development, which he absorbed on the second Cook voyage to the South Pacific (cf. IIB4 and IIC8). But his judgements are more nuanced than that. In his book on India, he responds positively to both Hindu and Muslim architecture, and to decoration on that architecture. But his European assumptions about lifelikeness make him critical of Hindu sculpture. He gives measured praise to Mughal miniatures and Hindu bronzes, he even relativizes his own Greek architectural heritage; but as a European artist, he cannot see past representational accuracy as the ultimate criterion of value in art. It may fairly be asked, how could he be expected to do otherwise? Particularly in contrast with the prevailing ethos of the nineteenth century, it is Hodges’ openness that is noteworthy, rather than his prejudices. The present short extracts are taken from Travels in India during the Years 1780, 1781, 1782 and 1783, 2nd edn, London, 1794: pp. 25–6 (on Hindu sculpture); pp. 59–60 and 65 (on Hindu architecture); pp. 122–4 (on the Taj Mahal); and pp. 149–51 (a comparison of Mughal and Hindu art).

The country about Colgong, is, I think, the most beautiful I have seen in India. The waving appearance of the land, its fine turf and detached woods, backed by the extensive forests on the hills, brought to my mind many of the fine parks in England; and its overlooking the Ganges, which has more the appearance of an ocean at this place than of a river, gives the prospect inexpressible grandeur.

From this place my route was continued to the village of Sultungunge; opposite to which, in the river, is the small island of Jangerah … This island is a rock, with a few trees growing from its interstices, and on the top is a small hermitage, inhabited by a Hindoo monk … This rock is considered by the Hindoos as a sacred place; and on many parts of it are pieces of sculpture relative to their mythology. I am concerned I cannot pay so high a compliment to the art of sculpture among the Hindoos as is usually paid by many ingenious authors who write on the religion of Bramah. Considering these works, as I do, with the eyes of an artist, they are only to be paralleled with the rude essays of the ingenious Indians I have met with in Otaheite, and on other islands in the South Seas. The time when these sculptures were produced I believe is not easy to ascertain; but thus much is certain, that the more modern works of sculpture of human figures, by the Hindoos, lay claim to very little more merit than the ancient productions. Some ornaments, however, that I have seen on Hindoo temples are beautifully carved.

* * *

The city of Benares being the capital of a large district, and particularly marked as the seat of Bramin learning, it cannot but be considered as an object of particular curiosity, more especially, since the same manners and customs prevail amongst these people at this day, as at the remotest period that can be traced in history….

It certainly is curious, and highly entertaining to an inquisitive mind, to associate with a people whose manners are more than three thousand years old; and to observe in them that attention and polished behaviour which usually marks the most highly civilized state of society. […]

It is built on the north side of the river, which is here very broad, and the banks of which are very high: from the water, its appearance is extremely beautiful; the great variety of the buildings strikes the eye, and the whole view is much improved by innumerable flights of stone steps, which are either entrances into the several temples, or to the houses. Several Hindoo temples greatly embellish the banks of the river, and are all ascended to by Gauts, or flights of steps … Many other public and private buildings possess also considerable magnificence. Several of these I have painted, and some on a larger scale, such as I conceived the subjects demanded. […]

However partial I must feel, from habit and education, to the Greeks, whose free and unfettered genius, in a long series of ages, improved the original hut of a woody country into the incomparable beauties of a marble temple or palace; yet I freely avow that this by no means prevents my entertaining a similar partiality for countries, where different models have been brought to an equal perfection.

* * *

To the south‐east of the city of Agra is a beautiful monument, raised by the Emperor Shah Jehan for his beloved wife Taje Mahel, whose name it bears, and is called, by way of eminence, the Taje Mahel … The Taje Mahel rises immediately from the river, founded on a base of red free‐stone, at the extremity of which are octagon pavilions, consisting of three stories each. On the same base are two large buildings, one on either side, and perfectly similar, each crowned with three domes of white marble; the center dome considerably larger than the others. One of these buildings is a musjüd, or mosque; the other was designed for the repose of any great personage, who might come either on a pilgrimage to the tomb, or to satisfy a well‐directed curiosity. On this base of free‐stone (having a platform at least of twenty‐five feet in breadth) another rests of white marble, of a square form, and which is about fourteen feet high; the angles are octagon, from which rise minarets, or vast columns tapering upwards, having three several galleries running round them, and on the top of each an open pavilion, crowned with a dome. These minarets too, I should have remarked, are of white marble, and contain stair‐cases which lead to the top. From this magnificent base, like those already described, rises the body of the building, which has a platform similar to the above. The plan of this is octagon; the four principal sides opposed to the cardinal points of the compass. In the center of each of the four sides there is raised a vast and pointed arch, like that described in the gate of the tomb of Acbar; and the top above this arch rises considerably higher than the other parts of the building. Those faces of the building which form the octagon on either side of the great arches, have two stories of pointed arches, with recesses, and a low balustrade in front; the spandrels above the arches are greatly enriched with different‐coloured marble inlaid: the heads of the arches within the recesses are likewise most highly enriched in the same manner; within the several arches running round the building are windows, formed by an open fret‐work in the solid slab, to give light to the interior of the building. From behind this octagon front, and rising considerably higher, are four octangular pavilions, with domes. From the center of the whole, rising as high as the domes of the pavilions, is a cone, whence springs the great dome, swelling from its base outwards considerably, and with a beautiful curve finishing in the upper point of the cullus, on which rest two balls of copper gilt, one above the other: above the balls is a crescent, from the center of which a spear head terminates the whole. Each face of this building is a counterpart to the other, and all are equally finished.

When this building is viewed from the opposite side of the river, it possess a degree of beauty, from the perfection of the materials and from the excellence of the workmanship, which is only surpassed by its grandeur, extent and general magnificence. The basest material that enters into this center part of it is white marble, and the ornaments are of various coloured marbles, in which there is no glitter: the whole together appears like a most perfect pearl on an azure ground. The effect is such as, I confess, I never experienced from any work of art. The fine materials, the beautiful forms, and the symmetry of the whole, with the judicious choice of situation, far surpasses any thing I ever beheld.

* * *

I arrived at Calcutta on the 24th of September, after a journey of nine months and fourteen days, through a country which had once been subject to the Moguls; the greatest and the richest empire, perhaps, of which the human annals can produce an instance….

I cannot look back at the various scenes through which I passed in these excursions, without almost involuntarily indulging a train of reflections relative to the state of the arts, under this, as well as under the Hindoo government. The amazing monuments which are still to be found in India prove the Mussulman conquerors to have been well acquainted with the principles of architecture, and at least to have had the taste for grand composition; in painting, on the contrary, they have only exercised themselves in miniature, many of which are highly beautiful in composition and in delicacy of colour. […]

In sculpture there are no influences of excellence among the Moors, except in the Taje Mahel at Agra, upon which there are flowers carved with considerable ability.

The Hindoos appear to me to rise superior to the Mahommedans in the ornamental parts of architecture. Some of the sculptures in their buildings are very highly to be commended for the beauty of the execution; they may, indeed, be said to be very finely drawn, and cut with a peculiar sharpness. […] I have seen many instances of cast metal statues, relative to Hindoo mythology, that prove their perfect knowledge in the art of casting. These works, as they apply to the religion of Bramah, are both curious and valuable; but, as they are purely mythological, the artists have only considered the symbolical character, without the proper attention, and, perhaps without a power of giving a perfect beautiful form, such as we see in the Grecian statues.

The paintings of the Hindoos, as they are, like their sculptures, chiefly applied to represent the objects of their religious worship, are certainly not so perfect as the Moorish pictures, which are all portraits. A constant study of simple nature, it is well known, will produce a resemblance which is sometimes astonishing, and which the painter of ideal objects never can arrive at.