【聯合報╱By LIZ ALDERMAN╱陳世欽譯】
With Laser Makeover, Caryatids Regain Glow
ATHENS — For 2,500 years, the six sisters stood unflinching atop the Acropolis, as war raged around them, bullets nicked their robes and bombs scarred their bodies.
But only recently have the famed Caryatid statues, among the great divas of ancient Greece, had a chance to reveal their full glory.
For three and a half years, conservators at the Acropolis Museum have been cleaning the maidens, Ionic columns in female form believed to have been sculpted by Alkamenes, a student of ancient Greece’s greatest artist, Phidias.
Their initial function was to prop up a part of the Erechtheion, the temple near the Parthenon that paid homage to the first kings of Athens and the gods Athena and Poseidon.
Today they are star attractions in the museum; the originals outside were replaced with reproductions in 1979 to keep the real maidens safe.
Over the centuries, black grime came to mask their beauty. Now, with a specially developed laser technology, conservators has restored their original ivory glow .
T he women — minus one — went on full display in June . The missing Caryatid is at the British Museum in London, which acquired it two centuries ago after Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, had it sawed off the Erechtheion’s porch to decorate — along with adornments from the Parthenon — his mansion in Scotland .
Greek and British authorities have long fought over the return of these so-called Elgin marbles. The missing Caryatid is glaring in its absence from the platform, a display of resistance that is reflected one floor up in the museum, where large swaths of the Acropolis frieze owned by the British Museum are represented as chalky plaster copies of the originals.
Recently, crowds stood enthralled around a dais on which the Caryatids were displayed.
“With the pollution erased, we can read more about the history of the last 2,500 years,” said Dimitris Pantermalis, the president of the Acropolis Museum.
To clean the statues, conservators used a dual-wavelength laser developed by the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas in Crete . Beams pulsed across the Caryatids robes, burning soot millimeter by millimeter to reveal the original patina . It took six to eight months to clean each statue .
In their original setting, the Caryatids stood on the porch of the Erechtheion . They rested in contrapposto poses, three of them standing on their right legs, bending their left knees beneath diaphanous robes. The others stood in opposite pose. Together they held up a part of the temple’s massive roof.
The Caryatids’ origins were less poetic: According to one legend, the maidens were not intended to be glorified, but condemned to stand in penance at the temple for eternity to atone for an ancient treachery committed by their hometown, Caryae, a Greek city near Sparta that took the side of the Persians against the Greeks during the Greco-Persian Wars. Other historians say young women from the city who danced for the goddess Artemis were inspirations.
In 1687, the Caryatids were nicked by bullets and debris when the Parthenon was shelled during a battle between the Turks and the Venetians. Officials say the modern equivalent of that destruction is the gaping hole left when Lord Elgin made off with the statue.
“It’s been 200 years,” Mr. Pantermalis said. “We think in the framework of the new museum, it’s possible to reunite our treasures.”
中譯
2500年來，戰火在她們周圍肆虐，子彈在她們的長袍留下痕跡，炸彈在她們的身上留下傷疤，這六姊妹仍然堅定的站在衛城之上。
然而這些著名的女像柱直到最近才有機會重現它們的完整光彩。它們是古希臘的偉大女主角之一。
過去三年半，衛城博物館的修復師一直在清理這些女子造型的愛奧尼亞柱像。專家認為，它們出自古希臘最偉大藝術家費迪亞斯的得意門生艾爾卡曼尼斯之手。它們最初的功能是，支撐厄瑞克忒翁神殿的一部分。這座神殿位於巴特農神殿附近，主要是向雅典最初幾位國王及女神雅典娜、海神波塞頓致敬。
如今，它們已是衛城博物館的明星級收藏品。外面的雕像已於1979年以複製品取代，以確保它們安全無虞。
千百年來黑色塵垢遮掩它們的美。如今，在特別開發的雷射技術協助下，修復師使它們恢復了原始的象牙白光彩。
除了其中一尊，這些女子造型雕像已於六月盛重展出。不見的那尊女像柱目前在倫敦的大英博物館手中。英國駐鄂圖曼帝國大使艾爾金勛爵當年命令人自厄瑞克忒翁神殿的門廊鋸下那尊雕像，再以它與取自巴特農神殿的其他裝飾品裝飾他位於蘇格蘭的宅邸。大英博物館於200年前取得這尊雕像。
希臘與英國當局一直在針對這些所謂艾爾金大理石的交還事宜進行交涉。
衛城博物館為失落的女像柱保留二樓展示台的一個位置。在這裡，大英博物館手中的大片衛城帶狀裝飾以原品的白堊熟石膏複製品代替。
最近，民眾站在展示這些女像柱的高台周圍，被它們深深吸引。
衛城博物館總裁潘特馬里斯說：「積垢清理完畢後，我們可以瞭解過去2500年來的更多歷史。」
修復師以克里特古希臘技術研究基金會開發的一種雙波長雷射清理這些雕像。光束通過女像柱的長袍表面，燒掉一毫米又一毫米的煙灰，最後露出原始的古色。清理一尊塑像費時六到八個月。
女像柱最早豎立在厄瑞克忒翁神殿的門廊。它們呈對立均衡，其中三尊右腿站立，左膝在半透明的長袍下彎曲。其他幾尊反方向豎立。它們共同撐起神殿大屋頂的一部分。
女像柱的起源比較沒有詩意。根據一種傳說，這些雕像原本不是要接受尊崇，而是被懲罰在神殿永遠站立，以對其老家卡里艾古代的一次背叛表達懺悔。卡里艾是位於斯巴達附近的希臘城市，曾經在希臘與波斯戰爭期間，選擇支持波斯人。其他歷史學者說，曾經為艾蒂米絲女神獻舞的卡里艾少女是創作這些雕像的靈感來源。
1687年，巴特農神殿在土耳其人與威尼斯人的一次戰役中受到砲火波及，連帶使這些女像柱遭到子彈與瓦礫損傷。官員說，此次破壞的現代版是艾爾金爵士當年取走一尊雕像後所留下的裂口。
潘特馬里斯說：「已經200年了。我們認為，在新博物館的架構下，我們或許有機會讓這些珍寶團圓。」
留言列表
