【Paintings in Proust】 The Cenotaph of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the Tuileries, Paris, Hubert Robert, 1794 (p.43)
這一段描述的是敘事者陪伴著父母親散步回家途中所看見的一個場景,像極了 Hubert Robert 的畫作。
在羅馬待了 11 年而對龐貝古城情有獨鍾,最終有「廢墟畫家」之稱的 Hubert Robert 其實來頭不小,他曾經被指派為 "Designer of the King's Gardens", Keeper of the King's Pictures" 以及 "Keeper of the Museum and Councilor to the Academy",甚至於還是當時新國家博物館——羅浮宮的籌建委員會五人小組成員之一。
他曾以羅浮宮為背景創作出大畫廊廢墟的想像圖 (Imaginary View of the Grand Gallery of the Louvre in Ruins),可說是他的知名作品。
雖然這幅畫不像其他畫作具有宏偉的構圖及壯麗的風景,但透過慘澹的月光以及紀念碑周圍路燈散發的奇異光暈,卻顯露出另一種幽黯陰森的美感。
【TEXT】
We would return by the Boulevard de la Gare, which contained the most attractive villas in the town. In each of their gardens the moonlight, copying the art of Hubert Robert, had scattered its broken staircases of white marble, its fountains of water and gates temptingly ajar. Its beams had swept away the telegraph office. All that was left of it was a column, half shattered, but preserving the beauty of a ruin which endures for all time. (Swann's Way)
我們取道車站大街回家,鎮上最漂亮的別墅全在這裡。月光像建築師于貝·羅貝那樣,給每家花園裡點綴上白石臺階、噴水池和半掩的柵門,但是它偏偏把電報局大樓吞噬掉了,只給它留下一根攔腰截斷的柱子,虧得柱子上還保存下了不朽遺跡的壯美。
(p.127 追憶似水年華 I 在斯萬家那邊 聯經版 1992)