The Slave Ship《奴隸船》

The Slave Ship is an 1840 oil painting by Turner in the Romantic Maritime style.

《奴隸船》是透納創(chuàng)作于1840年的一幅浪漫主義海景油畫。

On the surface， it looks like an innocent painting of a stormy sea with a ship middle left struggling to find its passage through. Look closer. You will see bodies. You will see body parts. You will see shackles. You will see swarming fish and birds and other sea creatures. What is happening？

表面上，這看似一幅純粹描繪風(fēng)暴中大海的畫作，畫面中間偏左的部分有一艘船在奮力前行。仔細(xì)看，就會(huì)看到尸體，會(huì)看到尸塊，會(huì)看到鐐銬，會(huì)看到成群的魚、鳥和其他海洋生物。出了什么事？

During the Atlantic slave trade， slave ship owners would take out insurance policies on their human cargo. Turner’s The Slave Ship depicts the practice of throwing cargo （again—Humans） overboard in stormy seas in order to collect the money from the insurance they have taken out， often when the men and women have become too sick from the appalling conditions to be of value in the slave markets.

在跨大西洋奴隸貿(mào)易中，奴隸船的船主會(huì)為他們販運(yùn)的人貨（奴隸）投保。透納的《奴隸船》所描繪的就是船主為獲取保險(xiǎn)金而在風(fēng)暴來臨的大海上把貨物（即人）扔到海里，通常扔掉的是那些因環(huán)境惡劣而變得體衰病弱、在奴隸市場(chǎng)上賣不出去的男男女女。

The Slave Ship shows the inclemency of nature and the horror of human nature： black slaves have been thrown overboard for reasons of profit.

《奴隸船》展示了大自然的殘酷和人性的恐怖：為了牟利將黑人奴隸丟棄海中。

A spectacular orange horizon appears to break， as if at dawn， over a scene of horror and alarm. Yet it might take us a few moments to realize what exactly is happening， so assertive is the gleam of the sun at the center. It is the strong darkening of the sky on the left that testifies to the incoming typhoon. Similarly the fact that the slave ship has raised its sails to gain speed and， hopefully， move out of its way. Finally， the tumult of the sea all over leaves us in doubt that a storm is about to invest anyone and anything left in this space.

似乎已是拂曉，地平線一片壯觀的橙色，像要打破海上那恐怖和驚悚的一幕。然而，由于畫面中央的陽(yáng)光非常耀眼，我們可能還要過一會(huì)兒才能看明白到底是怎么回事。畫面左邊的天空黑壓壓的，預(yù)示臺(tái)風(fēng)即將來臨。同樣預(yù)示這一點(diǎn)的是，奴隸船已經(jīng)揚(yáng)帆加速，希望避開臺(tái)風(fēng)。最終，遍布大海的騷動(dòng)令人不禁懷疑，風(fēng)暴即將席卷這片海上的所有人、所有東西。

What makes us realise that human beings have been jettisoned into the water just as the storm has begun to break are the many indistinct figures marking the entire lower register， which is to say the foreground， of this painting. We notice shapes and blood. Beasts， from the air and from under the surface， have begun attacking the people that have been thrown overboard. One black leg with a chain at the ankle can be seen in the lower-right corner.

風(fēng)暴剛剛降臨奴隸便已被扔進(jìn)海里——讓我們意識(shí)到這一點(diǎn)的是畫面整個(gè)下方（即前景）散布的許多模糊的人影。可以看到輪廓和血。空中的猛禽、水里的大魚已開始攻擊被扔到海里的人。右下角能看到一條黑色的腿，腳踝上還系著鏈子。

The real-life event which seems to have inspired The Slave Ship is a story from 1781 which had gained great publicity in Britain at the time. The captain of a slave-trading ship headed for Jamaica ordered the throwing overboard and therefore the murder of over 130 African slaves because drinking water on the ship had become insufficient.

《奴隸船》一畫的創(chuàng)作靈感似乎來自1781年的一個(gè)真實(shí)事件，該事件當(dāng)時(shí)在英國(guó)引起了極大關(guān)注。由于船上的飲用水短缺，駛往牙買加的一艘奴隸貿(mào)易船的船長(zhǎng)下令將一些奴隸扔下船，130多名非洲奴隸因此喪命。

The captain expected his insurance to cover the cost， as per the agreement， of all slaves “l(fā)ost” during shipping. When the insurance company refused， on the grounds that the “cargo” had not been lost through accident， the slave-trading syndicate brought a lawsuit against the insurance company. The court eventually decided in favor of the insurance company and， despite many attempts by the abolitionist Granville Sharp， no charges were ever brought against the crewmen who had done the killing.

船長(zhǎng)指望保險(xiǎn)公司按協(xié)議為運(yùn)輸過程中“損失”的所有奴隸做出賠償。保險(xiǎn)公司以“貨物”并非意外損失為由拒絕后，奴隸交易集團(tuán)針對(duì)保險(xiǎn)公司提起了訴訟。法院最終裁定保險(xiǎn)公司勝訴，但是，盡管廢奴主義者格蘭維爾·夏普多番努力，動(dòng)手扔掉奴隸的船員還是沒有受到任何指控。

The story gave an additional impulse to British abolitionist activism when it was originally publicized during the trial of 1783. It did so again in 1840 when Turner gave his Slave Ship to the public at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

這件事最初在1783年審判期間被公開，進(jìn)一步推動(dòng)了英國(guó)廢奴運(yùn)動(dòng)的發(fā)展。1840年，透納在倫敦的英國(guó)皇家美術(shù)學(xué)院公開展出此畫時(shí)，英國(guó)的廢奴運(yùn)動(dòng)再掀高潮。

Turner’s aim was doubtless abolitionist. He had been engaged artistically with the theme of the cross-oceanic slave trade for years. The Slave Ship had an unfinished poem of his appended which pointed to the inhumanity of commercial profit done through slavery. Turner’s general suspicion of industrial modernity and commercialization in played a significant role in his revulsion to slavery.

透納無疑是在為廢奴主義搖旗吶喊。創(chuàng)作《奴隸船》之前，他已就以藝術(shù)方式表現(xiàn)跨洋奴隸貿(mào)易這一主題探索了多年。此畫還附有他寫的一首未完成的詩(shī)，詩(shī)中指出，通過奴役獲得商業(yè)利潤(rùn)是不人道的。透納對(duì)工業(yè)現(xiàn)代化和商業(yè)化抱持普遍質(zhì)疑的態(tài)度，他對(duì)奴隸制的反感受到這種質(zhì)疑的深刻影響。

The success of The Slave Ship in facing the world with the crime of slavery and the human evil is testified by the notice with which the London public took it in. Then， it is confirmed beyond argument by the enduring interest of art critics， philosophers， educators， activists， and， perhaps most importantly， ordinary art-loving people the world over.

《奴隸船》成功地向世人揭露了奴隸制的罪行和人性的邪惡，倫敦公眾對(duì)此畫的關(guān)注就證明了這一點(diǎn)。另外，人們持久的興趣也是此畫成功無可辯駁的確證，這其中不僅有藝術(shù)評(píng)論家、哲學(xué)家、教育家、活動(dòng)家，或許最重要的，還有世界各地普通的藝術(shù)愛好者。

The Slave Ship is in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston， Massachusetts in the United States.

《奴隸船》一畫現(xiàn)藏于美國(guó)馬薩諸塞州的波士頓美術(shù)博物館。