Ham-fisted amateur botches ’restoration’ of Christ painting 笨拙的業餘畫家搞砸耶穌畫像「修復」工作

Ham-fisted amateur botches ’restoration’ of Christ painting 
笨拙的業餘畫家搞砸耶穌畫像「修復」工作
2012-09-16◎俞智敏

An elderly woman’s catastrophic attempt to "restore" a century-old oil painting of Christ in a Spanish church has provoked popular uproar, and amusement.
一位老婦人企圖「修復」西班牙一座教堂裡的百年耶穌畫像的災難性舉動已引發舉國騷動，但也帶來不少歡笑。

The well-intentioned but ham-fisted amateur artist, in her 80s, took it upon herself to fill in the patches and paint over the original work, which depicted Christ crowned with thorns, his sorrowful gaze lifted to heaven.
這位出於一片好意、手藝卻不太靈光的業餘畫家高齡80多歲，她自作主張地想要修補這幅斑駁的畫像，在原作上重新上色，這幅作品描繪的是頭戴著荊棘冠冕、眼神哀傷望向天堂的耶穌。

Her work done, the "restored" figure looks somewhat like a monkey with fur surrounding a pale face and a child-like drawing of eyes, a cartoon-style nose and a crooked smudge for a mouth.
她的工作完成後，「修復過」的人物看起來卻有點像是一隻頭戴了一圈皮草、臉部蒼白的猴子，眼睛像是小朋友的塗鴉，鼻子帶有卡通風格，嘴巴則用一塊彎曲的污漬充數。

Titled "Ecce Homo" （Behold the Man）, the original was no masterpiece, painted in two hours in 1910 by a certain Elias Garcia Martinez directly on a column in the church at Borja, northeastern Spain.
標題為「看這個人」的原作其實也並非曠世巨作，只是一位名為賈西亞的畫家於1910年在位於西班牙東北部波哈市的教堂內，只花了兩小時時間直接畫在教堂圓柱上的作品。

The new version has become a national joke, reminiscent of fictional film character Mr. Bean’s comic attempt to restore Whistler’s Mother after he sneezes on it and mistakenly wipes off the face.
修復後的新版畫作已在西班牙成為全國笑柄，令人聯想到虛構電影角色「豆豆先生」對著美國畫家惠斯勒名作「母親」打了個噴嚏，不小心把畫作上的人臉抹掉後，再試圖修復畫作的喜劇橋段。

Social networks and online news sites were deluged with comments by users, many of whom created their own versions of the restored work incorporating the faces of King Juan Carlos or Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. （AFP）
各社交媒體與網路新聞網站都湧入了大批使用者發表評論，許多人更將這幅修復畫作結合西班牙國王璜．卡洛斯或總理拉霍伊的臉，創造出自己的新版本。（法新社）

新聞辭典

ham-fisted：形容詞，也可寫作ham-handed，指在使用雙手或與人相處時非常笨拙、不靈巧，如The actress gave a ham-fisted performance.（這位女演員的演出非常生澀。）

take it upon oneself to do sth：片語，指自告奮勇、自作主張、擅自去做某事，如She took it upon herself to find out exactly what had happened to the old lady.（她主動去查出老太太到底發生了什麼事。）

ecce homo：名詞，指頭戴著荊棘冠冕的耶穌畫像（或雕像），拉丁文原意指「你們看這個人」，是聖經中彼拉多把被判死刑的耶穌帶到指控他的人群面前時所說的話。