思想史家眼中之艺术史——读2000年以来出版的若干艺术史著作和译著有感

Viewing History of Art from the Viewpoint of An Intellectual Historian——Reflections on Several Works on the History of Art Published Since 2000

在同样面对图像时,思想史与艺术史有不同侧重选择和不同研究进路。和艺术史主要关注天才的精彩的艺术品不同,思想史家可能更关注落入俗套的反复出现的图像;与艺术史要从审美的角度分析风格、布局、笔墨、技法不同,思想史家可能会更关注图像背后呈现的观念和知识。但是,由于近年来艺术史在考古学和人类学的影响下,渐渐趋近追求“历史证据”的历史学,越来越注意讨论艺术背后的社会、政治、制度、宗教等因素,它和同样与社会生活史日益趋近的思想史越来越角色混融。因此,本文特别指出的问题是,艺术史尤其是中国艺术史,是否要有中国的和艺术的研究立场,以及诸如“风格”、“笔墨”、“气韵”之类的分析方法?同样,这些传统的艺术分析方法又如何可能在艺术史越来越趋向历史学的现代趋势下,使艺术史可以有自己的脉络和边界?

Intellectual history and the history of art show their different emphasis and approaches when both of them have to take images as their topics. While excellent works of art of geniuses are the main concerns of the history of art, perhaps intellectual historians are more interested in recurrent images which conformed to its contemporary conventions. Historians in the former field used to analyse the styles, techniques and other individual characteristics from the viewpoint of aesthetics. Meanwhile, intellectual historians may pay most of their attentions on the ideas and knowledge concealed beneath the images. However, recently the history of art became much closer than ever to historiography which takes historical evidence as its foundation. As social, political, institutional and religious factors came into the forefront of the studies in the history of art, it seems that it is not so different from intellectual history which is also developing a much closer relationship with the history of social life. The author endeavors to give his opinions on the following questions： Is a characteristic position of ＇ Chinese＇ and ＇art＇ and an analytic approach which takes the categories such as style, techniques of ink-using and Qi Yun as its core a must for the studies of the history of art, especially that of Chinese art; furthermore, as the tendency of the approximation of history of art to historiography develops, how can the history of art still maintain its distinct contexts and frontiers with the help of these traditional analytic strategies.