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题目材料：
In his 1836 landscape The Oxbow, Thomas Cole provided viewers with a grand portrayal of' American wilderness on the canvas's left, which he sharply juxtaposed with a scene of modern human "improvement" of the land on the right. Scholars have been struck by the very distinctive markings on the distant mountain in The Oxbow. It has been argued that these marks can be read as Hebrew letters: when looking directly at the mountain, the Hebrew equivalent for "Noah" is seen, and if viewed from above (by God), the markings spell "Shaddai" or "the Almighty". There are a number of reasons to question such a literal interpretation of the markings: the underdrawings for both the oil study and the finished canvas show no sign of lettering on the mountain, and Hebrew scholars who have carefully examined the markings do not accept this reading.
Moreover, by the 1830s, the Oxbow region of the Connecticut River valley was plagued by rapid clearing of forests including on the sides of mountains, In her watercolor of the site at this time, View of Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts, and the Connecticut River, artist Eliza Goodridge indicated selective clear-cut areas on the mountain Cole had become increasingly alarmed by this development, and he began to depict the effects of clear-cutting in his landscapes in the ears leading up to The Oxbow, as seen in his 1833 View of Hoosac Mountain and Pontoosuc Lake near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in which areas of deforestation are visible on the distant mountain. Similar clear-cut sections appear on the mountain in his on-site drawing for The Oxbow, highlighting the importance of this transformation of the natural environment.
Yet that Cole might decide. as he was finishing the painting. to draw attention to this area of deforestation by including markings that roughly form a pattern or an inscription, not to be read literally is in keeping with the artist's practice of embedding his compositions with symbols and moral messages. In addition, deforestation had been on his mind for some time as a sign of man's destructive alteration of nature for financial "utilitarian" gain. A possible inspiration for these markings are the works of John Martin as seen in his painting Belshazzar 's Feast, which includes Hebraic letters Cole's constant references to mountains as pyramidal forms, and the fact that he had painted an ancient pyramid that was inscribed with Latin lettering, suggest that Cole may have intended the viewer to read the pattern on the mountain as a biblical reference that alerted them to God' s judgment of humans' recent destruction of his pure creation. The mountain is defaced, just as all other areas of the landscape at right have been altered, by the hand of man.
Moreover, by the 1830s, the Oxbow region of the Connecticut River valley was plagued by rapid clearing of forests including on the sides of mountains, In her watercolor of the site at this time, View of Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts, and the Connecticut River, artist Eliza Goodridge indicated selective clear-cut areas on the mountain Cole had become increasingly alarmed by this development, and he began to depict the effects of clear-cutting in his landscapes in the ears leading up to The Oxbow, as seen in his 1833 View of Hoosac Mountain and Pontoosuc Lake near Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in which areas of deforestation are visible on the distant mountain. Similar clear-cut sections appear on the mountain in his on-site drawing for The Oxbow, highlighting the importance of this transformation of the natural environment.
Yet that Cole might decide. as he was finishing the painting. to draw attention to this area of deforestation by including markings that roughly form a pattern or an inscription, not to be read literally is in keeping with the artist's practice of embedding his compositions with symbols and moral messages. In addition, deforestation had been on his mind for some time as a sign of man's destructive alteration of nature for financial "utilitarian" gain. A possible inspiration for these markings are the works of John Martin as seen in his painting Belshazzar 's Feast, which includes Hebraic letters Cole's constant references to mountains as pyramidal forms, and the fact that he had painted an ancient pyramid that was inscribed with Latin lettering, suggest that Cole may have intended the viewer to read the pattern on the mountain as a biblical reference that alerted them to God' s judgment of humans' recent destruction of his pure creation. The mountain is defaced, just as all other areas of the landscape at right have been altered, by the hand of man.
以上解析由 考满分老师提供。
