Charlemagne
86. A Belgian national champion
Jul 9th 2009 From The Economist print edition

A terrible lesson from a terrible painter

86-1-411
IN MARCH 1850 Antoine Wiertz, an artist, wrote to the newish Belgian government offering a swap: his largest paintings in exchange for the construction of a "huge, comfortable and well-lit" studio. Somewhat surprisingly, his proposal was accepted. The interior minister, Charles Rogier, agreed to hand over a large sum of money to build a studio that would, after Wiertz's death, display his works in perpetuity. Rogier's was a terrible decision even at the time. For today's governments, looking on 160 years later, it stands as a masterclass in maladministration.
Wiertz's timing was good: a mere 20 years after a revolution against Dutch rule had brought Belgium into being, the young kingdom was in search of national champions. His vast paintings earned the accolade of "giant" when shown in Rome and caused a sensation in Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent (though Parisian critics were less kind). It was reported that the violence of his Homeric battle scenes left children wailing in fear. His "Two Young Ladies"a naked beauty contemplating a skeletonteetered just on the right side of smut for 19th-century tastes. Wiertz, who compared himself to Rubens, admitted that some accused him of excessive pride. This was unfair, he assured the minister. "To judge a painter, you have to wait at least two centuries."

A. 어휘
artist 화가. swap 물물교환. well-lit 조명이 좋은. interior minister 내무부장관.
perpetuity 永久(영구), 불멸, 永續(영속). Rogier󰡑s =Rogier󰡑s decision.
looking on =when we look on. masterclass 특급.
maladministration 失政(실정), 잘 못된 처리.
brought Belgium into being 벨기에를 탄생시켰다. vast 막대한, 거대한.
accolade 爵位授與(작위수여), 명예, 표창. Homeric 호머(Homer)風(풍)의.
Homeric battle 고대 호머시대의 잔인한 전투. wail 울부짖다.
a naked beauty 裸身(나신)의 미인. cf. beauty=美(추상명사), a beauty=美人(보통명사).
contemplate 凝視(응시)하다. skeleton 해골.
teeter 포즈를 취하다. 흔들리다, 아래위(앞뒤)로 흔들다.
smut 더러운 여자(갈보), 검댕, 더러움, 淫談悖說(음담패설).
accused him of ...에 대해서 그를 비난하였다. excessive 과도한.
unfair 공정하지 못한.

B. 구문
-"Two Young Ladies". . . side of smut for 19th-century tastes.
[“두 명의 젊은 숙녀”해골을 응시하고 있는 裸身(나신)의 미인19세기적 趣向(취향)을 나타내기 위한 듯 더러운 여인의 오른 쪽에 포즈를 취하듯 움직이고 있었다]

86-2-412
For a while, posterity's judgment was kind. In 1927, six decades after his death, his studio received 46,000 visitors. Belgian art-lovers thrilled to the melodrama of "Premature Burial", in which an anguished figure peeps out from a in which he is trapped. They relished the social commentary of "Hunger, Madness and Crime", depicting a destitute peasant waving a bloody knife as the leg of her murdered infant peeps from a cooking pot. Nor was patriotism forgotten. In "Ravishing of a Belgian woman", Wiertz breaks with convention by equipping his heroine with a pistol (although not with any clothes). She duly shoots the soldier molesting her, causing his head to explode, an event Wiertz depicts in gory detail.
Alas, modern audiences have proved less tolerant of such cod-Gothic nonsense. In recent years the Wiertz Museum has attracted an average of just ten visitors a day, many of them dragooned in school parties (the museum is currently closed for a few months, while its roof is replaced). The curator, Brita Velghe, concedes that Wiertz is "no Rubens", but defends the museum as a rare example of a 19th-century studio, with a unique history. Ms Velghe adds that Wiertz might flourish today as a performance artist (he once turned up in Paris with a 28 square-metre painting of the Trojan wars, demanding that it be displayed in a tent outside the Louvre).

A. 어휘
posterity 後世(후세), 자손. premature 너무 이른, 時機尙早(시기상조)의.
burial 埋葬(매장). anguished figure 괴로워하는, 비통한. figure 그림-조각의 인물.
peeps out 밖을 내다 보다. coffin 棺(관). trap 덫에 걸리다.
relish 賞味(상미)하다, 즐기다, 좋아하다 commentary 註釋(주석), 설명, 비평.
depict 묘사하다. destitute 極貧(극빈)의. peasant 농민, 소작농. infant 乳兒(유아).
pot 냄비, 항아리. patriotism 애국심. ravish 강간하다, 황홀하다.
convention 전통, 관습. equip 장비를 갖추게 하다. duly 정당하게, 적절하게.
molest 여자를 희롱하다, 괴롭히다. gory 피투성이의, 殘虐(잔학)한.
tolerant of 용인하는, 관대한. cod 속이는, 놀리는, 大口(대구).
Gothic 고딕식의(중세를 배경으로 한 공포-괴기-신비의 효과를 노린다), 야만스러운.
cod-Gothic 터무니없이 야만스러운. dragoon 강제로 동원하다, 압박하다.
currently 현재에는. concede 시인하다. unique 유일한, 유례가 없는, 珍貴(진귀)한.
flourish 번창하다.

B. 구문
- many of them dragooned→and many of them were dragooned
→many of them being dragooned