It was an ambitious subject for an amateur - an oval basin with an island of sculptured rocks at its centre; on the rocks grew, in stone, formal tropical vegetation, and wild English fern?in its natural fronds; through them ran a dozen streams that counterfeited springs, and round them sported fantastic tropical animals, camels and camelopards and an ebullient lion, all vomiting water; on the rocks, to the height of the pediment, stood an Egyptian obelisk of red sandstone - but, by some odd chance, for the thing was far beyond me, I brought it off and, by judicious omissions and some stylish tricks, produced a very passable echo of Piranesi. 對(duì)于業(yè)余的人來(lái)說(shuō)畫出這幅景色是個(gè)艱巨的選題——一個(gè)橢圓形的盆地，盆地中央有一個(gè)經(jīng)流水雕刻過(guò)的巖石構(gòu)成的小島嶼；巖石的石縫里生長(zhǎng)著正規(guī)的熱帶植物，還有野生的英格蘭蕨類植物，就在它本身天然的葉片之間；十多條溪流冒充泉水穿過(guò)各類植物，各種奇異的熱帶動(dòng)物在草木周遭嬉戲，有一些駱駝和一些長(zhǎng)頸鹿，以及一只活力四射的獅子，它們都在吐水；巖石上還矗立著一座埃及的方尖石塔，有山墻那么高，是紅砂巖材質(zhì)的——但是，因緣際會(huì)，我成功完成了這件自己能力遠(yuǎn)不能及的事兒，靠著審慎的省略和一些時(shí)髦的技巧創(chuàng)作了一件相當(dāng)過(guò)得去的呼應(yīng)Piranesi大師的作品。