Titian Metamorphosis: Art, Music & Dance - Royal Ballet & National Gallery Collaboration | Renaissance-Inspired Performance & Exhibition" （注：原标题已为英文且艺术性较强，主要优化点为： 1. 用"&"替代部分"and"更简洁 2. 明确机构名称缩写"The" 3. 增加具体艺术形式说明"Renaissance-Inspired" 4. 补充内容类型"Performance & Exhibition"作为场景说明）

This remarkable book has opened my eyes as to how works of art are produced - and how the artists assembled by Diaghilev might have collaborated. It is the result of a co-operative initiative by the National Gallery and the Royal Ballet based on the exhibition of the three Titians:Diana and Callisto, Diana and Actaeon and Death of Actaeon in 2012. A large number of artists, divided into three groups, were each asked to produce a ballet and an art-work. The process was aptly described by the painter, Ofili:"All you know is that the journey will involve lots of twists and turns and uphills and downhills and sprints and complete standstills". His own stage backdrop was of a massive phallus, held aloft by a Diana figure on the left,exuding the "water" of male desire which flows across the stage to the right, transforming into water nymphs. Ovid had named his nymphs:Misty, Droplet,Seashore _ and this,together with the green waters of Trinidad, had inspired Ofili.These names were used in the libretto for Jonathan Dove's watery music. The phallus was delineated by a constellation which Ofili humourously calls "The Big Dipper" and is a reference to the unchaste nymph,Callisto, who was turned into the Great Bear.Exotic mangroves and vivid flora(Trinidad again) were added at points, including a purple tree/flower to represent Actaeon. ( Frederico Bonelli's costume was also purple).Ovid had also given the hounds (that tore Actaeon to pieces)individual names like Whirlwind,Swift,Wolfy, Storm, Sooty, Blackie etc. so Ofili designed individual hand-held puppet dog-heads for the dancers in Tuckett's section of the ballet.......The conceptual artist, Wallinger, focussed on Actaeon's discovery of Diana, hence the ballet was called "Tresspass". He compared this with the defilement of the moon (Diana was goddess of the moon)by astronauts who played golf on it. Inspired by the visors of the space helmets, his stage set was composed of two concentric semi-circular mirrors, with a potential for reflection and distortion, which were transparent when back-lit, revealing male voyeurs. Wallinger's piece for the gallery was a living "Diana" in her bath(6 volunteers named Diana were found via Twitter) glimpsed through 4 peep holes. This in turn was quoting Duchamp's Etant Donnes of a spread-eagled nude spied through 2 peep holes in a door. He designed gold 'space' suits for the men, covered in 'masculine' circuit-board diagrams, and costumes of yellow moons with a lapis-lazuli background for the women, inspired by the tiles in Siena cathedral! The choreographers, Marriott and Wheeldon, had been classical dance school friends. Marriott's pas de deux was celestial and lunar whereas Wheeldon's was more humorous, with men's up-turned legs serving as antlers. Mark-Anthony Turnage's score included a piece "O Moon", after the Sidney poem.......The abstract sculptor Shawcross re-used his steel robot idea for the gallery, entitled "Trophy".It represents the cold,merciless and intimidating Diana in the act of destroying Actaeon. It was arranged with 'Diana' to the left and the vulnerable,organic wooden antler of Actaeon on the right. This mirrors the 'Diana and Actaeon' and 'Death of Actaeon' paintings by Titian, in which the aggressor (left) towers over the victim(right). His stage set was a 3 ton robotic arm, programmed with the moves of the then redundant dancer, Edward Watson, using the motion capture technique studied by McGregor. A staring eye or moon was fixed at the end of the arm. The ballet was entitled 'Machina'(after the female noun,Macchina' in Italian)and included an arresting pas de deux between the robot and Acosta! Mcgregor and Brandstrup also choregraphed pas de deux for the Baroque sections at start and finish of Muhly's score. Unusually for Muhly he produced a programmatic piece with a trance-like beginning before the sudden recoil of Diana, which introduces a frenetic and animated second half - as requeted by Shawcross......All three groups of artists explore the notions of voyeurism, of watching and being watched, and of metamorphosis and transformation. They drew on their past experience, each other's ideas, Titian's paintings and Ovid's Metamorphosis, other works of art like the Lely Venus and the Duchamp, and many external stimuli like space exploration and technology. So, I have at last realised how complex an animal an artist is. If you, like me, was only vaguely aware of this, then this book will come as a revelation