| 释义 |
▪ I. picturesque, a. and n.|pɪktjʊəˈrɛsk, -tʃə-|
Also 8 pittor-, pictoresque, picturesk.
[ad. F. pittoresque, ad. It. pittoresco (F. Redi a 1664), f. pittore:—L. pictōr-em painter: see -esque; prop. ‘in the style of a painter’ (cf. quot. 1810 in sense 1); but in Eng. assimilated to picture, giving the sense ‘in the style of a picture’.
Pittoresque appears to have been in French early in 18th c. (cf. quot. 1712 from Pope), but the earliest evidence in Hatzfeld-Darmesteter is for pittoresquement in 1732.]
A. adj.
1. a. Like or having the elements of a picture; fit to be the subject of a striking or effective picture; possessing pleasing and interesting qualities of form and colour (but not implying the highest beauty or sublimity): said of landscape, buildings, costume, scenes of diversified action, etc., also of circumstances, situations, fancies, ideas, and the like.
1703Steele Tender Husb. iv. (1723) 141 That Circumstance may be very Picturesque. 1712Pope Let. to Caryll, Mr. Philips has two lines, which seem to me what the French call very picturesque. 1717― Iliad x. Note liv, The marshy Spot of Ground,..the Tamarisk.., the Reeds that are heap'd together to mark the Place, are Circumstances the most Picturesque imaginable. 1749U. ap Rhys Tour Spain & Port. 86 The Ends of their Veils..tied in so pretty a Manner, as to render their Figures extremely pittoresque. 1768W. Gilpin (title) An Essay upon Prints: containing remarks upon the principles of picturesque beauty. 1773Lady M. Coke Jrnl. 8 July (1896) IV. 186 The Cours was a very picturesk scene. 1810D. Stewart Philos. Ess. ii. i. v. 273 Picturesque properly means what is done in the style, and with the spirit of a painter. 1864Bagehot Lit. Studies (1879) II. 341 Susceptible observers..say of a scene ‘How picturesque’—meaning by this a quality distinct from that of beauty, or sublimity, or grandeur; meaning to speak..of its fitness for imitation by art. 1877Black Green Past. ii, Most girls become acquainted at some time or other with a little picturesque misery.
b. picturesque gardening, the arrangement of a garden so as to make it a pretty picture; the romantic style of gardening, aiming at irregular and rugged beauty.
a1763[see landscape-gardening s.v. landscape n. 5]. 1783W. Burgh in W. Mason Eng. Garden 236 There is nothing in picturesque Gardening which should not have its archetype in unadorned Nature. 1816T. L. Peacock Headlong Hall iii, Mr. Milestone was a picturesque landscape gardener of the first celebrity. 1843Gray's Corr. 191 note, That Johnson should have no conception of the value or merit of what is now called picturesque gardening we cannot wonder, as he was so extremely short-sighted, that he never saw a rural landscape in his life.
2. Of language, narrative, etc.: Strikingly graphic or vivid; sometimes implying disregard of fact in the effort for effect.
a1734North Exam. Pref. (1740) 7 He goes on in the same pittoresque Vein. 1758Jortin Erasm. I. 483 An account of a conversation with Longolius, which is picturesque. 1864Burton Scot Abr. I. iii. 128 Picturesque accounts have often been repeated of a scene where Douglas..brought the Admiral to an elevated spot. 1868J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. I. 401 Picturesque history is seldom to be trusted. 1874Bancroft Footpr. Time i. 63 The highly picturesque language of the primitive Aryan people.
†3. Marked as if with pictures. Obs. rare.
1762tr. Busching's Syst. Geog. I. 41 Others [marbles]..are Picturesque, or marked with all manner of figures, &c. Ibid. 42 Oculus mundi..by polishing receives a beautiful lustre, and is partly spotted or striped, partly picturesque.
†4. Having a perception of or taste for picturesqueness. Obs.
1789W. Gilpin Observations Rel. Picturesque Beauty I. viii. 72 Let the picturesque traveller watch for these effects. Ibid. xiv. 139 The picturesque eye regrets the loss of it's towers. 1795R. Anderson Johnson 7 Had he not possessed a very picturesque imagination. 1818Rhodes Peak Scen. i. 5 To the picturesque traveller they are therefore comparatively of but little value. 1831T. L. Peacock Crotchet Castle iii. (1887) 39 They came round to the side of the camp where the picturesque gentleman was sketching.
B. absol. as n.
1. the picturesque, that which is picturesque; the picturesque principle, element, or quality; picturesqueness.
1749D. Hartley Observations on Man I. 427 The Nature of the Caricatura, Burlesque, Grotesque, Picturesque, &c. may be understood from what is delivered..concerning Laughter, Wit, Humour, the Marvellous, Absurd, &c. to which they correspond. 1782W. Gilpin Observations on River Wye 93 Col. Mitford..is well-versed in the theory of the picturesque. 1794U. Price (title) An Essay on the Picturesque, as compared with the Sublime and the Beautiful. 1796Jane Austen Pride & Prej. x, No, no; stay where you are. You are charmingly grouped... The picturesque would be spoilt by admitting a fourth. 1812Combe (title) Dr. Syntax's Tour in Search of the Picturesque. 1832–4De Quincey Cæsars Wks. 1859 X. 79 The ancients, whether Greeks or Romans, had no eye for the picturesque. 1927C. Hussey Picturesque iii. 66 The Picturesque was to be a practical aesthetic for gardeners, tourists, and sketchers. 1955N. Nicholson Lakers iii. 46 In the Picturesque, the only creative act is that of man himself, a small, mean, self-satisfied manipulation of an abstract landscape. 1961Amer. Q. Winter 529 The outlook for the amateur..is usually dependent on his fondness for local history or for the picturesque.
2. A picturesque landscape. rare.
1889G. Meredith Let. 20 May (1970) II. 959 We had here a young and promising Bostonian..fresh from a ride over the picturesques of Greece.
Hence pictuˈresquish a., somewhat picturesque; also (rare and jocular nonce-words) picturesquiˈescity, growing picturesqueness; picturesquifiˈcation, a making picturesque; pictuˈresquize v., to ‘do’ or pursue the picturesque.
1812Combe Picturesque xvi. 176 Nor had the way one object brought That wak'd a picturesquish thought. 1815W. Taylor in Robberds Mem. II. 455 The engineer..is not to lose his time in zoologizing, entomologizing, botanizing and picturesquizing. 1828J. Elmes Metrop. Improv. 89 The master mark of currency among the people of picturesquiescity. 1834Tait's Mag. I. 233 From the pages of Rousseau..Leman, Uri, and Zurich have undergone their sentence of picturesquification.
▪ II. pictuˈresque, v. rare.
[f. prec.]
a. trans. To make or render picturesque.
b. intr. To pose picturesquely.
c. to picturesque it, to practise or pursue the picturesque.
1795C. Marshall Review Landscape 45 If he plant trees of size round the building to be picturesked. 1812Combe Picturesque i. 130 I'll prose it here, I'll verse it there, And picturesque it ev'ry where. 1834Tait's Mag. I. 733/1 His parents..sometimes dream of Dick as standing behind my lady's chair, in the suit of blue and silver, &c., picturesquing. 1892Punch 6 Aug. 49/1 With out-of-fashion toilet sets..She picturesques her cabinet's Quaint heterodoxies. |