臺灣鹽水天主聖神堂壁畫圖像之研究

Abstract

鹽水天主聖神堂創建於民國44年，位在鹽水鎮西門路上，如今宮殿式的聖堂外觀及堂內的中式人物造型壁畫為民國75年改建後的樣貌，由當時在任的李少峰神父所規畫，聘請嘉義廟宇彩繪師郭自然父子繪製，成為臺灣第一座堂內布滿壁畫彩繪的天主教堂。 本研究主要透過田野調查，了解鹽水天主聖神堂建堂與壁畫的描繪過程，並以圖像解釋學及風格分析法做壁畫之內容與形式上的解析：首先，為堂內的壁畫所參考的經文與故事依據做一說明；再者，探究其形式上的表現特色；此外，更與西方或中國大陸相同題材之宗教繪畫做一比較，分析鹽水天主聖神堂如何將西方的宗教圖像轉化成為具有本地化特色的壁畫。 研究發現，聖堂建築之內部陳設及壁畫內容與西方教會有較大的一致性，因其遵行著天主教大公會議對於禮儀之規定，而壁畫之內容主要是參考西洋宗教畫並以《聖經》為題材依據，由此看出天主堂對於神聖教理與聖人故事真實性的持守。 另一方面，在教堂建築之外觀與壁畫的形式上，鹽水天主聖神堂則展現出與西方教堂不同的面貌，建築上大量使用中式建築之裝飾，壁畫上則使用如中國水墨畫般的線條、如民間廟宇的鮮豔色彩，或將人物轉化為中國人的樣貌，這些外顯形式的轉化，一方面和天主教梵諦岡第二次大公會議及台灣的《建設中國教會地方草案》中對於教會在地化的推動有關，另一方面則在於鹽水地區自明鄭時期以來，多神的民間信仰深深影響當地民眾，因此壁畫則借用了廟宇彩繪在形、色上的表現，將當地人民習以為常的神明形象轉化及喻為天主，藉此拉近與當地人民之間的距離，以便達到傳教之目的。

Founded in 1955, Yenshui Holy Spirit Church is currently located on Xi-men Road in Yenshui Township. Its palace-styled architecture and the Chinese-style figure paintings were remodeled in 1986. The blueprint was designed by Father Conrad-Eusebius Lee, and he invited temple painters (decorators) Kuo Ze-jan and his sons to complete the painting. After completion, it became the first Catholic Church with colorful wall painting in Taiwan. Through field research and interviewing the painters, the study aims to have a better understanding of how Yenshui Holy Spirit Church was built and the wall paintings were created. In addition, the study seeks to analyze the paintings’ content and style by applying iconology and style-analysis. First, the study explicates the verses and stories in the Bible upon which the paintings were based. Next, the study explores the distinguishing features in their styles, which were then compared with Christian paintings of similar subject matter in the West or in Mainland China, in order to analyze how the Church incorporated western religious icons into paintings with local characteristics. The study shows that there are more similarity/parallelism between Yenshui Holy Spirit Church and Western Catholic churches in terms of its furnishings and the subject matter of wall paintings, because they were made to meet the rules set up by the Roman Catholic Church. In addition, the wall paintings in Yenshui Holy Spirit Church were created based on Western Christian art and storied from the Bible. It is evident that the Church upholds the doctrine and authenticity of the Bible. On the other hand, there is a world of difference in the architecture and the style of the murals between the Church and its Western counterparts. The Church was decorated following Chinese tradition; the murals were painted with line techniques commonly used in Chinese ink paintings, with vivid colors typical of Taiwanese temples, and the Western Christian figures were given Chinese characteristics. These stylistic changes were the result of the Second Vatican Council and the inculturation policy of local churches in Taiwan as stated in “Proposal for Establishing Chinese Local Churches.” Moreover, polytheistic folk beliefs have deeply influenced local residents since the era of the short-lived Kingdom of Tungning in Taiwan. As a result, the murals were painted with the lines and colors commonly used in temple decorations. The images of gods worshiped by local people were also transformed to serve as an analogy to the holy God. By doing so, the Church was able to draw the local people closer to God and succeed in preaching Christianity.