愛(ài)藝/譯
A year before his death, Frederick Leighton painted one of his most well-known works of art, Flaming June. Flaming June went to the Royal Academy Exhibition in 1895, but Leighton was too sick to go.
弗雷德里克·萊頓在去世前一年創(chuàng)作了《熾熱的六月》,這是他最出名的畫作之一。1895年,該畫在皇家美術(shù)學(xué)院畫展上展出,但他本人因病重未能出席。
The work depicts a woman curled up asleep on a marble bench. Wearing a translucent orange dress, she nestles in layers of red and yellow fabric. Behind her a thin strip of sea is illuminated by the sun, the faint outlines of land visible on the horizon. The setting for the work is unclear, but it may allude to1 the exotic locations of Leightons travels during the 1870s-80s, perhaps suggesting a Mediterranean veranda.
畫作描繪了一個(gè)蜷坐在大理石長(zhǎng)凳上睡覺(jué)的女子。她身著半透明橘黃色連衣裙,身下鋪著一層層紅色和黃色的織物。后方是一道狹長(zhǎng)的海面,陽(yáng)光鋪灑,海平線上隱約可見(jiàn)陸地的輪廓。該畫的地點(diǎn)背景并不明晰,但其顯露的異國(guó)風(fēng)情或會(huì)讓人想到萊頓19世紀(jì)70年代到80年代曾在國(guó)外游歷,也許畫中所示是地中海某處的陽(yáng)臺(tái)。
There is a tangible intensity to this painting, achieved through color palette and formal composition. The dominance of red, yellow, and golden shades almost seems to set the figure aflame2 as she lies compacted into an orb-like shape. She therefore stands in for the absent sun, whose presence is implied by the almost-white strip of illuminated sea above her head. Balancing upon the toe of one foot even while she reclines, she exudes3 the combined qualities of physical tension and relaxation for which Leightons human figures are renowned.
通過(guò)精選色調(diào)和規(guī)整構(gòu)圖,這幅畫帶給觀者一種切實(shí)的視覺(jué)沖擊。或濃或淡的紅色、黃色和金色占據(jù)了大部分畫面,使蜷成一團(tuán)的中心人物看上去近乎一個(gè)燃點(diǎn)??梢哉f(shuō),她替代了未露面的太陽(yáng)——頭頂處陽(yáng)光照耀得幾乎泛白的那道海面暗示了太陽(yáng)的存在。女子斜躺時(shí)還踮著一只腳保持平衡,顯得既緊張又放松,萊頓畫筆下的人物往往以這樣的特點(diǎn)著稱。
By reducing the sky and sea to a single strip, topped by a decorative scroll, Leighton renders the work somewhat airless and claustrophobic4: the viewer is confronted with the compressed, erotic figure of a woman as bright, powerful, and inescapable as the June sun. Also inescapable is death, which many art historians have argued weighs heavy upon5 Leightons later works; aside from sleep standing as a metaphor for death, the art historian Kenneth Bendiner has identified the foliage in the top right as the poisonous oleander.
萊頓將天空和大海壓縮為一道寬帶,頂部還有一條渦卷形裝飾,整幅畫由此透著些許憋悶和封閉:觀者看到一個(gè)身體蜷縮、充滿情欲的女子,形象如六月陽(yáng)光般明媚、耀眼和無(wú)法逃避。死亡也無(wú)法逃避,許多藝術(shù)史學(xué)家認(rèn)為,死亡這一概念對(duì)萊頓后期作品的影響很大——此畫中,除入睡象征死亡外,藝術(shù)史學(xué)家肯尼思·本迪納還發(fā)現(xiàn),右上角的綠葉植物是有毒的夾竹桃。
Flaming June was at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford until 1930, before entering a private collection and disappearing from view. In 1962, it was discovered behind a false wall over a mantelpiece while renovating a house outside London, the worker took the painting and sold it to an antique store for ?50 pounds. In a surprising unforeseen turn of events, a young fourteen-year-old Andrew Lloyd Webber saw it for sale in the London antique shop that year for ?50 (equal to US$1100 today) but his grandmother refused to lend him the cash, saying “I will not have that Victorian junk in my flat”. The painting would not sell, so the antique shop owner gave up and sold the beautiful picture frame to limit his loss.
1930年之前,《熾熱的六月》一直在牛津的阿什莫爾博物館展出,之后轉(zhuǎn)由私人收藏,自此在公眾視野中消失。1962年,倫敦郊外的一所房子進(jìn)行翻修時(shí),在壁爐臺(tái)上方的假墻(填充墻)后發(fā)現(xiàn)了這幅畫。維修工人取走了畫并以50英鎊的價(jià)格賣給了一家古董店。不曾想,那一年,14歲的安德魯·勞埃德·韋伯在倫敦這家古董店偶然看到了這幅畫,售價(jià)50英鎊(相當(dāng)于今天的1100美元),但他的祖母拒絕借錢給他買畫,祖母表示:“我可不想在公寓里放這種維多利亞時(shí)代的舊貨?!卑l(fā)現(xiàn)畫賣不動(dòng)后,古董店主索性放棄賣畫,為減少損失把漂亮的畫框單賣了。
One day, the art dealer Jeremy Maas who liked Victorian art, saw it and bought it to put in his art gallery, still, no one would buy it. But a year later in 1963, Luis Ferré, who would become the future governor of Puerto Rico, purchased the work of art for ?2,000 (equal to US$50,000 today), making it the highlight of the new museum Museo de Arte de Ponce, which needed art, having opened in 1959.
一天,喜歡維多利亞時(shí)代藝術(shù)的藝術(shù)品經(jīng)銷商杰里米·馬斯看到了這幅畫,他把它買了掛在自己的畫廊里,可依然無(wú)人問(wèn)津。但一年后,即1963年,后來(lái)?yè)?dān)任波多黎各總督的路易斯·費(fèi)雷花2000英鎊(相當(dāng)于今天的5萬(wàn)美元)買下了這幅畫,將其作為1959年剛剛開(kāi)館的蓬塞藝術(shù)博物館的鎮(zhèn)館之寶——這座新博物館亟需充實(shí)館藏。
Of all the paintings Frederick Leighton painted, he is best remembered for this one, now one of the most famous and recognized paintings in the world. It is widely considered to be Leightons magnum opus6, showing his classicist nature.
在弗雷德里克·萊頓的所有畫作中,這幅畫最為人熟知,如今也是最受認(rèn)可的世界名畫之一。該畫被廣泛認(rèn)為是萊頓的代表作,彰顯了其古典主義畫派風(fēng)格。