英國拉菲爾前派畫家作品欣賞(11)

Lamia 雷米爾
Painting Date: 1905
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 57 x 36 in
Location: Private Collection

傳說中雷米爾是女妖，她化作漂亮女子誘惑男子然后吃掉。
本圖根據John Keat的詩Lamia寫成
She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue,
Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue;
Striped like a zebra, freckled like a pard,
Eyed like a peacock, and all crimson barr'd;
And full of silver moons, that, as she breathed,
Dissolv'd, or brighter shone, or interwreathed
Their lustres with the gloomier tapestries--
So rainbow-sided, touch'd with miseries,
She seem'd, at once, some penanced lady elf,
Some demon's mistress, or the demon's self.

Psyche Opening the Door into Cupid's Garden 普緒克進入丘比特的花園
Painting Date: 1904
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 109 x 71 cm
Location: Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, England
普緒克是人類靈魂的象征。
羅馬神話中，普緒克是一位美貌的公主，人們崇拜她勝過崇拜維納斯。維納斯命令他的兒子丘比特讓普緒克愛上世界上最丑陋的生物。但丘比特愛上了普緒克，把維納斯的命令拋在腦后。
丘比特和普緒克成為戀人，但丘比特禁止普緒克看他，后來普緒克還是看到了丘比特，丘比特逃走了。

Psyche Opening the Golden Box 普緒克打開黃金盒
Artist: John William Waterhouse
Painting Date: 1903
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 117 x 74 cm
Location: Private Collection
本圖的故事是接著上圖的故事發生的，丘比特跑掉后，普緒克四處尋找他，維納斯布下重重難關，考驗普緒克是否配得上她的兒子。其中一項就是不許她打開金盒子，普緒克忍不住打開了金盒子，從此她陷入長眠。
最后，朱庇特寬恕了這對情侶，然后就是俗氣的王子和公主“live along happily”

Ophelia 奧菲利婭

Painting Date: 1910
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 40 x 24 in
Location: Private Collection

又是一幅奧菲利婭，因此關于奧菲利婭的故事我就不講了。
本圖對奧菲利婭的處理似乎有所不同，并不像其他作品中把奧菲利婭描寫成清純的憂郁的軟柔無力的形象，本圖中的奧菲利亞有一種絕望的力量。

The Sorceress 女巫
Painting Date: 1911
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 74 x 109 cm
Location: Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries, London, England

畫布背后寫著《浮士德》中的句子：

'These metaphysics of magicians
And necromantic books are heavenly:
Lines, circles, letters and characters:
Ay, these are those that Faustus most desires.
O, what a world of profit and delight,
Of power, of honour, of omnipotence
Is promised to the studious artisan!
All things that move between the quiet poles
Shall be at my command: emperors and kings
Are but obeyed in their several provinces
Nor can they raise the wind nor rend the clouds;
But his dominion that exceeds in this
Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man.
A sound magician is a mighty god:
Here, Faustus, try thy brains to gain a deity.'

I am Half-Sick of Shadows, said the Lady of Shalott “我討厭影子”
Painting Date: 1916
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 39.5 x 29 in
Location: Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
根據丁尼生的 The Lady of Shalott

There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.

The Enchanted Garden 被施法的花園
Painting Date: 1916
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 112 x 161 cm
Location: Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool, England

這是沃特豪斯晚期的作品之一，并未完成。
“他為自己創造了在冬天顯得如此溫暖的避難所，但有意無意間顯示出更深層的意義。花園門口站著嚴肅的衛兵，落雪積在左方建筑物的墻面上，文藝復興式的拱門讓人想起意大利（沃特豪斯在那里出生）。玫瑰花開放了，一個女子彎著腰聞花香。罌粟花象征著無聲無息的湮沒。玫瑰和雪分別象征著欲望和節制………
引自Anthony Hobson, J W Waterhouse, Phaidon 1989

Fair Rosamund 羅莎蒙德
Painting Date: 1917
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 96.6 x 72 cm
Location: Private Collection

羅莎蒙德是亨利二世的情婦，關于她的傳奇故事有很多。不過似乎沒有被引進到中國來………
畫中羅莎蒙德焦急的向窗外看等待她的情夫，從布簾后窺看的仆人增加了本圖的戲劇性。