Flaming June《熾熱的六月》

愛藝/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，該畫在皇家美術學院畫展上展出，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.

畫作描繪了一個蜷坐在大理石長凳上睡覺的女子。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。后方是一道狹長的海面，陽光鋪灑，海平線上隱約可見陸地的輪廓。該畫的地點背景并不明晰，但其顯露的異國風情或會讓人想到萊頓19世紀70年代到80年代曾在國外游歷，也許畫中所示是地中海某處的陽臺。

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.

通過精選色調和規整構圖，這幅畫帶給觀者一種切實的視覺沖擊。或濃或淡的紅色、黃色和金色占據了大部分畫面，使蜷成一團的中心人物看上去近乎一個燃點。可以說，她替代了未露面的太陽——頭頂處陽光照耀得幾乎泛白的那道海面暗示了太陽的存在。女子斜躺時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：觀者看到一個身體蜷縮、充滿情欲的女子，形象如六月陽光般明媚、耀眼和無法逃避。死亡也無法逃避，許多藝術史學家認為，死亡這一概念對萊頓后期作品的影響很大——此畫中，除入睡象征死亡外，藝術史學家肯尼思·本迪納還發現，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行翻修時，在壁爐臺上方的假墻（填充墻）后發現了這幅畫。維修工人取走了畫并以50英鎊的價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50英鎊（相當于今天的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代的舊貨。”發現畫賣不動后，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，喜歡維多利亞時代藝術的藝術品經銷商杰里米·馬斯看到了這幅畫，他把它買了掛在自己的畫廊里，可依然無人問津。但一年后，即1963年，后來擔任波多黎各總督的路易斯·費雷花2000英鎊（相當于今天的5萬美元）買下了這幅畫，將其作為1959年剛剛開館的蓬塞藝術博物館的鎮館之寶——這座新博物館亟需充實館藏。

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，如今也是最受認可的世界名畫之一。該畫被廣泛認為是萊頓的代表作，彰顯了其古典主義畫派風格。