The mystery of Girl with a Pearl Earring.
神秘的《戴珍珠耳环的少女》。
The painting Girl with a Pearl Earring is one of the greatest works by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. And one of the best love paintings in the world, it shows a striking young woman wearing an exotic costume and a turban, peering over her shoulder, straight out at the viewer. Set against a dark and unspecified background. the woman draws our eyes to her Pearl earring, the focal point of the painting. But after more than a century of study, the work poses some fascinating questions. Who is the young woman? Is the painting a portrait of a real person or a sitter representing more general characteristics of womanhood. How old is she meant to be? Is the pearl real? What's the significance of the turban? What is she thinking as she stares out at us?
《戴珍珠耳环的少女》是荷兰画家约翰内斯·维米尔的代表作之一。它是世界上最受欢迎的画作之一,在这幅画中,一位身着异国风情服饰、头戴头巾的年轻女子侧身向外凝视着观众,在一个黑暗和不明确的背景中,这个女人把我们的目光吸引到她的珍珠耳环上,这是画的焦点。但经过一个多世纪的研究,这个作品带来了一些令人着迷的问题。那个年轻的女人是谁?这幅画是真实人物的肖像还是代表女性一般特征的模特的肖像?她应该多大?珍珠是真的吗?头巾的意义是什么?她盯着我们看的时候在想什么?
In general, very little is known about Vermeer. We know he was born in 1632, spent his entire life in Delft and die in 1675. We know his works include paintings of religious and mythological themes, domestic interiors and landscapes. He never seems to have been wealthy, perhaps because he produced relatively few paintings.
总的来说,我们对维米尔知之甚少。我们知道他出生于1632年,在代尔夫特度过了一生,于1675年去世。我们知道他的作品包括宗教和神话主题的绘画,室内家居画和风景画。他似乎从未富有过,也许是因为他的画作相对较少。
As far as the girl with a Pearl Earring is concerned, it seems that it wasn't meant to be a portrait, but a study of expressions, facial characteristics or other interesting features. It's true that the girl's face would probably not be considered beautiful in a conventional sense. If it had been a portrait, a painter would have worked harder to convey the sitter's beauty, even if it meant slightly distorting the truth! This kind of study was popular in Holland at the time, and would have been easy to sell. We don't know, however, if this painting was ever solved during lifetime. We don't even know if it was commissioned by Vermeer's patron, van Ruijven. We know less about the Girl with a Pearl Earring than any of Vermeer's works. Indeed, the unexplainable lack of background information may even contribute to the worldwide popularity the painting enjoys.
就《戴珍珠耳环的少女》而言,这似乎并不是一幅肖像画,而是对表情、面部特征或其他有趣特征的研究。这是真的,传统意义上来说,女孩的脸可能不会被认为是美丽的。如果这是一幅肖像,画家就会更加努力地去表现被画者的美,即使这意味着略微失真!这种研究在当时的荷兰很流行,而且很容易推销。然而,我们不知道这幅画是否在人们的有生之年被破解过。我们甚至不知道它是否是由维米尔的赞助人范·鲁伊文委托创作。我们对《戴珍珠耳环的少女》的了解比维米尔的任何作品都要少。的确,这幅画由于缺乏无法解释的背景信息而在世界范围内大受欢迎。