本期賞析約翰·威廉·沃特豪斯（John William Waterhouse）油畫作品A Mermaid（美人魚）
關於作品
沃特豪斯的畫作經常描繪文學或希臘神話中的人物。這部作品的靈感可能來自阿爾弗雷德·丁尼生勳爵 1830 年的詩《美人魚》，其中包括以下幾行：
Who would be|A mermaid fair,|Singing alone,|Combing her hair
（這詩太難翻譯，強譯如下：誰會是|那個美人魚|孤獨歌唱|梳著頭髮）
Waterhouse’s paintings often depicted figures from literature or Greek mythology. It’s possible that this work was inspired by Alfred Lord Tennyson's 1830 poem The Mermaid, which includes the lines:
日本人畫中的人魚The Japanese ningyo
這首詩接著描述了美人魚在人魚中尋找愛情。然而，沃特豪斯對美人魚作為女巫的黑暗神話也很感興趣。神話故事裡，美人魚是透過迷人的歌聲引誘水手。美人魚是悲劇的化身，他們在嚮往的人間無法生存，但在他們的水域中男人又無法生存，所以悲劇是註定的。沃特豪斯的畫中沒有水手，儘管是海妖，美人魚卻被描繪成一個相當孤獨的人物。在她旁邊是一個裝滿珍珠的貝殼，有人認為珍珠是由死去的水手的眼淚形成的。
The poem goes on to describe the mermaid seeking and finding love among the mermen. Waterhouse was also interested, however, in the darker mythology of the mermaid as an enchantress. Mermaids traditionally were sirens who lured sailors to their death through their captivating song. They were also tragic figures; they couldn’t survive in the yearned-for human world and men could not exist in their watery realm, so any relationship was doomed. There are no sailors in Waterhouse's painting; despite being a siren, the mermaid is depicted as a rather lonely figure. Beside her is a shell filled with pearls, which some believed to be formed from the tears of dead sailors.
關於作者
約翰·威廉·沃特豪斯 (John William Waterhouse) 是一位以拉斐爾前派風格作品而聞名的英國畫家。不僅借鑑了早期拉斐爾前派的風格影響，還借鑑了他同時代的印象派畫家，他的作品以描繪古希臘神話和亞瑟王傳奇中的女性而聞名。
John William Waterhouse was an English painter known for working in the Pre-Raphaelite style. Borrowing stylistic influences not only from the earlier Pre-Raphaelites but also from his contemporaries, the Impressionists, his artworks were known for their depictions of women from both ancient Greek mythology and Arthurian legend.
沃特豪斯作品：Ophelia奧菲利亞
約翰·威廉·沃特豪斯 (John William Waterhouse) 出生在義大利，父母都是畫家，且都是英國人，後來搬到倫敦，在那裡他就讀於皇家藝術學院。他很快開始在他們的年度夏季展覽中展出，專注於創作描繪古希臘日常生活和神話場景的大型帆布作品。在他職業生涯的後期，他開始接受拉斐爾前派的繪畫風格，儘管這種畫風在幾十年前在英國藝術界已經過時了。儘管不像但丁·加布裡埃爾·羅塞蒂、約翰·埃弗裡特·米萊斯和威廉·霍爾曼·亨特等早期的拉斐爾前派藝術家那樣出名，但沃特豪斯的作品目前在英國幾家主要藝術畫廊展出，皇家藝術學院於2009 年組織了他的作品大型回顧展。
Born in Italy to English parents who were both painters, he later moved to London, where he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Art. He soon began exhibiting at their annual summer exhibitions, focusing on the creation of large canvas works depicting scenes from the daily life and mythology of ancient Greece. Later on in his career he came to embrace the Pre-Raphaelite style of painting despite the fact that it had gone out of fashion in the British art scene several decades before. Although not as well known as earlier Pre-Raphaelite artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt, Waterhouse's work is currently displayed at several major British art galleries, and the Royal Academy of Art organised a major retrospective of his work in 2009.
沃特豪斯作品：Dolce Far Niente
