We're standing in front of two paintings by Caravaggio that represent the same moment in the story of the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist.
我們正站在兩幅卡拉瓦喬描繪出施洗者聖約翰殉難故事中相同瞬間的畫作前。
This is the moment when Salome, whose beautiful dance enticed King Herod into her mother's desire to have John the Baptist killed, appears with the head of John the Baptist on a plate. And what Caravaggio has done in these two paintings is develop his idea of how sex can lead to death.
這是當莎樂美，她的優美舞姿誘惑了Herod國王完成她母親想讓施洗者約翰喪命的渴望，當她帶著盤上的施洗者約翰頭顱出現的那一刻。卡拉瓦喬在這兩幅畫中做的是發展出他對於性可以如何帶來死亡的概念。
In the painting, we can see the young maid, and behind her is the old...the young maid, Salome, behind her is the old maid with this wrinkled face. This is the executioner (this is the painting from London) who's holding the head of the Baptist by the hair. And he has done that—Caravaggio—as though this one woman's body has two heads, beauty that led to death. This is his first version of the story.
在這幅畫中，我們可以看到年輕的女僕，在她後面是年長...年輕的女僕，莎樂美，在她後方是擁有這張布滿皺紋臉孔的年長女僕。這是劊子手（這是倫敦的那幅畫）他正抓住頭髮提著施洗者約翰的頭。當他畫出那個－－卡拉瓦喬－－好似這一位女性的身體有兩顆頭、有帶來死亡的美麗。這是關於那故事他的第一種版本。
Then in the picture in Madrid, he refined it, so that this hand here is ambiguous now as to whether it could be this woman's hand—Salome who looks at us directly to engage our attention—or the older woman's because the hand seems older. They're both looking down. It's a janus figure, two-headed sexual allure, the death that followed sin.
接著在馬德里的畫作中，他修飾了它，所以這裡這隻手現在有不同的解釋，關於它可以是這位女性的手－－直接注視著我們以得到我們注意的莎樂美－－或是這年長女性的手，因為那手看似較老。她們兩位都向下看。這是個雙頭像，有兩顆頭的性誘惑、接續罪孽的死亡。
This young man and these women are paired because Caravaggio appreciated male beauty as much as he appreciated female beauty. So this is a whole universe of this sweaty, Sicilian summer in which he painted this at the end of his life.
這位年輕人以及這些女性配在一起，是因為卡拉瓦喬欣賞男性的美就如同他欣賞女性的美一樣。所以這是這個熱到冒汗的西西里島夏日的整個地區，在此時他在他的遲暮之年畫出這幅畫。
We're interested in the other one from London. The other version is more aggressive.
我們對於另一幅倫敦的畫很有興趣。另一個版本更為激進。
That's a very good observation. It is very aggressive the earlier one. He's thinking about the force and terrible tragedy, drama of the beheaded. This is a moment when they're lost in a kind of a deep mood of reflection on the terrible thing that has happened.
那是個非常好的觀察點。稍早的那一幅非常激進。他正想著那力量以及遭斬首那人的恐怖悲劇、戲劇性。這是當他們都迷失在一種反映出已經發生的悲慘事件中那深沈情緒的時刻。
It is generally thought that modern painting begins with Caravaggio, because Caravaggio is the first artist in the history of art about whom we feel, looking at these paintings, that all of his paintings are about himself.
普遍認為現代畫作是從卡拉瓦喬開始的，因為卡拉瓦喬是歷史上首位藝術家，在看著這些作品時我們會感受到他所有的畫作都是關於他自己。
Caravaggio's paintings are about his own life, his own moods. And we don't feel that with the great earlier artist like Titian. We don't wonder about the life of Titian or the life of Raffaello as we look at his paintings, but with Caravaggio we always think about his own life.
卡拉瓦喬的畫作都是關於他自己的生活、他自己的心情。而我們在早期更偉大的藝術家，像是堤香身上並不能感受到那樣。我們在看他的畫作時不會想知道堤香的人生、或是拉斐爾的人生，但在卡拉瓦喬身上我們總是想到他自己的人生。
In this case, as they stand in this moment of the aftermath of a terrible act, the great Italian critic Roberto Longhi said, "This looks like a scene from a play by Shakespeare." The king and the queen and they have commanded this terrible act.
在這種情況下，當他們站在一個惡行的後果的這個時刻，偉大的義大利藝評家Roberto Longhi說：「這看起來像莎士比亞劇中的情節。」那國王及皇后，且他們下令了這個惡行。
- 「關於、至於、提到」- As To
...so that this hand here is ambiguous now as to whether it could be this woman's hand—Salome who looks at us directly to engage our attention...
...所以這裡這隻手現在有不同的解釋，關於它可以是這位女性的手－－直接注視著我們以得到我們注意的莎樂美...
