On first glance, this painting might not seem terribly special, but it's actually one of the most analyzed paintings in the history of art. It's called Las Meninas, or The Maids of Honor, painted by Diego Velázquez in 1656, and it depicts a scene in the life of the Spanish Royal Court.
第一眼看到這幅畫作時，你可能會覺得看起來沒多特別，但其實它是藝術史上最常被拿來分析的畫作之一。這幅畫叫做 Las Meninas 或 The Maids of Honor（《宮女》），1656 年出自委拉斯奎茲之手，描繪了西班牙皇室宮廷生活的一景。
A well-dressed child princess refuses a glass of water from a handmaid while a dwarf teases a dog. A second dwarf stands next to them while the artist himself pauses at his canvas. Two more people whisper in the background while a third appears to be exiting the room. And why wouldn't he when there seems to be so little going on? Even the dog looks bored.
一個穿戴華麗的小公主拒絕仕女遞上來的水，另一邊則是一個侏儒弄臣在逗弄一隻狗。另外一個侏儒弄臣站在他們身旁，而畫家本人站在畫布前。背景還有兩個人在竊竊私語，第三個人看起來彷彿正要離開房間。房間裡看起來這麼無趣，他怎麼會不離開呢？連那隻狗都看起來意興闌珊。
But look more closely. The two people reflected in the blurry mirror at the back, easily missed at first glance, are none other than King Philip IV and Queen Mariana, seemingly changing the scene from a simple depiction of court life to that of a royal portrait. And with this piece of information, we can begin to understand far more about the painting and why it has captivated viewers for centuries.
但再看更仔細一點。背景模糊的鏡子中映照出兩個人，第一眼可能不會注意到，他們其實是菲利普四世和瑪麗安娜皇后，似乎讓這幅畫從簡單的宮廷生活描繪變成了王室肖像畫。有了這些資訊，我們就可以開始深入了解這幅畫，以及為什麼它幾世紀以來吸引了這麼多朝聖者。
First, there's the historical context. When Las Meninas was painted at the end of Philip's reign, the Spanish Empire was in a period of decline, having suffered defeat in the Thirty Years' War as well as economic and political difficulties. The King himself had also suffered misfortune, losing both his first wife and his only heir to the throne before remarrying.
首先，畫作具有歷史背景。《宮女》是在菲利普王朝末期畫的，當時西班牙帝國正處於衰退期，嚐到三十年戰爭敗仗的滋味，又遭逢經濟與政治困難。國王自己也遭遇不幸，再婚前，失去了他第一任妻子和唯一的王位繼承人。
But the painting obscures their struggle to provide food for their household. Even the monarch's advanced age is concealed through the blurring of the mirror. What we do see
in the geometric center of the canvas, brightly illuminated by the light from the window, is the Infanta Margarita Teresa, the King's only living legitimate child at the time. Her glowing and healthy appearance is an idealized view of the struggling empire's future.
但這幅畫作掩蓋了王室衣食匱乏的窘境。甚至連君主逐漸年邁的事實也被模糊的鏡子掩蓋掉了。我們從畫布的幾何中心點可以看到，光線從旁邊的窗戶照進來，停留在瑪加麗塔．特蕾莎公主身上，她是當時國王唯一在世的合法繼承人。她容光煥發又健康的模樣正是岌岌可危的帝國理想的未來。
However, the infanta is not the only center of the painting. Through the clever use of perspective, as well as painting the work life-sized on a 10.5x9-foot canvas, Velázquez blurs the boundary between art and reality, creating the sense of a three-dimensional picture that we can walk into. The line between the ceiling and the wall converges to the open door, further creating the perception of the painting as a physical space seen from the viewer's perspective. In this sense, the audience and the real world are the focus, underlined by the three figures looking straight at the viewer.
然而，位於畫作中心的並不只有這位小公主。委拉斯奎茲透過巧妙的透視畫法，並在 10.5 x 9 英尺的畫布上畫出與實物大小相等的畫作，模糊了藝術與現實的界線，創造出 3D 空間感的畫作，彷彿能一腳踏入其中。天花板和牆壁的延伸線匯聚至敞開的那扇門，更使畫作感覺是個從觀畫者視角看到的實體空間。這樣一來，觀眾和現實世界才是中心，那三位直視觀眾的人物更加烘托出這點。
But there is still another focal point. The line formed by the light fixtures leads to the center of the back wall to the mirror reflecting the royal couple. And its positioning relative to the viewer has led to radically different interpretations of the entire work. The mirror could be reflecting the King and Queen posing for their portrait. Or is it reflecting the canvas? And what do we make of the fact that Velázquez never painted the royal portrait implied here? Could the painting actually be depicting its own creation instead? With the incorporation of the mirror into his work, Velázquez elevated the art of painting from its perception as a simple craft to an intellectual endeavor.
但還有另一個焦點。照明設備打下來的光線匯聚到背景牆上的中心點，也就是映照出王室夫婦的鏡子上。從鏡子和觀眾的相對位置來看，會對作品有完全不同的詮釋。鏡子照出來的有可能是正在為自己肖像畫擺姿勢的王室夫婦。又或者，照出來的其實是畫布上的畫？那我們要如何看待這件事情－－委拉斯奎茲從來沒幫王室夫婦畫過這張肖像畫？畫裡的畫作有沒有可能其實是這幅畫創作的當下？維拉斯奎茲在作品中結合了鏡子的元素，將自己的繪畫藝術從簡單的工藝作品昇華成絕妙的佳作。
With its three competing center points, Las Meninas captures the contrast between the ideal, the real, and the reflected worlds, maintaining an unresolved tension between them to tell a more complex story than any mirror can provide.
委拉斯奎茲畫出三個原本不可能同時存在的中心點，讓《宮女》呈現出理想、現實與反射世界三者間的對比，讓三者維持著懸而未決的矛盾張力，訴說一個任何鏡子都傳達不出來的複雜故事。
