The Villa Malta《马耳他别墅》

爱艺/译

The Villa Malta， an oil-painting sketch which shows a Renaissance villa on the Aventine Hill in Rome， was painted sometime in the 1860s by the Victorian artist Lord Frederic Leighton.

油画速写《马耳他别墅》是维多利亚时代英国画家弗雷德里克·莱顿勋爵的作品，创作于1860年代。该画描绘了意大利罗马阿文丁山上一座文艺复兴时期的别墅。

This painting has the apparent formal simplicity， with the turret of the villa shown directly-on， squeezed between two large cypress trees and a cluster of smaller bushes below. The two trees seem to pose as gatekeepers to the villa， which itself appears to breathe with light on the other side of the dark-green aperture.

这幅画规整简洁，一目了然。画中别墅的角楼正对观画者，看上去像是夹在两棵大柏树和树下一丛低矮灌木之間。这两棵树似乎充当了别墅的门卫，而别墅本身好似在墨绿色孔洞的另一头吸走日光。

The formal structure is softened by all sorts of tiny details， such as the way the left-hand cypress tree bends at its top-most branches as if to fit inside the picture frame. The whole composition is slightly off-centre too， which adds an air of naturalism—an effect which may or may not have been intentional. The perfectly captured light of a summers day is a pleasure to look at.

各种小细节柔化了规整的结构，比如左边柏树树冠部分有几根枝条朝外折弯，像是为了挤进画框。整个构图也稍稍偏离中心，为画面增添了一丝自然主义的气息——这一效果或有意造之或无意偶成。夏日阳光得到完美呈现，赏心悦目。