Dance in the Moulin de la Galette《煎餅磨坊的舞會》

愛藝

“The world knew how to laugh in those days！ Machinery had not absorbed all of life： you had leisure for enjoyment and no one was the worse for it.” With this happy， wonderful picture， Renoirs reminiscence seems a pallid understatement. The canvas is so rich in attractions， so full of enchanting details， that it becomes nothing less than an affirmation of the goodness of living.

The painting celebrates the triumph of youth： the women are radiantly beautiful， the men as dashing and debonair as young blades ought to be. Renoir has become famous as a painter of the nude; but what painter has clothed the human form more entrancingly？ And with unbelievable virtuosity， he has animated his figures with an amazing variety of postures and activities—bold， relaxed， eager， withdrawn， flirtatious—all of them graceful and natural.

There are bits of still life， shimmering patterns of the light fixtures， children—like the dainty blonde creature in the lower left—tucked in here and there. One even fancies that the buzz of voices， the shuffle of feet， and the gay dance tune are part of the composition.

This is one of Renoirs largest1 and most ambitious compositions; yet he was not to regard it as one of his best paintings. Despite its apparent crowding and turbulence， it reveals a studied organization. The triangular foreground group is related through silhouette and color to the group at the trees; and this group， through yellow and gold-brown tones， becomes part of a vertical unit that provides stability to the right of the canvas. The other side allows easy entrance into space over a ground dappled blue and pink—Renoirs way of creating the effect of sunlight and shadow without introducing neutral dark values.

Varied curves set up another series of rhythms. Rich color is contrasted with plain， and each is developed into an independent sub-theme： reds， yellows， blues， greens， blacks. Light flickers across the scene， resting here and there for compositional emphasis. Subject and method have been completely integrated into a unity that is one of the great achievements in the art of painting.? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ■

“那時候，世人知道如何找樂子！生活還沒有被機械化完全吞沒：人們有閑暇享受生活，日子都過得挺好。”看到這幅歡快美妙的畫作，雷諾阿的那番回憶似乎就顯得蒼白無力了。畫面亮點如此豐富、細節如此迷人，完全呈現出一派美好生活的場景。

這幅畫頌揚了青春的歡欣：女士光彩照人，男士風度翩翩，有著年輕人該有的瀟灑勁兒。雷諾阿確以畫裸體人物而成名，但還有哪位畫家能把著裝齊整的人物描繪得更加迷人呢？他畫技精湛，令人叫絕，出神入化地呈現了姿態各異、各做各事的人物——他們有的大膽、有的放松、有的熱切、有的孤僻、有的殷勤，所有人都大方而自然。

畫中還描繪了一些靜物、閃爍的燈具圖案，還有不定藏在哪個角落的小孩子——比如左下角那個金發小美女。觀畫者甚至會感覺，那嗡嗡的交談、拖動的舞步和歡快的舞曲都是此畫的一部分。

這是雷諾阿尺幅最大、投入最多的作品之一，但他并不認為這是他最好的畫作。盡管畫面看起來擁擠混亂，但其實經過了精心安排。三角前景的一組人群經由側影輪廓和顏色與樹下的人群相關聯，后者的黃色和金棕色色調使其成為垂直布局的一部分，這一布局使畫面右側保持穩定。左側自然過渡到一片開闊的場地，地面散布斑駁的藍色和粉色——雷諾阿用這種方式制造太陽光影的效果，而不用深淺不一的灰黑色。

不同的曲線構成了另一系列的有規則的變化。濃色與素色形成對比，每一種都發展出一個獨立的副主題：濃淡不一的紅、黃、藍、綠、黑。整個場景遍布光點，在各處閃爍，突出不同的構圖重點。畫作主題與繪畫技巧完美融合，創造出繪畫藝術的一幅佳作。? ? ? □

1此畫長131厘米、寬175厘米。