【Paintings in Proust】 Diana and her Companions, Jan Vermeer, 1653─54 (p.70)

弗美爾和他的畫作多次在小說中被提到，我想這跟他的生平資料有限以及仿作真偽難辨有關，事實上弗美爾的畫作在西洋藝術史上有出現過幾次不可思議的騙局 (請詳舊文：《不存在的維梅爾》讀後感 http://classic-blog.udn.com/le14nov/7128029)

斯萬的角色設定除了是敘事者的家族好友，更是一位藝術鑑賞家及收藏家，斯萬對於維梅爾特別有研究，代表著他具有某種特殊品味，然而他卻拜倒在俗麗而平庸的交際花奧黛特的石榴裙下…這或許是普魯斯特想要安排的一種反差極大的諷刺。




【TEXT】
Now that he was once again at work upon his essay on Vermeer, he wanted to return, for a few days at least, to The Hague, to Dresden, to Brunswick. He was certain that a ‘Toilet of Diana’ which had been acquired by the Mauritshuis at the Goldschmidt sale as a Nicholas Maes was in reality a Vermeer. And he would have liked to be able to examine the picture on the spot, so as to strengthen his conviction. But to leave Paris while Odette was there, and even when she was not there—for in strange places where our sensations have not been numbed by habit, we refresh, we revive an old pain—was for him so cruel a project that he felt himself to be capable of entertaining it incessantly in his mind only because he knew himself to be resolute in his determination never to put it into effect. (Swann's Way)

現在他已經恢復對弗美爾的研究，他至少應該再到海牙、德累斯頓、布倫瑞克去些日子。他深信，在哥德斯密特拍賣時由毛里茨博物館當作尼柯拉斯·馬斯的作品買去的那幅《狄安娜的梳妝》，實際出自弗美爾之手。他很想就地進行一番研究來加強他的信念。然而當奧黛特在巴黎的時候（甚至當她不在的時候），要她離開巴黎，在他看來可是一個如此殘酷的計畫，他是明知自己永遠也下不了決心去實現，所以才能經常放在心裡盤算的——換到一個新地方，我們的感覺還沒有被習慣沖淡，我們隨時都會喚起原有的痛苦，使它加劇。
(p.382~383 追憶似水年華 I 在斯萬家那邊 聯經版 1992)