导读:库尔贝的惊世骇俗之作《世界的起源》画的是一位仰躺的裸女，大腿分开，头与脚都没有画出来。这幅油画因其主题备受争议，人们对画中人是谁也争论不休。近日，一位法国文学专家对此有了新的解答。

Scandal has never been far from Gustave Courbet’s L’Origine du Monde, one of the most provocative works of art history depicting a naked woman’s genitalia and torso.

古斯塔夫·库尔贝的《世界的起源》从来都是争议不断，作为艺术史上最具挑衅性的油画作品之一，它描绘了裸女的生殖器和躯干。

Now a French scholar may have solved the mystery of whose body was painted so explicitly in his 1866 work, not exhibited publicly in France till 1991.

这幅1866年的作品直白地描绘了身体的奥秘，直到1991年才在法国公开展出。现在，一位法国学者可能知道画中人是谁。

The subject of Courbet’s work was for years assumed to be his Irish lover.

库尔贝的这幅作品的对象多年来一直被认为是他的爱尔兰情人。

But the woman now thought to be in the picture is dancer Constance Queniaux.

但现在画面中的女人被认为是舞蹈家Constance Queniaux。

French literary expert Claude Schopp stumbled on his discovery as he went through correspondence between two writers, George Sand and the son of Alexandre Dumas.

法国文学专家克劳德·肖普在阅读两位作家乔治·桑和大仲马的儿子之间的通信时，偶然发现了这一线索。

Queniaux had retired as a ballet dancer at the Paris Opera in 1859 and aged 34 she was a mistress of Turkish-Egyptian diplomat Halil Sherif Pasha.

在巴黎歌剧院担任芭蕾舞演员的Queniaux于1859年退休，34岁时她成为土耳其 - 埃及外交官Halil Sherif Pasha的情妇。

In later years she became a woman of some means, given to philanthropic work.

在后来的几年里，她成为了热衷于慈善工作的女性。

The diplomat who commissioned L’Origine du Monde, who was known as Khalil Bey, kept Courbet’s painting in his dressing room behind a green curtain, revealing the work to visitors and dinner party guests.

委托创作《世界的起源》的外交官将库尔贝的画作放在绿色窗帘后面的更衣室里，向参观者和晚宴客人展示。

The former dancer is mentioned in one letter from Dumas. Not only is her name badly spelt but a word was wrongly transcribed in the following line: "One does not paint the most delicate and the most sonorous interview of Miss Queniault of the Opera."

大仲马的一封信中提到了这名舞者。她的名字不仅拼写难读，而且被错误地转录：“没有一个人能够为歌剧院的Queniault小姐创作出更微妙更庄严的‘采访’（interview）了。”

Schopp was puzzled by the word interview, so he consulted the original manuscript in the National Library of France dating back to June 1871 and found the error.

肖普对“采访”（interview）这个词感到困惑，所以他查阅了法国国家图书馆的原始手稿，这份手稿的历史可追溯到1871年6月，他从中发现了一个错误。

Dumas had written of Ms Queniaux’s delicate and sonorous "interior" rather than interview, leading Schopp to deduce that Dumas was writing about the painting.

大仲马写的是Queniaux女士精致而铿锵的“内部”，而不是“采访”，因此肖普推断大仲马的所指正是这幅画。

And that was not all. Having shared his discovery with Sylvie Aubenas at the library, she was convinced he was right.

而这还没有结束。与图书馆工作的Sylvie Aubenas分享了他的发现后，她也确信他是对的。

When Ms Queniaux died in 1908 she bequeathed a painting by Courbet of a bouquet of spring flowers and red and white camellias.

当Queniaux女士于1908年去世时，她被遗赠了一幅由库尔贝画的一束春天的花朵和红白相间的山茶花的油画。

Camellias were the flowers most closely identified with courtesans, and Aubenas told AFP news agency she believed the painting was a gift from Courbet and his Ottoman patron.

山茶花是属于妓女的鲜花，而Sylvie Aubenas告诉法新社，她认为这幅画是库尔贝和他的奥斯曼赞助人的礼物。

The Courbet painting is still considered so risqué that Facebook shut down a French teacher’s account when he posted a picture of it.

库尔贝的这幅画仍然被认为是个风险，以至于一位法国教师在脸书上发布了这幅画的一张照片后，其账户被撤销。

（来源：爱语吧）