在搬到歐洲以前，我對美術館向來沒有什麼好感。在我成長的過程中，並沒有‘美術教育’的存在，所以小時後到美術館總有霧裡看花的感覺，看不出個所以然，久而久之，對此類所在也就敬而遠之。
Before I moved to Europe, I didn’t have a good feeling toward arts galleries. In my bringing-up, there’s nothing called “arts education”. So I couldn’t really get anything out of a visit to an art gallery when I was a kid. It’s quite natural that I learned to avoid such places.
回想起來，第一次認真參觀美術館，大概是在英國唸碩士的時候。某次，「博物館溝通」這門課的教授出了一個作業，要每個人抽空到英國國家美術館去操作「微影像畫廊」這個電子資料庫，並且進行評估。那次經驗算是我重新開始認真看待這個被我忽略已久的領域，加上後來搬到義大利，身旁多了一個美術基礎紮實的米奇，「看畫觀展」這件事也就慢慢融入我的生活之中。
Thinking back… the first time that I ever visited an art museum seriously happened when I was in London for my master study. In one lecture, the professor of museum communications asked us to go to the National Gallery to try its Micro Gallery program and write an evaluation of it. From then on I re-started to look at the field of arts museums seriously. After I moved to Italy, I’ve got Michele who has established a solid arts background in artistic high school as a guide. Visiting arts galleries and seeing arts exhibitions have gradually become part of my life.
米奇、克里斯和希薇亞都愛藝術，想當然爾，到了布達佩斯，國家美術館很自然地就進入了我們的參觀名單中。我們第一次上到布達丘時，能夠選擇的參觀地點很多，包括國家美術館、布達佩斯市立歷史博物館、馬提亞斯教堂等，因為位於皇宮裡的美術館看起來很大，看了看手錶，我們有約莫四小時的時間，還算充裕，所以我們就選了感覺上會花比較多時間的美術館，作為當天下午參觀的第一站。（事後證明這個選擇是對的，美術館總共有四層樓，大致走完一全也讓我們花上將近四個小時。）
Michele, Cristian and Silvia are all enthusiastic arts-lovers. As a result, the Hungarian National Gallery entered the must-see list naturally. The first time we went to the Buda hill, there’re lots of target places, such as the national gallery, the history museum, and the Matthias Church. The gallery is situated in the Palace. It seemed to be big and we’ve got four hours to spend before the closure hour. So we chose the gallery as our first stop, because it seemed that it’d probably take more time to have a thorough look of it. (It has proved that we made the right choice. There’re four floors in the museum. Even if we didn’t go through everything carefully, it still took us around fout hours to have a general look of it.)
這是一次漫無目標的參觀，就說因為我對藝術的無知吧！以前參觀過的美術館，至少會出現幾個‘似曾相識’的名字，這次真的是踢到鐵板…四層樓走下來，沒有任何一個認識的名字，加上沒有語音導覽，即使真有令人激賞的作品，對背後的故事一無所知的狀態下，實在讓我很難去享受這種漫步美術館的感覺，反而有著一股不可言喻的焦慮感。
Due to my ignorance, it was an “aimless” visit. In my previous gallery visits, there have always been some “big names” that I heard of. But this time… none… all four floors… not a single name! Besides, without the help of audio guide, even there’re some excellent pieces that I like, I really couldn’t enjoy the wandering without knowing the stories behind. I was feeling kind of anxious.
我忍不住問了身旁的米奇和克里斯，畢竟他們倆人的藝術知識比我豐富許多，然而，一個個問題接著下來，他們也是一頭霧水的樣兒，我們不禁針對各種可能性來討論，到底是因為四個人都孤陋寡聞、還是因為一條無形的地理界限造成的阻隔、或者是政治因素、保護主義等，四人在美術館裡交頭接耳，好不熱鬧…
I started to “file” my questions to Michele and Cristian. After all, they know much more about arts while I can’t even call myself amateur. However, one question after another, they both seemed confused. We started to talk about all the possibilities. Is it for our ignorance, or the geographical boundary, political reason, or protectionism? Our discussion went on for quire a while…
我個人尚且在搜索門道進入繪畫世界的階段，每一次參觀博物館，都要求自己至少記一件事情下來，從當天讓我感動的一幅畫，到畫家的名字和小故事都好，至少，每一次參觀都要有一種新的體驗，才會有繼續下去的動力。
I’m still a beginner that tries to step into the world of painting. Every time I visit a museum, I ask myself to remember at least one thing, from the touching feeling of a painting to the name of an artist or some interesting stories. I have to learn or experience something new, and that’s how I can keep pushing myself to frequent the art world.
這次參觀匈牙利國美館所學到的，是匈牙利畫家蒙卡契。參觀當天，美術館裡正在舉辦蒙卡契特展，我們在購票時並不知道他是誰，基於好奇心買了套票，畢竟，要讓美術館幫一個畫家辦回顧展，總得要有兩把刷子才行。
What I learned in the visit to the Gallery is the name of Mihaly Munkacsy. There’s a special exhibition showing a selection of Munkacsy’s painting from all over the world. We didn’t know who he is when we bought the ticket. We basically went for curiosity. After all, he has to be kind of important for such a museum to organize a special exhibition all dedicated to his works.
關於蒙卡契的一切，我是在回家以後，跑到網路上查資料才稍微有點概念。基本上，這位畫家的中文資料闕如，我是在做翻譯慣用的維奇百科上找到有關蒙卡契的資料。特展裡有著許多蒙卡契的風景畫和沙龍畫，記得在第一間展室中，看到了許多蒙卡契描繪平民生活的作品，用色灰灰暗暗的，讓人很容易就能夠將當時生活景象視覺化。不過，讓我印象比較深刻的，還是從第二展室開始看到的沙龍畫。豪華的室內佈置、優雅仕女臉上泛著淡淡笑意、惹人憐愛的小孩和小狗，一系列描繪畫家成名後生活的圖像，流露出一種幸福感。即使現在回想起來，那幅景象仍舊躍然眼前…
I got to know a bit about Munkacsy after I came back home. I went to the Internet to do some research. I found nothing in Chinese, but there’s a detailed entry about him in Wikipedia. Many of his salon and landscape paintings were exhibited. I remembered seeing many works depicting lives of normal people right after I entered the exhibition area. The dim and dark colors he used make it easier for viewers to visualize lives of that time. However, the ones that impressed me more are the salon paintings in the second room. The luxurious interior design of the rooms, smiling women dressed with elegance, and the loving children and dogs in the paintings… a series of paintings to describe Munkacsy’s life after he became famous. I can almost feel the happiness of these people. When I think back, the image still seems to be so vivid in front of my eyes…
畫家許多私人物品也被展示出來，不過對於畫家生平一無所知的我們，就無法引起我們太大的興趣了。
There’re also many of Munkacsy’s personal belongings in the exhibition. But for us who knew nothing about him, this kind of objects couldn’t really raise our interests.
即使匆匆走馬看花氏地逛完整個博物館，也讓我們花了將近四個小時，一直到閉館時間才步出美術館。想當然爾，原本預計至少要再看另一個景點的計畫，也就泡湯了。一個下午就想要把布達丘逛完，果然還是太樂觀了！
Even if we didn’t visit the gallery in detail, it still took us almost four hours just have a fast walk-through of it. At this point, we of course couldn’t accomplish our original plan to visit at least another point. Thinking to finish visiting the Buda hill in one single afternoon… we were for sure too optimistic!!
