The Unbridled Imagination:
Surrealist master Magritte’s masterpiece Le miroir universel
Surrealist master René Magritte is famed for his intriguing images that combine everyday objects in whimsical and thought-provoking contexts. In a world of paradoxes, Magritte seeks to question the experience of perception within painting. Le miroir universel belongs to a celebrated body of works Magritte executed during the mid-1930s and 1940s on the subject of a female nude in an unidentified landscape. Over a metre in height, Le miroir universel is the largest of the early representations of this theme and dates from the most important period in the Surrealist movement, and arguably one of the most visually arresting examples from the series.
Right: René Magritte in front of another version of La magir moire, 1966. © 2023 C. Herscovici / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The women of these paintings – which often carried the alternative title of ‘magie noire’ or black magic – are some of Magritte’s most beguiling creations, and her breathtaking silhouette appeared in a number of oils and works on paper. He varied the position of the nude, depicting her frontally or in profile, somet.mes s holding a rose, or with a dove resting on her shoulder, and almost always with one hand resting on a block of stone. The subject has became one of Magritte’s favourite images from the mid-1930s onwards, with La magie noire (collects ion of Royal Museums of Replica Handbags s of Belgium) being a prominent example. Hailing from an earlier period, Le miroir universel directly rivals the museum collects ion for its scale and superior quality.
“The changes had been constantly rung on whether the nude was seen frontally or in profile, whether her eyes were open or shut, whether or not there was a dove on her shoulder, a rose in her hand, sea in the background, a broken wall to one side, and whether or not her body was two toned. […] in any version that was called “La magie noire” the body was invariably two-toned, touched by that act of black magic transformation of flesh into sky.”
The model for this series was the artist's wife Georgette Berger and her image is depicted in a classical manner, abiding by the laws of conventional beauty and proportion, resembling a marble sculpture or a mythical figure as much as a live model. In this Magritte was drawing on an ancient pictorial tradition, deliberately evoking other famous nudes in the history of art, especially Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. This traditional representation, however, is juxtaposed with the unexpected colouration of the figure, whose upper body gradually acquires the tone of the exquisite night sky. As Magritte explained in a letter to the Surrealist poet André Breton dated 22 June 1934:
‘Black magic. It is an act of black magic to turn woman’s flesh into sky’.
Right: Medici Venus, marble, 1st century BCE, 153 cm height. collects ion of Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
In nearly all paintings from this group, the woman has one hand resting on a block of stone. As Magritte explained:
“One idea is that stone is associated with an “attachment” to the earth. It does not rise up of its own accord; you can rely on its remaining faithful to the earth’s attraction. Woman, too, if you like. From another point of view the hard existence of stone […] and the mental and physical system of a human being are not unconnected’
In Le miroir universel, this combination of opposites provides the crucial tension that is found in all of Magritte’s best work. Imaginative and unconstrained, the combination, placement and interactions of different pictorial elements closely echo the Freudian methods of free association. In the worlds that Magritte constructed, the impossible becomes the possible, and just as the title suggests, the mirror reflects in all and any direction. In the present work, the crisp edge that separates this outside world from the warmlys lit interior is a jagged line that emphasizes the opposing forces conjured by these two worlds. In this Magritte evokes another of his most celebrated motifs – the uncanny combination of nightt.mes and dayt.mes worlds. This would be one of the most important visual images of his career and underpins the celebrated L’empire des lumières series.
“This evocation of night and day seems to me to have the power to surprise and delight us. I call this power: poetry.”
The market for works by Magritte has gone from strength to strength over the recent years, with a growing number of global collects ors seeking to acquire museum-quality works by the artist. In 2022, an auction record was set for a Magritte oil, when L’empire des lumières (1961) sold at Replica Shoes ’s London for GBP 59.5 million (USD 79.5 million), while the second most expensive price was achieved at Replica Shoes ’s New York in 2023 for another L’empire des lumières (USD 42.3 million). While the eerie imagery of combining night and day has become the most distinctive feature in Magritte’s oeuvre as seen in these two examples, the present work is arguably one of the critical precedents of such surrealist vision. It was this transformation of the everyday into the remarkable that made Magritte such an influential artist, not only within the Surrealist movement but also for artists across the twentieth century.
天馬行空：
超現實主義大師傾情鉅獻——馬格利特《萬向鏡》
馬格利特是比利時超現實主義大師，筆下充滿其天馬行空的想像，來自日常的元素在畫面之上解構、重整，築成趣味盎然的意象，讓觀者恣意遨遊於超現實的世界裡，流連忘返。《萬向鏡》是馬格利特在三〇年代中期至四〇年代以裸女與無名風景為主題的系列中，最具代表性的作品之一；創作當時正值超現實主義運動的高峰期，超越一米的本作是此一系列發展早期裡最大尺幅之作，亦是此系列中最視覺震撼的一例。
右：1966年，雷內·馬格利特與《黑魔法》合影。© 2023 C. Herscovici / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
馬格利特在創作上力臻完美，並經常以相似的構圖在油畫、紙本作品中反覆淬煉，而被統稱為「黑魔法」的本系列，是最為人熟知的意像之一，作品各有特色，有的裸女如本作以正面示人、有的則顯現側面輪廓，她有時手持玫瑰、有時白鴿在其肩膀歇息，大多裸女都以迷人媚態依傍著一座石頭，體現馬格利特對此題材的極高專注度；而其中最著名的《黑魔法》（1945年作，79 x 59 cm）現已藏於比利時皇家美術館，本作不僅年份稍早，尺幅更超越前作，絕對媲美博物館藏。
「無論是正面看還是側面觀賞，裸體女子的眼睛是睜著還是閉著，她的肩膀上是否有鴿子，手中是否握著玫瑰，背景是否有大海，一側是否有破牆，以及她的身體是否呈雙色調，這一切都一直在不斷變換。[…] 在任何被稱為《黑魔法》的版本中，畫中人的身體總是呈現出雙色調，感覺像是用黑魔法將肉體轉化為天空。」
畫中嫵媚動人的模特兒是畫家夫人與繆斯女神喬吉特·伯婕（Georgette Berger），她美麗高貴的形象仿若古希臘神話中的維納斯女神，體現藝術家對愛妻的浪漫情感。馬格利特以古典風格描繪愛妻的身姿，遵循傳統審美和比例法則，令畫中人既似大理石雕塑，又像夢幻般的神話人物，並表達出自然仿真的視覺與觸感，體現藝術家過人而紮實的基本功，與文藝復興時期波提切利的《維納斯的誕生》有著微妙呼應。然而，在傳統技法的基礎之上，藝術家卻引入了超現實的色彩，將裸女半身逐漸融入天空的色調，變成渲麗奪目的精緻夜空，此一著色手法顛覆了古典人物畫的限界，創造了出乎意料的效果。在一封由1934年6月22日馬格利特寫給超現實主義先導者暨詩人安德烈·布勒東的書信中便提到：
「黑魔法。將女人的肌膚變成天空，是一道黑魔法。」
右：《美第奇維納斯》 大理石雕，公元前一世紀，高153cm。佛羅倫斯烏菲茲美術館收藏。
宏觀「黑魔法」系列的所有作品，畫中人皆將一隻手安放在石頭上，而馬格利特曾對此解釋道：
「有人認為，石頭與『依戀』地球這個概念有關。石頭非常堅穩，你可以放心依靠它，它忠於地球，被地球深深吸引著。畫中的女子亦如是——如果要這樣解讀的話。從另一個角度來看，堅實的石頭 [......] 與人類的心智和身體系統並非毫無關聯。」
馬格利特的構圖雖然天馬行空，然而不同元素的組合、擺放及互動，與弗洛伊德的自由聯想法緊密呼應，並旨在將互相排斥、充滿矛盾感的對立面放諸同框，挑戰著現實中的不可能性，即如本作題旨所道的「萬向鏡」，折射出多重光源。畫中一道清晰的邊緣，將外面的自然世界與室內溫暖的光線分隔開來，鋸齒狀線條更突顯了自然與馴養這兩個世界之間的對立力量。這一切不合邏輯、自相矛盾、如夢似幻的意象，正體現了藝術家畢生創作為圍繞發展的獨特美學。而在本作中，馬格利特又演釋了他另一個最受讚譽的主題：黑夜和白晝的奇妙結合，這是其畢生創作中反覆探索的一大重要意象，尤其以五〇年代後的《光之帝國》系列最廣爲人知。
「這種對黑夜和白晝的呼喚似乎有種力量讓我們感到驚訝和愉悅，我稱這種力量為詩。」
馬格利特近年市場表現走勢凌厲，尤其追捧博物館級別的鉅作極受藏家歡迎；《光之帝國》（1961年作）在2022年蘇富比倫敦以5950萬英鎊（7950萬美元）勇創藝術家最高拍賣紀錄，而屈居第二之另一《光之帝國》，則在本年蘇富比紐約以4230萬美元再次在激烈競投中高價成交，堪稱馬格利特最頂尖的鉅獻。而本作所呈現的晝夜意境早已有所預示，為《光之帝國》系列鋪墊風格基礎。這種將日常轉化為非凡的獨門秘技，令馬格利特成為超現實主義、以至整個二十世紀中極具影響力的現代大師。