Prince Charming-Oil Painting of Cheng Yajie

　　这是程亚杰在1996年创作的作品。天地之间，有一只巨大的青蛙王子坐在地上，手持一朵娇艳的红玫瑰，潇洒的敞开蛙喉，对着天空引吭高歌，它的眼神中充满了期待和渴望。我们仿佛听到了它的歌声“爱情在哪里?爱情在哪里?”程亚杰在这幅作品里，运用了最现代的满格构图来强调王子的强大、高傲、不可一世的自满形象。在技巧方面又运用了欧洲纯古典写实技巧，细腻地刻画出青蛙雕塑般的质感，营造出分量十足的感觉，使画面具有极强的视觉冲击力。他还利用五线谱音乐符号，让无声的画面产生了非凡的有声乐感。

　　It was an oil painting created by Cheng Yajie in 1996. Between the heaven and earth seated a giant frog, which held a brilliant red rose in its hand and sang aloud to the sky. From its eyes we saw expectation and desire. We seemed to listen to its singing: "Where is my love? Where is my love?" Cheng Yajie applied the most modern full-grid composition to emphasize the powerful, proud and arrogant complacent image of the frog. In regard of techniques, he applied the classical realistic technique of Europe to portray a sculpture-like texture for the frog delicately, which created a sense of heaviness and brought extremely strong visual impact. He also used symbols of music to make the silent scene full of outstanding music.

　　我们再来看画面，在青蛙王子苦苦等待下，天空中真的飞来一只美丽的天鹅，可是高傲的天鹅，根本连看都没看正在高歌的青蛙王子，优雅地从阴云密布的天空飞了过去。于是画面中出现了令人伤感的情景：温柔善良的甲壳虫乐队黯然泪下，与成双成对翩翩起舞的蝴蝶不忍再看下去了，纷纷躲藏起来。

　　Let's look at the scene again. A beautiful swan appears in the sky after such a long time of waiting of Prince Charming, but the arrogant swan hasn't even looked at the Prince Charming who is singing. She flies elegantly through the cloudy sky. As a result, a sad scene occurs in the painting: the gentle and kind-hearted beetle sheds tears. The flying butterfly couples hide hurriedly since they could not bear to watch anymore.

　　到这里，作品画面的全部元素都已经呈现在我们面前了。程亚杰这番苦心经营作品究竟是为了什么呢?作品想要表达的思想，人们恐怕还是不得而知吧?这是所有看过这幅作品的人都会想到的问题。有人说，不想娶天鹅为妻的青蛙王子不是好王子。笔者认为，幻想人人都有，幻想大都是美好的。画家是想通过构想的故事画面，运用强烈对比的手法，把一个地上蹦的动物——青蛙，幻想获得一个天上飞的动物——天鹅的爱情，这一天一地的差距演绎出的结果，那只能是悲剧!画家运用隐喻的手法，用画笔精心构造画面，让人们去思考：每个人自己怎样去处理幻想和现实的关系，怎样去缩小幻想和现实之间的差距。幻想不应是脱离实际的瞎想、乱想。人，毕竟是生活在现实当中，而不是生活在幻想当中。幻想与现实的差距过大，大到无法实现的程度，如作品中的青蛙王子天和地般的差距，那就只能是自寻苦恼，以幻想破灭而告终。

　　All elements of the painting have been presented. Why Cheng Yajie created this scene so painstakingly? Can people understand what the painting tries to express? This is a question for all the readers who have watched this painting. Some people said that a Prince Charming who does not want to marry swan is not a good Prince Charming. But I think everybody has a fantasy, which is always beautiful. The painter wants to compose a story by the painting and employs a strongly contrast approach: the frog jumping on the earth fancies to get the love from the swan which flies in the sky, which could only be a tragedy because of the distance between the heaven and the earth! The painter uses the metaphor to compose a picture carefully, so as to provoke people to think: how does everyone handle the relationship between fantasy and reality, and how does everyone shorten the distance between fantasy and reality? The fantasy shall not refer to blind and aimless thinking that is divorced from the reality. A human, after all, is living in the reality rather than the fantasy. If the gap between fantasy and reality is too big to be fulfilled, such as the heaven and earth for the frog in the Prince Charming, people are seeking distress by themselves. Eventually, the fantasy would be disillusioned.

　　通过赏析作品，我们还看到了画家透过作品所表达了他的一种创作观点，即一幅优秀的作品，要通过艺术家运用特有的艺术语言，加上高超的专业技巧，编织结构，传情达意。而不能像画漫画或政治宣传画那样直白的表达艺术家的观点。艺术作品可以有教育意义，但是，艺术作品不是说教。《青蛙王子》就是这样一幅，艺术性和思想性俱佳的好作品。

　　Through learning this painting, we also understand that the painter wants to express his view of creation through the painting. In other words, an outstanding painting shall be painted by the artist with special artistic language and superb professional skills to form a structure and express the meanings and feelings. It cannot express the views of the artists intuitively like cartoon or political publicity painting. The artistic works can be with educational significance. However, it is not preaching. Prince Charming is such a painting with premium artistic quality and ideological content.

作者：邢继先（天津程亚杰美术馆馆长）

Author:Xing Jixian (the Curator of Tianjin CHENG YA JIE ART MUSEUM)