Anna Karenina — Chapter 132 in French
By Leo Tolstoy
Le vieux palazzo abandonné où ils s’étaient installés, avec ses hauts plafonds sculptés, ses fresques, ses parquets de mosaïques, ses hautes fenêtres garnies de lourds rideaux jaunes, ses vases sur les consoles et les cheminées, ses portes sculptées, ses salons sombres ornés de tableaux, son extérieur même, entretenait Vronskï dans une agréable illusion. Il se sentait moins un propriétaire russe, un chambellan en retraite, qu’un amateur éclairé des arts, faisant modestement de la peinture et ayant renoncé au monde, à ses relations et à ses ambitions pour la femme aimée. The old, dilapidated palazzo into which they moved supplied Vronsky with the agreeable illusion that he was not so much a Russian proprietor, a shtalmeïster in retirement, as he was an enlightened amateur and protector of art, in his own modest way an artist, who had sacrificed society, his ties, his ambition, for a woman's love. This ancient palace, with its lofty stuccoed ceilings, its frescoed walls, its mosaic floors, its yellow tapestries, its thick, yellow curtains at the high windows, its vases on mantelpiece and consoles, its carved doors, and its melancholy halls hung with paintings, lent itself readily to his illusion.
Le rôle qu’avait choisi Vronskï en s’installant dans le palais le satisfit quelque temps. Par l’intermédiaire de Golinitchev, il fit quelques connaissances intéressantes. This new rôle which Vronsky had chosen, together with their removal to the palazzo and acquaintance with several interesting persons, which came about through Golenishchef, made the first part of this period very enjoyable. Il travailla sous la direction d’un professeur de peinture italien, avec lequel il peignit des études d’après nature, et s’occupa de la peinture italienne du moyen âge. Under the instruction of an Italian professor of painting, he made some studies from nature, and he took up the study of Italian life during the Middle Ages. Cette époque lui inspira même un si vif intérêt qu’il finit par porter des chapeaux moyen âge et par se draper dans un plaid, ce qui du reste lui allait très bien. Medieval Italian life became so fascinating to him that he began to wear his hat and throw his plaid over his shoulders in the medieval style, which was very becoming to him.
— Nous vivons ici et nous ne savons rien, dit un matin Vronskï à Golinitchev qui entrait chez lui. "Here we are alive, and yet we know nothing," said Vronsky one morning to Golenishchef, who came in to see him. As-tu vu le tableau de Mikhaïlov ? "Have you seen Mikhaïlof's painting?" Et il lui tendit le journal russe qu’il venait de recevoir, en lui désignant l’article sur ce peintre russe qui vivait dans la même ville et venait d’achever un tableau dont on parlait depuis longtemps et qui était acheté d’avance. he asked, and at the same time handed him a Russian paper just received, and indicated an article on this artist, who was living in that very city, and had just completed a picture about which many reports had long been in circulation, and which had been sold on the easel. L’article blâmait le gouvernement et l’Académie d’abandonner cet artiste sans secours et sans encouragements. The article severely criticized the government and the academy that an artist of such genius was left without any encouragement and aid.
— Je le connais, répondit Golinitchev. "I have seen it," replied Golenishchef. Il ne manque certainement pas de talent, mais il fait fausse route. "Of course he is not without talent, but his tendencies are absolutely false. Ce sont toujours ces conceptions du Christ et de la vie religieuse à la façon d’Ivanov, de Strauss, de Renan. He always shows the Ivanof-Strauss-Renan conception of Christ and religious art."