摘要
林布蘭（Rembrandt van Rijn，1606－1669）所受的委託主題內容是羅馬史家塔西陀（Tacitus）筆下的奇維里斯（Julius Civilis）夜宴各族精英，在奇維里斯精彩的演說下，所有密謀者宣誓反抗羅馬人。林布蘭創作歷史畫的習慣是作畫前先參考故事原典以求其真，在細讀塔西陀的《歷史》中後，發現一些重大細節是其他前輩畫家所未留意或未表達出來的。林布蘭的《奇維里斯密謀》（The Conspiracy of Julius Civlis）於1662年夏被掛在阿姆斯特丹新市政廳的藝廊供市民參觀，夏天未結束即被取下。是何因素造成市長退畫？至今仍無確切文獻足以說明。本文將從林布蘭製作奇維里斯的方法和精神入手，以傳統奇維里斯形象以對比，說明一位試圖突破傳統，呈現歷史畫的研究精神的畫家，卻無意中成為政治意識形態和當時藝術風格的犧牲品。
並列摘要
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) was commissioned by the Amsterdam Town Hall to paint Civilis, a character in Tacitus's Histories. In the story told by Tacitus, Civilis invited the leaders of all tribes for a banquet in the sacred wood. After Civilis' fantastic speech, all the coconspirators swore an oath of resistance against the Romans. Rembrandt's habit was to read the historical works on the subject of his painting before he picked up his brushes. After carefully reading Histories, Rembrandt found some important details which had been overlooked or ignored by other artists. Rembrandt's The Conspiracy of Julius Civlis was hung on the gallery of Amsterdam's New Town Hall in the summer of 1662. However, at the end of the summer, it was taken down. Why did the mayor return the painting? Even today, there is insufficient evidence to explain this. This article will discuss the approach and the spirit of Rembrandt in his making of Civilis and compare Rembrandt's Civilis with the traditional image of Civilis. I will present Rembrandt as a studious history painter who broke traditional rules and who eventually became an unwitting victim of both the political ideology and the artistic style in the seventeenth century.