By V. M. Hillyer ——V. M. 希利爾（仲秋?譯）

TO-DAY there is no famous sculptor who is also a famous painter. But in 1475 was born a man who became world famous as a sculptor， as a painter， and as an architect. He also was a poet and wrote good verses that are still published. Not only that， but he is considered the greatest artist of the Renaissance. Many people call him the greatest sculptor since Phidias.

The name of this wonderful genius was Buonarroti. Have you ever heard before of Buonarroti？ Very few people know him by that name. He is known to us as Michelangelo and even this name is written in three different ways—Michelangelo，Michael Angelo， and Michelagnolo.

Michelangelo was trained as a sculptor in marble and he always spoke of himself as a sculptor in spite of the fact that his most famous works are the paintings in the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

As a boy he carved a statue in snow that greatly pleased one of the famous Medici family， the Duke of Florence. The boy was permitted to study the old Greek and Roman statues collected by the duke， who later gave him work to do.

When Michelangelo was still a young man， he carved in marble a wonderful statue called the Pietà. This piece of work shows Mary the mother of Jesus holding her dead Son across her lap after His crucifixion. Some people like it better than Michelangelos other works because it is calmer， quieter and tranquil， than the statues he did afterward.

Some time after making the Pietà， Michelangelo was able to do a piece of work that made him famous throughout Italy. There lay in Florence a huge block of marble that an earlier sculptor had begun to work on， but had been unable to finish because the marble was so long and narrow.

Michelangelo offered to make a statue out of this block of marble. He was given permission to carve it and went to work. The block was set up on end and? enclosed with a fence so Michelangelo could work in peace. In three years he had finished. People came in crowds to see what he had done.

It was a colossal statue eighteen feet high， showing David with his sling ready to fight Goliath the giant. Strange to say， every one in Florence called the statue “The Giant”， although it was of a man who killed a giant. It is gigantic in size. It weighs nine tons.

我們生活的今天，沒有哪一位著名的雕塑家同時(shí)也是著名的畫家。但是，有一個(gè)在1475年出生的人不僅成為著名的雕塑家，而且同時(shí)也是著名的畫家。更厲害的是，他還是著名的建筑師，又是一位詩人。他寫的很多詩都很優(yōu)美，有的直到現(xiàn)在還在出版、流傳。不僅如此，他還被人們看作是文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期最了不起的、杰出的藝術(shù)家。有很多人認(rèn)為他是自菲狄亞斯以來，世界上最優(yōu)秀的雕塑家。

這位與古希臘最偉大的雕塑家同樣了不起的天才叫“博那羅蒂”。你聽過這個(gè)名字嗎？其實(shí)也的確很少有人知道這個(gè)名字，因?yàn)榇蠹叶冀兴懊组_朗琪羅”“米開蘭琪羅”或“米高安哲羅”。

米開朗琪羅自幼學(xué)習(xí)大理石雕像，他也總認(rèn)為自己是一位雕塑家，盡管他實(shí)際上最著名的作品是繪畫作品，那就是他為羅馬西斯廷禮拜堂所作的穹頂壁畫。

在米開朗琪羅還是個(gè)孩子的時(shí)候，就曾經(jīng)用雪雕出一座雕像。名門望族“美第奇家族”中的一位成員，當(dāng)時(shí)的佛羅倫薩公爵就非常喜歡米開朗琪羅用雪雕出的雕像。也正因?yàn)槿绱?，米開朗琪羅得到佛羅倫薩公爵的許可，學(xué)習(xí)和研究公爵收藏的古希臘和古羅馬的雕像藝術(shù)品。后來，佛羅倫薩公爵還為米開朗琪羅介紹了工作。

當(dāng)米開朗琪羅還是個(gè)年輕人的時(shí)候，就已經(jīng)雕刻了一座很了不起的大理石雕像——《圣殤像》。這個(gè)雕塑作品展現(xiàn)的是在耶穌被釘死在十字架上以后，圣母馬利亞雙手抱住耶穌的尸體，放在自己的腿上。有些人認(rèn)為在米開朗琪羅所有的作品中，他們最喜歡的就是這件作品，因?yàn)樗麄冇X得《圣殤像》與米開朗琪羅后期的雕像作品相比，這件的整體感覺更加安詳、靜謐。

完成《圣殤像》之后，米開朗琪羅回到了佛羅倫薩。在那里，米開朗琪羅完成了使他在整個(gè)意大利都很出名的一件作品。當(dāng)時(shí)，佛羅倫薩有一塊巨大的大理石，一位前期的雕塑家曾經(jīng)嘗試雕刻這塊石頭，但最終因?yàn)檫@塊大理石很長卻太狹窄而沒有完成雕刻。

于是米開朗琪羅主動(dòng)提出，要用這塊大理石雕刻一座雕像。得到許可之后，米開朗琪羅便開始著手雕刻工作。人們在這塊大理石的周圍支起了籬笆，把大理石圍在中間，這樣他就能夠不受干擾地工作了。三年之后，米開朗琪羅完成了雕像。人們得到消息都紛至沓來，想看一看他雕刻出來的成果。

米開朗琪羅雕刻出來的是一座五米多高（原文為18英尺——譯者注）的巨型雕像，描繪的是大衛(wèi)手拿投石器準(zhǔn)備與巨人歌利亞戰(zhàn)斗的形象。不過奇怪的是，所有的佛羅倫薩人都把這座雕像稱為“巨人”。盡管這座雕像雕刻的并不是巨人，而是殺死巨人的英雄——大衛(wèi)。這是一座龐大的雕像，足有九噸重。

Word Study

sculptor /'sk?lpt?r/ n. 雕塑家，雕刻家

carve /kɑ?rv/ v. 雕刻;切下（肉片）;奮斗取得（名聲）

The statue was carved out of a single piece of stone.

tranquil /'tr??kw?l/ adj. 安靜的;平靜的;寧靜的

She lives a tranquil life in the country.

colossal /k?'lɑ?sl/ adj. 巨大的;龐大的

niche /ni??/ n. 壁龕;合適的位置

Michelangelo was a very careful student of anatomy. Anatomy is the study of the muscles and other parts of the body. He studied the bodies of people and even cut up dead bodies so he could learn about the muscles under the skin that would make a statue look lifelike. He knew so much about muscles that he carved some of his statues in strained and unusual positions， showing the proper play of muscles under the skin.

For the tomb of one of the popes， Michelangelo carved a statue of Moses. Of course he did not know what Moses really looked like. He had no pictures of Moses to go by， so the Moses he? carved is the sculptors idea of what a man like Moses ought to look like. Michelangelo carved horns on his Moses！ You can see them in the picture. You remember， perhaps， how the Bible says? the face of Moses shone with light when he came down from Mount Sinai？ In early Italian translations of the Bible， the rays of light coming from the head of Moses were called by the? ? ? translators “horns”. And for this reason people of Michelangelos time thought Moses had horns.

The statue is forceful， majestic， powerful. All who see it remember it. Travelers have said it is like seeing Niagara Falls or the ocean or a storm at sea.

As famous as Michelangelos Moses are the groups of statues that he made for the tombs of two members of the Medici family. These tombs are in the Medicis private chapel， in the church of San Lorenzo. Michelangelo placed two figures， a man and a woman， on each tomb. Above these， in a niche in the wall， was placed a statue of the man whose tomb it was. One of these portrait statues is known as the Thinker and the other as the Warrior. The two figures on one of the tombs are known as Morning and Evening and those on the other as Day and Night.

Michelangelo lived to be eighty-nine and died in 1564.

Strange to say， sculpture got worse instead of better after Michelangelo， and it was many years before it began again to improve.

米開朗琪羅還是一位專心學(xué)習(xí)解剖學(xué)的學(xué)生。解剖學(xué)是主要研究肌肉和人體某些部位構(gòu)造的學(xué)科。他不僅研究活人的身體，還解剖尸體，就是為了清楚地了解人體皮膚下面肌肉的構(gòu)造，以便使自己雕刻的塑像更加栩栩如生。通過學(xué)習(xí)，米開朗琪羅對人體的肌肉構(gòu)造十分了解，因此，他雕刻的許多姿勢特別的雕像，比如某一處肌肉緊繃的時(shí)候，都能恰到好處地表現(xiàn)出皮膚下肌肉的張力。

米開朗琪羅為一個(gè)教皇陵墓雕刻的一座摩西雕像也值得一提。米開朗琪羅當(dāng)然不知道摩西真正長什么樣子，也沒有摩西的照片可以參考，因此他就按自己想象中的摩西雕刻出了摩西的形象。從摩西雕像的圖片中你可以看到，摩西的頭頂居然讓米開朗琪羅刻出了一對牛角！或許你還記得，《圣經(jīng)》上提到過“摩西從西奈山下來的時(shí)候頭頂放光”。在早期《圣經(jīng)》的意大利語譯本中，摩西頭頂上的光環(huán)被翻譯成了“牛角”。所以在米開朗琪羅時(shí)代，人們都以為摩西長了一對牛角呢。

這座雕像的雕刻非常有力度，氣勢恢宏，所有見過的人都印象深刻。還有參觀者說，這座摩西雕像就像尼亞加拉大瀑布、廣闊的海洋或者海上風(fēng)暴一樣，讓人一見就定格在大腦中，終生難忘。

米開朗琪羅還有一些其他的雕塑作品與《摩西》齊名，它們就是米開朗琪羅為美第奇家族兩位家庭成員的墓碑雕刻的幾組雕像。這兩座墓碑位于圣洛倫索大教堂美第奇家族的私人洗禮堂里。米開朗琪羅在每座墓碑上分別雕刻了一男一女兩座雕像。兩座雕像上方的墻上各有一個(gè)壁龕，里面安放的是逝者的雕像。兩座逝者的雕像都是世界聞名的作品，一座叫《思想者》，另一座叫《勇士》。墓碑上的男女雕像分別在逝者雕像的腳下，一座墓碑上的男女雕像分別叫作“清晨”與“黃昏”，另一座墓碑上的男女雕像則被命名為“白天”和“黑夜”。

米開朗琪羅一生活了八十九歲，于1564年逝世。

奇怪的是，在米開朗琪羅出現(xiàn)之后，人類的雕刻藝術(shù)沒有得到更好的發(fā)展，反而是越來越糟了。這種糟糕的情況在很多很多年之后，才逐漸好轉(zhuǎn)起來。