By V．M．Hillyer ——V．M．希利爾（仲秋?譯）

V. M. 希利爾（1875—1931），美國著名兒童教育家、科普作家 ，創(chuàng)建了卡爾弗特教育體系。他為孩子們編寫了一套趣味盎然的歷史、地理、藝術(shù)讀物，即《寫給孩子看的世界歷史》《寫給孩子看的世界地理》《寫給孩子看的藝術(shù)史》。本文選自《寫給孩子看的藝術(shù)史》。

FIRE-ESCAPES are part of the scenery in a city. Landscapes are the scenery in the country. Fire-escapes have nothing to do with painting. Landscapes have a great deal to do with painting. But once upon a time landscapes had as little connection with painting as fire-escapes have now.

It seems strange that from the time the cave men made their animal pictures， thousands of years ago， all the way up to the middle of the seventeenth century， almost no one in Europe painted a real landscape. Italy had great painters during the Renaissance. Italy had beautiful landscapes. But strange to say the great painters never thought of painting the beautiful landscapes. If there was any country scenery at all in the Italian pictures， it was always as a mere background for the figures in the foreground.

The Van Eycks in Flanders had come near to real landscapes in their famous altar-piece. But the things happening in their picture were more important than the scenery.

Some landscapes had been painted in Germany about 1500， but they didnt attract much notice.

如果說自然風(fēng)光是鄉(xiāng)村景色的話，消防通道可以稱得上是城市一景了。繪畫里一般不會出現(xiàn)消防通道，但是自然風(fēng)景卻應(yīng)該是與繪畫密切相關(guān)的才對。不過，自然景色曾經(jīng)就像今天的消防通道一樣，幾乎與繪畫沒有任何關(guān)系。

從幾千年前的穴居人在洞穴里畫動物開始，直到17世紀(jì)中期，歐洲人幾乎沒有畫過一張自然風(fēng)景畫，這一點(diǎn)還真是奇怪。比如意大利文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期有許許多多的畫家，而且意大利的自然風(fēng)光也很美麗，但是卻沒有一位意大利畫家想到要去把漂亮的自然風(fēng)景畫下來。如果在意大利畫家的畫中看到一兩處自然風(fēng)景，那也只是被用作畫面中人物的背景而已。

佛蘭德斯凡·艾克兄弟的《根特祭壇畫》，看上去比較接近寫實(shí)的風(fēng)景畫，但事實(shí)上這幅畫的情節(jié)才是真正的主題，故事情節(jié)還是要比風(fēng)景本身重要得多。

大約在公元1500年的時(shí)候，德國的一些畫家畫了些風(fēng)景畫，但當(dāng)時(shí)并沒有引起注意。

It seems strange that the first two painters of Italian landscapes were not Italians but Frenchmen. One was named Nicolas Poussin. He was interested in the stories of the ancient Greeks and in the old Roman ruins. His pictures generally have Greeks in the foreground， but the backgrounds are true landscapes. The next picture will show you the Greeks. It is called “Shepherds of Arcadia”.

Do you know where Arcadia is？ Arcadia used to be a country of ancient Greece noted for its kind， happy， simple country people and shepherds. These shepherds that Poussin painted seem to be talking about the marble tomb in the picture. One is pointing to some words on the tomb. The words cant be read here， but in the real picture they mean， “I too have been in Arcadia.”

The other French artist who painted landscapes in Italy is known as Claude Lorrain. His real name was Claude something else， but as he came from Lorraine， in France， he is always called Claude Lorrain. The story goes that he was once a pastry cook and later the servant of a painter in Italy. One of his duties was to clean the paint brushes of his master. This interested him in painting. His master gave him some lessons and soon Claude Lorrain was a painter himself.

后來，終于出現(xiàn)了畫意大利自然風(fēng)景的作品。但奇怪的是，最早開始畫意大利自然風(fēng)景的卻不是意大利人，而是兩位法國人。其中一個(gè)名叫尼古拉斯·普桑，他對古希臘的故事和古羅馬的遺址非常感興趣。他的畫的背景就是真正的自然風(fēng)景，前面一般畫的是希臘人。接下來的這張畫將給你展示這些希臘人，它叫作“阿卡迪亞牧人”（編者注：見本頁左圖）。

你知道阿卡迪亞在哪嗎？阿卡迪亞是古希臘的一個(gè)鄉(xiāng)村，那兒以善良淳樸、快樂幸福的村民和牧羊人聞名。普桑畫上的牧羊人看起來正在談?wù)撘粔K墓碑，其中一個(gè)牧羊人指著這塊大理石墓碑上的一些文字。這些字在這張圖片中很模糊，但原畫上很清楚，墓碑上文字的意思是“我也曾經(jīng)住在阿卡迪亞”。

另外一個(gè)畫意大利風(fēng)景畫的法國畫家，他叫克勞德·洛蘭。他其實(shí)本來不姓洛蘭，但是因?yàn)樗麃碜苑▏穆逄m，因此人們就把他叫作克勞德·洛蘭。據(jù)說洛蘭原本是一個(gè)糕點(diǎn)師，接著又在一個(gè)意大利畫家那里做仆人，工作之一就是給主人清理畫筆。慢慢地，他也對繪畫產(chǎn)生了濃厚的興趣，再后來他的主人教給他一些繪畫知識，很快他也成了一名畫家。

Word Study

mere /m??（r）/ adj. 僅僅的;只不過

He seemed so young， a mere boy.

figure /'f?ɡ?（r）/ n. 人物;人士

She is a leading figure in the music industry.

shepherd /'?ep?d/ n. 牧羊人;羊倌

Claude Lorrain had people in his pictures， but generally they were small and unimportant. The landscape was the important thing， even more important than it had been with Poussin. So Claude Lorrain is sometimes called the father of landscape painting. He liked to paint pictures of the sea even more than landscapes， so we might call him a seascape painter too.

The next important French painter lived about a hundred years later than Poussin and Claude Lorrain. His name was Watteau. One of his paintings was on wood and was painted as a sign-board for a hat shop. Poor Watteau led a miserable life. In the beginning he was very poor. When he came to Paris to paint he worked hard， but he was paid so little that he almost starved. At last， when he had become well-known as a painter and was making enough money to live comfortably， he was always so ill that he could not enjoy himself much， and finally he died of the disease that had made him ill.

Now， Im telling you about the sad things of Watteaus life for this reason： The pictures he painted are just the opposite from sad. The people in them are just the opposite of the kind of person Watteau was.

Instead of painting poor people， he painted young men and women clothed in silks and satins. Instead of painting hard-working people like himself， he painted only people having a good time—dancing， picnicking， playing at garden parties. Instead of painting ugly， crude people like himself， he painted people who are almost too graceful and pretty and polite. No one could be quite so free from worries and cares as Watteaus people are.

洛蘭的畫里通常都有人物，但因?yàn)樗嬛械娜宋锒挤浅Ｐ?，處于次要地位，而自然風(fēng)景才是主要的，且有很多甚至比普桑畫中自然風(fēng)景的地位要重要。因此，人們有時(shí)也會稱洛蘭為“自然風(fēng)景畫之父”。洛蘭更喜歡畫海景，甚至勝過自然風(fēng)景，因此人們也把他稱作“海景畫家”。

接下來我要給你介紹一位同樣重要的法國畫家，他叫華托。華托出生在普桑和洛蘭時(shí)代的一百多年之后。華托畫過一幅帽店的廣告牌，是畫在木板上的。華托的一生很凄苦，剛到巴黎畫畫的時(shí)候每天都要非常辛苦地工作，但是始終掙不到什么錢，差點(diǎn)餓死。后來他終于成為有名的畫家，可以掙夠錢過上好日子了，可這時(shí)候的他又總是生病，根本無法享受生活。最終，病魔奪去了他的生命。

我之所以告訴你華托的這些悲慘經(jīng)歷，不是要你同情他，而是因?yàn)槟阋菃慰此漠?，完全不會想到他的生活中有這么悲慘的遭遇。因?yàn)樗漠嬕稽c(diǎn)兒也不悲傷，相反，他筆下的人物與他不幸的生活狀態(tài)截然不同。

他不畫窮人，他畫的都是衣著光鮮艷麗的年輕男女們。他沒有畫和他一樣辛苦工作的人，而是畫那些在盡情享受生活的人，畫中的人物在跳舞、野餐、聚會。他不畫丑陋粗俗的人物，他畫中的人物都非常優(yōu)雅、漂亮、氣質(zhì)非凡。估計(jì)世界上再也沒有人可以像他畫中的人物那樣的無憂無慮了。

Chardin was another French painter who was born only a little later than Watteau. He too painted a sign-board. Perhaps he got the idea from Watteau， but Chardins sign was for a surgeons office instead of for a hat shop. It showed a crowd of people in a street looking on while a surgeon binds up the wound of a man hurt in a sword fight.

Chardin liked to paint still life. Still life means a picture of any thing without life such as fruits， dead fish， basins， cut flowers， dead rabbits or pheasants and other game， pots， pans， and so on. He was also a portrait painter. But the third kind of painting that Chardin liked to do is the kind he is best known for—scenes of people inside their houses， doing the everyday things that people do. Usually there are children in these pictures. One painting shows a mother teaching her little girls to say grace before meals， another shows a little boy spinning a top on a table， another shows a mother telling her son to be careful of his new hat when he goes out.

Though the people in Chardins time dressed differently from us， still we can say when we see his paintings， “Those look like real everyday people.” We feel he didnt try to show us something astonishing or exciting， but just ordinary scenes in ordinary French families.

另外還有一位法國畫家，名叫夏爾丹，比華托出生更晚一些。夏爾丹也畫過一個(gè)廣告牌，他的靈感也許是從華托那里獲得的吧。夏爾丹的這個(gè)廣告牌是為外科醫(yī)生診所而畫的，畫中圍觀的群眾正在看一個(gè)外科醫(yī)生工作，他正在給一個(gè)在劍術(shù)比賽中受了傷的人包扎傷口。

夏爾丹喜歡靜物畫。靜物畫畫的是如水果、器皿、插花等非動態(tài)的東西，死了的魚、兔子、野雞也算，當(dāng)然也包括玩具、鍋碗瓢盆之類。夏爾丹也畫肖像畫。不過呢，夏爾丹畫得最好的、也是最有名的還是他的第三種畫，就是人們在室內(nèi)的日常生活場景。這些畫里通常都有小朋友的身影。有一幅畫畫的是一位母親在教她的女兒們做餐前感恩禱告;另外一幅畫畫的是一個(gè)小男孩正在桌上玩陀螺;還有一幅是一位母親在她兒子出門時(shí)，提醒他留心自己的新帽子。

盡管夏爾丹那個(gè)年代的人們穿衣風(fēng)格和現(xiàn)在的我們很不一樣，但是看到他的畫你還是會覺得，畫中的這些人看起來就像我們身邊的人一樣。你可以感覺到夏爾丹畫的都不是什么重大的事件，他只想畫出普通法國家庭里的日常生活的溫馨。

Word Study

miserable /'m?zr?bl/ adj. 痛苦的;非常難受的

crude /kru?d/ adj. 粗俗的，粗魯?shù)?/p>

surgeon /'s??d??n/ n. 外科醫(yī)生

bind /ba?nd/ v. （用長布條）纏繞

She bound up his wounds.