石頭里的故事

V.M.希利爾（仲秋　譯）

V.M.希利爾（1875—1931），美國著名的兒童教育家、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》《寫給孩子看的藝術史》。本文選自《寫給孩子看的藝術史》。

What would you call men who went about with hammers and broke all the statues they could find， and who even went into churches and broke the statues there？ Probably you would say they were bad men or crazy and should be locked up.

You would be right， and they would be locked up nowadays. But long ago （about 800 AD） such men were not bad or crazy， and no one tried to lock them up. They broke statues because they thought statues were too much like idols. They thought a church especially should have nothing like an idol or an image in it. An image is called in Greek an icon and these men were called iconoclasts， which means image smashers. They smashed a great many statues， and the poor sculptors had to move away from the cities where the iconoclasts were if they still wanted to make statue.

However， the iconoclasts didnt seem to mind small sculptures in relief. And so in the time of the iconoclasts and for many years afterward many beautiful bas reliefs in ivory， silver， and gold were made. The carvings in ivory were used as the covers of books， writing tablets， and little boxes. The place to see them now is in museums where they are kept carefully in glass cases. When you look at them， remember the iconoclasts and why there were no good statues in the full round for a long time after the Romans.

Some sculptors had to leave Byzantium—the old name for Constantinople which was the old name for Istanbul—because of the iconoclasts. They traveled to France and carried on their work there. And it is to France that we turn for our next great statues. They belong to the Middle Ages， several hundred years after the iconoclasts. And， strangely enough， these statues were all carved for churches—just what the iconoclasts didnt want！ In fact， the churches were simply covered with statues， which were made of the same kind of stone as the buildings and not of marble like the Greek and Roman statues.

如果我告訴你，有些人專門拿著錘子砸碎所有他們能找到的雕像，甚至還跑到教堂砸碎里面的雕像，你覺得這是些什么人呢？你多半會說：他們是壞人或者是瘋子，應該被抓起來關押。

要是這樣的事情放在現在，你或許說得沒錯，這樣的人肯定會被關押起來。而在大約公元800年的時候，距現在很久以前，這些人并不是壞人，也不是瘋子，更沒有人把他們關押起來。這些人砸碎雕像是因為他們認為這些雕像具有非常強烈的偶像崇拜的含義。尤其在教堂里他們認為不應放置任何具有崇拜含義的人物雕像或圖案。圖案在希臘語里叫作“icon”，而這些砸碎它們的人則叫作“iconoclasts”，也就是“崇拜雕塑破壞者”。崇拜雕塑破壞者砸碎了許許多多的雕像，那時候的雕塑家也很可憐，如果還想繼續(xù)做雕像，他們就不得不離開這些“破壞者”所在的城市。

不過崇拜雕塑破壞者似乎并不破壞小型的浮雕作品。所以，即使在“破壞者”當道的時代，以及之后的很多年里，很多用象牙、白銀、黃金做成的精美的小型淺浮雕被保留了下來。比如象牙制成的小浮雕通常用在書的封面、鎮(zhèn)紙板以及小盒子上。在博物館我們可以看到這類象牙浮雕，它們現在被小心翼翼地保存在玻璃罩子里，僅供人觀賞?？吹竭@種浮雕作品時，你就應該記起崇拜雕塑破壞者來了，因為正是他們使得在古羅馬之后的很長一段時間里，都沒有好的大型圓雕作品的出現。

也正因為崇拜雕塑破壞者的存在，許多雕塑家不得不離開位于土耳其的拜占庭（拜占庭后來改名為君士坦丁堡，現在叫伊斯坦布爾——譯者注），帶著他們未完成的作品前往法國，繼續(xù)他們的雕刻工作。也正是在后來的法國，出現了一批偉大的革新雕像作品。這些雕像出現于中世紀時期，也就是在崇拜雕塑破壞者時代的幾百年之后。奇特的是，中世紀時期的這些雕像都是為教堂而雕刻的，而這卻正是崇拜雕塑破壞者最不希望看到的。實際上，中世紀時期的教堂被雕像覆蓋了，這些雕像使用的材料和修建教堂時用的普通的石頭一樣，而不再是那種古希臘或古羅馬雕像所用的大理石了。

Word Study

idol /'a?dl/ n. 偶像;神像

smash /sm??/ v. 打破，破碎

relief /r?'li?f/ n. 浮雕;浮雕法;浮雕作品

The bronze doors are covered with sculpted reliefs.

These statues were really part of the churches. The cathedral at Chartres， in France， has not less than ten thousand figures of men and animals on it. They are everywhere—over the doorways， on the columns， on the roof， under the windows， on the walls. Even the waterspouts are carved in the forms of queer animals.

Most of the people of the Middle Ages could neither read nor write， so all these sculptures on the churches took the place of books. They told the people stories of the Bible and of the saint. You see they were useful as well as ornamental.

They are called Gothic figures because churches and cathedrals of the Middle Ages were built in the Gothic style. The Gothic figures on a cathedral are of almost every kind of living thing you could think of. There are scenes from the Bible， statues of saints， carvings of animals and flowers， pictures in stone of the seasons， of different kinds of work like farming and writing， wood chopping and fighting. There are figures of men and women， of actual creatures and of strange unheard-of make-believe creatures. And each of these figures was made for that particular part of the cathedral where it was placed. The statues were not stuck on after the cathedral was built. They were a part of it， built into it， and made of the same stone.

Do you remember when you had a sore throat and had to gargle？ On the Gothic churches there are statues that gargle. They dont have sore throats， of course， but they gargle every time it rains. They are rain spouts and have holes in them so water can run out through their mouths. Like the statues that told the stories of the Bible， they are useful as well as ornamental. We call them gargoyles， which is another way of saying they gargle.

The gargoyles were carved in the shapes of the queerest animals you can think of. Some have heads like monkeys， some have three heads， some have their tongues sticking out as if they were making faces. Some have claws like eagles， others hands like men.

The queer animals that werent made to gargle are called grotesques. Most of them are up near the roof like the gargoyles and seem to be looking down and laughing at the people on the ground. The sculptors on the old cathedrals must have enjoyed carving their grotesques and gargoyles.

法國的這些雕像已經成為教堂的一部分了。極具典型的是法國沙特爾大教堂，這座教堂里雕像無處不在，教堂的門道上、柱子上、屋頂上、窗沿上，更不用說墻壁上了，總共有一萬多幅人物和動物雕像，甚至連排水槽都被刻上了奇怪的動物造型。

在中世紀，大部分人都不認識字，更不會寫字。教堂的雕塑就成為書本的替代品，向人們講述《圣經》的故事、圣人的事跡。所以，這些雕塑除了裝飾，實際用途也不小。

這些中世紀的雕塑也被稱為“哥特式雕塑”，因為當時的教堂都是哥特式建筑風格。大教堂上的哥特式雕塑幾乎包括了所有你能想到的人和物件。它們包括了《圣經》中的場景、圣人像，動物、花草、四季風景，還有各種各樣的人類活動，比如農活、寫字、砍柴、打斗，等等，不一而足。雕刻的形象除了包括以上現實中的人物和動物，還包括一些奇怪的形象，社會中不存在的，抑或是傳說中的生物。每個雕刻作品都符合它所處的教堂里的特定位置，而且，這些雕像并不是在教堂建成后才安放上去的;相反，它們是在修建教堂的磚石上直接雕刻出來的，因此它們與教堂融為了一體。

你是否記得每次喉嚨痛的時候含著鹽開水漱口，然后吐水的樣子？（原文只說“漱口”?！胞}開水”是譯者根據中國的生活經驗所添加）你要是知道哥特式大教堂的雕像也能吐水，是不是很好奇呢？不過，雕像吐水當然不是因為喉嚨痛。這種會吐水的雕塑有實際的用途，是雨天用來排水的設施，它們只會在下雨時吐水。它們內部有排水孔道，雨水可以順著孔道流到它嘴巴里，然后噴出來。所以，和那些向人們講述《圣經》故事的雕塑一樣，它們除了做裝飾外也有它們的實際用途。因為雨水槽的雕刻形象一般都是動物的造型，我們把這類雕塑也叫作“滴水嘴獸”。

滴水嘴獸被雕成了人們能想到的各種千奇百怪的動物樣子。有的像猴子腦袋，有的長著三個腦袋，有的像在做鬼臉似的吐著舌頭，還有些長著鷹爪，另外一些則長著人手。

還有些雕塑也非常奇怪，雖然它們也是動物雕塑，但是不會吐水，被人們稱作“怪誕雕像”。這種怪誕雕像和滴水嘴獸一樣，也刻在離屋頂不遠的地方，看上去像是在俯視下面的人，并嘲笑他們。想必中世紀古老教堂的雕塑家們一定對雕刻滴水嘴獸和怪誕雕像樂此不疲吧。

Word Study

queer /kw??（r）/ adj. 奇怪的;反常的

gargle /'ɡɑ?ɡl/ v. 含漱;漱喉