画画的雕塑家

V. M. Hillyer 仲秋

V. M. 希利尔（1875—1931），美國著名儿童教育家、科普作家 ，创建了卡尔弗特教育体系。他为孩子们编写了一套趣味盎然的历史、地理、艺术读物，即《写给孩子看的世界历史》《写给孩子看的世界地理》《写给孩子看的艺术史》。本文选自《写给孩子看的艺术史》，该书写于20世纪二三十年代。

At the time of the Renaissance， young girls used to wear golden garlands or wreaths around their hair， as girls nowadays wear bracelets round their wrists or rings on their fingers. One goldsmith was so famous for the garlands he made that he was called Ghirlandajo （Gear-lan-dah’yo）， which means a maker of garlands. Ghirlandajo gave up making garlands and began to paint pictures instead. He made many very fine pictures， but the chief thing he made was an artist， Michelangelo （Mike-el-an’je-lo）. Michelangelo studied with Ghirlandajo for three years， and the teacher paid the pupil， instead of charging for his teaching！

Ghirlandajo was probably a good teacher of painting， but young Michelangelo liked making statues better than painting pictures. So he left Ghirlandajo’s workshop and began to study sculpture.

Michelangelo was not a very easy person to get along with. He didn’t mind saying what he thought， even if it hurt other people’s feelings. One day he said he thought another young sculptor’s statue wasn’t much good. This probably was true， but the other young sculptor got very angry and hit Michelangelo on the nose. He punched him so hard that the nose was broken. All the rest of his life Michelangelo had an ugly crooked nose.

在文艺复兴时期，年轻女孩流行在头上佩戴金黄色的花环，就好像现在的女孩子喜欢戴手链、戒指作为装饰一样。当时，有一个金匠因为金属花环做得特别好，所以非常出名。他被人称为“吉兰达约”，就是“做花环的人”的意思。吉兰达约后来不做花环开始画画，他画也画得很好。但是，吉兰达约最了不起的事情，是培养出了艺术家米开朗琪罗。米开朗琪罗跟着吉兰达约学习了三年，吉兰达约不但没有收他学费，相反还给他钱。

吉兰达约可能是一位好绘画老师，但是比起绘画，年轻的米开朗琪罗却更喜欢雕塑，所以，米开朗琪罗离开了吉兰达约的工作室转而开始学习雕塑。

米开朗琪罗其实并不是一个很好相处的人，他总是想到什么就说什么，即使说的话会伤害别人的感情。米开朗琪罗有一次说另一位年轻雕塑家雕刻的作品不行。他或许并没说错，但是那个年轻的雕塑家很生气，一拳打在了米开朗琪罗的鼻子上。那个雕塑家下手太重以致米开朗琪罗的鼻骨断裂，于是他的鼻子从那时开始就又歪又丑。

Michelangelo soon became famous as a sculptor—a man who makes statues or sculpture. He moved from the city of Florence to Rome， and there he worked for the Pope， who liked Michelangelo’s work so much that he didn’t want him to make statues for any one else.

This Pope wanted to have pictures painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. The Sistine is a chapel in the Vatican， the palace of the Popes. It has a very high curved ceiling. The Pope asked Michelangelo to paint the pictures on the ceiling， but the artist said that he was a sculptor and didn’t at all want to paint. Then some enemies of his spread around the story that he didn’t want to do it because he wasn’t good enough at painting and was afraid to try. This made Michelangelo angry. He made up his mind he would show that he could do the work as well as any painter in the world.

First of all， he had to have a scaffolding built in the chapel. The scaffolding was a wooden framework with boards across the top near the ceiling so that Michelangelo could climb up on the boards and paint.

If you stop to think a moment， you will see how hard it must have been to paint pictures on a ceiling. The painter had to lie on his back on the scaffolding. He had to be so close to the ceiling that he could see only the part right above him， unless he climbed down the ladder and looked up. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is very large. The pictures on it had to be large so people could see them plainly from the floor down below. How would you like to draw the head of a man when you could not see where his feet were to be？ Even if you were a good painter， that would be hard to do. And if Michelangelo put too much paint on his brush the paint would drip down all over him.

米开朗琪罗很快就在雕塑方面享有了声誉，被称为雕刻大师。后来他从佛罗伦萨移居到了罗马，并且开始为教皇工作。教皇对米开朗琪罗的作品很是欣赏，甚至不希望米開朗琪罗为其他人雕像。

教皇希望罗马西斯廷礼拜堂的屋顶上有图画装饰。西斯廷礼拜堂地处梵蒂冈，是教皇的宫殿，它有一个很高的拱顶。教皇邀请米开朗琪罗给西斯廷礼拜堂的穹顶画画，但是米开朗琪罗却说他是一个雕塑家，根本不想画画。那些嫉妒米开朗琪罗的人就散布谣言，说米开朗琪罗之所以拒绝是因为他根本画不好，不敢尝试。米开朗琪罗知道以后非常生气，决心要向人们证明自己的绘画能力并不比世界上任何一个画家差。

首先，米开朗琪罗在礼拜堂里搭建了一个木架。木架从地面搭建到离穹顶很近的地方，以便他爬到木架上面去作画。

你稍微想一想就知道在穹顶上画画是非常不容易的事情，因为作画的人必须躺在木架顶部上画才行。他必须距离穹顶很近，以至于只能看到眼前很小的一块地方，而要看全景除非他从木架上下来站在地面，向上仰视才可以。西斯廷礼拜堂的穹顶非常大，所以顶上的画也要画得特别大，这样人们站在地面上仰视时才能看得清楚。假如不让你看见人物双脚的位置就让你画出人物的头，你会怎样画？即使是优秀的画家也很难画好。而且如果米开朗琪罗的画笔蘸的颜料一多，就会滴得自己浑身都是。

But once he had started， nothing could stop him. At first he had some other artists to help him， but he found the helpers couldn’t do the work just as he wanted it， so he sent them away and kept on all by himself.

It took him four and a half years to finish the ceiling， and that was really a very short time when you think of the work that had to be done！ The Pope kept telling him to hurry and Michelangelo even moved his bed into the chapel so he would be able to spend more time painting.

The Pope also kept telling him how the pictures should be done. Michelangelo didn’t like this， because he felt he knew more about such things than the Pope did. So one day when the Pope was standing on the floor calling up advice to the painter， Michelangelo let a hammer drop from the scaffolding. He was careful to let it fall quite near the Pope—near enough to scare him. After that the Pope stayed out of the chapel while Michelangelo was painting！

Finally， the ceiling was almost finished. Michelangelo wanted to add some touches of gold paint， but the Pope was so anxious to have the chapel opened that the artist had the scaffolding taken down before the gold was put on.

Then people came from all over Rome to see what the famous sculptor had done as a painter. What they saw was a painting of Bible pictures. Around the edges of the ceiling were huge figures of prophets who had foretold the coming of Christ. Down the middle of the ceiling were shown pictures of the Old Testament stories—The Six Days of Creation， Noah’s Ark and the Flood， and others. The pictures were drawn so well that people were astonished.

可是米开朗琪罗一旦着手去做，就没有什么困难能够阻碍他。一开始，米开朗琪罗还请了一些画家来帮忙，可是后来他发现这些画家无法按照他的要求完成绘画工作，所以就把他们打发走了，由自己一人全权负责这项工作。

米开朗琪罗花了四年半的时间画完了整个穹顶的壁画。我们知道这份工作如此繁琐，四年半的时间已经算是很快的了。教皇一直不停地催促，所以后来米开朗琪罗干脆就住进了教堂，夜以继日地画画。

除了催促，教皇还不停地强调怎么画才好，指挥米开朗琪罗作画。米开朗琪罗不喜欢这样，因为他认定自己在这方面比教皇懂得多。于是有一天当教皇又站在底下指手画脚的时候，米开朗琪罗故意让锤子从木架上掉了下去——米开朗琪罗非常小心地让它掉到教皇身边足够近的地方，只是会吓到教皇。从那以后只要米开朗琪罗在作画，教皇就再也不敢走进教堂了。

米开朗琪罗在穹顶的壁画接近完工的时候，想添上一些金色的线条做到精益求精，可是教皇只想尽早开放礼拜堂，所以米开朗琪罗只好放弃了自己最后的想法，拆卸了木架。

罗马人从四面八方赶来参观重新开放的西斯廷礼拜堂，想看看这位著名雕塑家的绘画作品到底是什么样子的。人们看到的是以《圣经》故事为主题的图画。穹顶的边缘，画有预言耶稣诞生的先知们的巨大画像;穹顶正中央画的是《圣经·旧约》里的故事，有“创世纪”“诺亚方舟”“大洪水”等等。每一幅画都画得非常好，来参观的人们都啧啧称道、夸赞不已。

The men and women painted on the ceiling look strong and solid. They look like statues， which of course are the shape of real people all around， and not just flat pictures. So we call Michelangelo’s paintings sculpturesque or like sculpture.

In this photograph you see a small part of the ceiling. It shows the Creation of Man. Notice what great shoulders and muscles Adam has.

Almost thirty years after the ceiling was painted， Michelangelo was asked to paint a picture on the wall over the altar at one end of the Sistine Chapel. The wall was already covered with a painting by Perugino which had to be destroyed. Michelangelo’s painting that took the place of Perugino’s is called “The Last Judgment”. It is one of the most famous pictures ever painted， though it is not so great as the six ceiling pictures. It is crowded with the figures of men and women rising from the dead on Judgment Day.

Michelangelo painted very few other pictures. The only small finished painting that we are sure was done by him is a tondo of the Holy Family. It shows the Madonna on her knees， holding over her shoulder her little Son so that Joseph can see Him. The picture shows how this artist liked to paint people in strange positions.

Michelangelo lived to be a very old man. As he grew older he seemed to grow crosser and harder to get along with than ever. But though he was a cranky old fellow， every one respected him and admired him as one of the greatest artists in the history of the world.

畫在穹顶上的男男女女看上去厚重又立体，他们看上去不只是普通的平面图，所有的人物看起来像雕塑那样有着真人一样的轮廓立体感。也正因为如此，人们把米开朗琪罗的画叫作“类雕像画”，就是类似雕刻的绘画。

左边这张图片就是西斯廷礼拜堂穹顶画中很小的一部分，故事画的是“上帝造人”。亚当肌肉发达，肩膀看上去是那么厚实！

米开朗琪罗完成西斯廷礼拜堂的画作大约三十年后，他又奉命为西斯廷礼拜堂祭坛一端的墙壁作画。这面墙上原来有佩鲁吉诺的画，所以不得不被毁掉了。米开朗琪罗新画上的画作替代了原来佩鲁吉诺的画作，新画作名为“最后的审判”。尽管《最后的审判》比不上穹顶上的作品，但它也是世界上最伟大的画作之一。这幅画上密布着在最后审判日中从死亡中复活的人们。

米开朗琪罗的其他绘画作品并不多。在小型作品中，人们唯一能确定是米开朗琪罗画的一件完整的作品就是一幅圆形画——《神圣家族》。这幅绘画作品中圣母马利亚双膝跪地，将耶稣举过肩膀给约瑟看。看了米开朗琪罗的这幅绘画作品你会发现，他很喜欢把人物画成各种奇怪的姿势。

米开朗琪罗活了很多年，岁数比较大了，可是他年龄越大脾气也越差，也更难相处了。尽管他是一个性情古怪的人，但人们都非常尊敬他、敬仰他，因为他是人类历史上最了不起的画家之一。

Word Study

wreath /riːθ/ n. （装饰用的）花环

punch /pʌntʃ/ v. 拳打;以拳痛击

She punched him on the nose.

plainly /'pleɪnli/ adv. 清晰地;明显地

The sea was plainly visible in the distance.

prophet /'prɒfɪt/ n. 先知;预言者

The pity is that you are not a prophet.

cranky /'kræŋki/ adj. 古怪的;脾气坏的

The kids were getting tired and a little cranky.

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