裁缝的儿子与光影大师

V. M. 希利尔（仲秋?译）

V. M. 希利尔（1875—1931），美国著名儿童教育家、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》。

If your name were Andrea， and if your father were a tailor， and if you were called Andrea of the Tailor， people would always be asking， “Can you paint pictures？” For Andrea of the Tailor was a famous painter， one of the Born Again painters of Florence. Italians， of course， didnt use English words for the painters name. What they called him was Andrea del Sarto， which is the Italian way of saying Andrea of the Tailor.

When this son of the tailor grew up he married， strange to say， the widow of a hatter—a man who made hats. She was a beautiful woman but was always scolding and was very extravagant and selfish and spent Andreas money as fast as he could make it.

Two of Andreas paintings were sent to France and when the King of France saw them， he wanted the painter to come to France and paint for him. So to France Andrea went. The king was pleased with his work and paid him well， but soon Andrea got a letter from his wife telling him to come back to Italy. The king made him promise he would return to France very soon and gave him money to buy some pictures in Italy to bring back to France.

And now we see that Andreas pictures were better than he was， for Andrea was what we call a “weak” man. When he got home to Italy， his wife made him build her a fine house. And when Andrea found his own money wasnt enough for the house he used the kings money！ Of course， after such dishonesty， he was afraid ever to go to France again.

如果你叫安德烈亞，你爸爸又是个裁缝，你常被人称作“裁缝家的安德烈亚”。那么，你肯定经常会听到有人问你：“你会画画吗？”这是因为在文艺复兴时期的意大利佛罗伦萨，有一位著名的画家就叫“裁缝家的安德烈亚”。当然了，这是意大利语里的意思，大家把他的名称音译出来，叫作安德烈亚·德尔·萨尔托。

这位裁缝的儿子长大后，娶了一位——说上去有些奇怪——从事制帽的寡妇。这位寡妇非常漂亮，但总是挑剔安德烈亚，而且这位寡妇喜欢挥霍，花钱如流水，还自私自利。

有人把安德烈亚的两幅画带到了法国，法国国王看到后非常喜欢，想把这位画家请到法国为他画画，于是安德烈亚就去了法国。法国国王非常满意他的作品，也付了他很多钱。但是不久，安德烈亚收到了妻子的来信，让他回意大利。法国国王让安德烈亚承诺一定尽快回法国，并给了他一笔钱，让他从意大利购买一些绘画作品带回法国。

接下来我们就会发现安德烈亚的画要比他的为人好很多了，因为他是那种非常软弱的人。安德烈亚回到意大利的家中后，妻子要他修建一座漂亮的房子。而当安德烈亚发现自己的钱不够的时候，竟然动用了法国国王给他买画的钱！做了这样违背诚信的事情以后，安德烈亚当然也就不敢再回法国了。

In Italy， Andrea painted several pictures in fresco on the walls of monasteries. You remember I told you what fresco painting was. The artist painted on the plaster while it was still wet so the colors would soak into the wall. If a painter made a mistake in fresco painting， he couldnt rub it out， because the picture was part of the plaster. So most artists touched up their fresco paintings after the plaster was dry. Andrea， however， never did this. He could paint so well that he didnt have to correct mistakes after the picture was finished. There werent any mistakes to correct.

Andrea painted in oil as well as in fresco. You remember， dont you， that the early Renaissance painters used to mix their paints with egg or glue？ Then some one discovered that it was better to mix paints with oil， and soon all the painters were using oil paints except for fresco. In the old egg or glue way of painting artists had to paint on a board covered with a kind of smooth plaster called gesso （jesso）. With oil paints they could paint their pictures on canvas or boards without using gesso. This was much easier and it also made the pictures look better.

Andreas most famous oil painting is a Madonna. The baby Christ is in her arms， on one side stands Saint Francis， on the other Saint John， with two little angels between them. The picture has a peculiar name. It is called “The Madonna of the Harpies.” Do you know what harpies are？ Harpies are make believe animals—birds with womens heads. The Madonna in Andreas picture is standing on a block or pedestal which is decorated with two little harpies. Thats why we call it “The Madonna of the Harpies”.

The Madonna in this picture is supposed to look like Andreas wife. He painted her likeness in almost all his pictures， but when poor Andrea finally caught the plague and became very ill， his selfish wife was so afraid of catching the disease herself that she left him alone and uncared for till he died.

安德烈亞在意大利给一些隐修院画过湿壁画。“湿壁画”你还记得吧？湿壁画就是在石灰墙还没有干的时候就画上去的画，湿的石灰可以让颜料直接渗到墙面里。不过正由于颜料会迅速地与墙壁融为一体，因此画家画错了也没办法擦掉。所以一般湿壁画画家都会在石灰干了之后再润色一下画作，不过安德烈亚从不需要这么做。因为他的画画得非常完美，完全不用做任何修改，也没有任何需要修改的地方。

安德烈亚的油画也和他的湿壁画一样好。你还记得我曾经介绍的蛋彩画吗？文艺复兴早期的画家使用的颜料常常是与鸡蛋清和胶水的混合物。后来，又有人发现颜料和油混合在一起的效果更好，所以不久之后的画家除了画湿壁画就是油彩画了。传统蛋彩画使用鸡蛋清和胶水混合而成的颜料，它只允许画家在涂有光滑的石膏粉的木板上作画;而如果用油彩，画家就可以直接在画布上或者木板上作画，而且这样画起来不仅更加容易，而且效果也更好。

安德烈亚所作最著名的一幅油画是圣母像，画中的圣母怀抱圣婴，一边站着圣方济，另一边站着圣约翰，他俩中间还有两个小天使。这幅画的名字很特别，叫作“有鸟身女妖基座的圣母马利亚像”。你知道什么是“鸟身女妖”吗？它是一种虚构出来的动物，一种长着女人头的鸟。安德烈亚画中的圣母就站在一个由两只鸟身女妖装饰的基座上，这就是这幅画作得名的由来了。

这幅画中圣母的原型，人们估计正是安德烈亚的妻子，因为在几乎所有安德烈亚的画里，都有他妻子的影子。不过后来，当可怜的安德烈亚感染上瘟疫，病得很严重的时候，他自私的妻子却因为害怕传染给自己，将他弃之不理直至他去世。

Word Study

extravagant /?k'str?v?ɡ?nt/ adj. 挥霍的;奢侈的

Shes got very extravagant tastes.

plague /ple?ɡ/ n. 瘟疫

The city is under threat from a plague of rats.

Andrea del Sarto was named for his fathers trade. Now we come to a painter who was named for his hometown. You remember Perugino， who was named for the town where he lived？ Well， not a great distance from Perugia is the town of Correggio where there lived a painter known everywhere by the name of his town. We dont know much about Correg gios life， but we can admire his pictures. Like Andrea del Sarto， Correggio painted both in fresco and in oils. All his frescoes are in the city of Parma， in Italy， where he worked on the cathedral and the churches.

The cathedral in Parma has a round tower on top called a cupola， and Correggio painted a picture for the inside of the cupola. The picture was circular so it would fit into the ceiling of the cupola. As it could be looked at only from the floor below， Correggio decided to make the angels and other figures in the picture look like real figures flying through the air and seen from underneath. If you should look straight up and see an angel flying above your head you would see the soles of the angels feet nearer to you than his head. You would see just the opposite view if you looked down on the top of some ones head.

To paint a figure seen from below was something that very few artists knew how to do. Correggio first had a sculptor make some models in clay so he would know how people would look in these strange positions. The way he painted them we call foreshortening.

Correggio did other foreshortened cupola pictures. People who saw them didnt quite know what to make of them. It was such a new way of painting that at first it wasnt liked very much. One man said such a painting looked like a hash of frogs. But the painter Titian came to Parma and when he saw Correggios cupola picture in the cathedral he said， “Turn the cupola upside down and fill it with gold and even that will not be the pictures money worth.”

“裁縫家的安德烈亚”就这样被人们冠以他爸爸的裁缝职业叫了一辈子。下面我们再来认识另一位被冠以自己家乡名称的画家。你还记得佩鲁吉诺吧，就是那位以居住过的小镇而得名的画家。其实在离佩鲁贾不远的地方，有一个叫科雷吉欧的小镇，而有一个画家也被大家称呼为“科雷吉欧”。我们对科雷吉欧的一生知道得很少，但是大家都很欣赏他的画。和安德烈亚一样，科雷吉欧既画油画，也画湿壁画。科雷吉欧所有的湿壁画都存于意大利的帕尔玛，因为他曾经是那里教堂的专职画师。

帕尔玛大教堂的顶部是一个圆顶塔楼，科雷吉欧在这个圆顶塔的内壁画了一幅画。因为要和圆顶塔的天花板相契合，所以这幅画作也是圆形画。站在塔楼里面看这幅画的人，肯定只能从地面仰头往上看，所以科雷吉欧作画时就决定将画中的天使等人物画成正在空中飞舞时人们仰视他们看到的样子。假设你抬头时看到一个天使从你头顶飞过，那么你会发现，相比天使的头，他的脚要离你更近一些。如果你的视角是从上往下看的话，这个天使的头应该离你更近。

要想画出由下往上的仰视图是不容易的，很少有画家能画好。科雷吉欧先让一个雕塑家雕刻了几个陶土的人物模型，以便他能更好地了解这些人物从各个角度看上去是什么样子的。科雷吉欧的绘画方式被我们称为“短缩法”。

科雷吉欧的一些圆顶画都是按照这种方法画的，但看到这些画的人并不知道这些画是如何画的。这种创新的绘画方式太新，一开始并不受人欢迎。有的人甚至说这种方法画出来的人物看起来就像是一堆青蛙。后来一位“伯乐”发现了这些画的价值，这位伯乐就是提香。有一次提香到帕尔玛大教堂看到圆顶塔内的画惊叹道：“这幅画真是太珍贵了！就算把整个顶塔拆下来，翻过来当作大碗装满了黄金，也不抵这幅画的价值。”

Correggios oil paintings are noted for their wonderful light and shade. He was what we call a master of light and shade. The people in his paintings are graceful， smiling， pretty， and happy-looking， and so almost everybody likes them. The main fault people find with them is that they do not seem to mean very much. Correggio was not a great thinker like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.

Another one of Corregios paintings is called “The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine.” Saint Catherine dreamed she was being married to the baby Christ and this picture shows the Baby playing with the wedding-ring that Saint Catherine had seen in her dream.

Just as famous as this painting is one called “Holy Night” or “The Adoration of the Shepherds.” It shows the Baby in His manger with His mother and the shepherds around Him. A wonderful glow of light comes from the manger where the Baby lies， and lights up the faces of those who worship Him.

A strange story is told of Correggios death， but whether it is true or not we do not know for sure. According to this story， Correggio was paid for one of his paintings all in bronze coins. You know that if you pay in pennies for something expensive， it takes lots of pennies. And this payment to Correggio took so many bronze coins that it made a very heavy load. Correggio started out to carry this load of coins home. It was a hot day and the heavy load made Correggio so hot and tired that he became ill， had to go to bed and soon died. And that was the end of this master of light and shade， but his paintings have lived on after him to give pleasure to all who see them.

科雷吉歐的油画因出色地处理了光影效果而闻名，他也因此被称为“光影大师”。科雷吉欧画中的人物举止优雅，面带微笑，神态自然动人，所以几乎人人都爱看他的画。如果说有什么缺点的话，那唯一缺陷可能就是画作的“内涵”不足。科雷吉欧并不是如同米开朗琪罗或者达·芬奇般那样伟大的思想画家。

《圣凯瑟琳的神秘婚礼》是科雷吉欧的另一幅名画。传说圣凯瑟琳曾经梦见自己即将嫁给圣婴，这幅画描绘的是圣凯瑟琳梦中所看到的圣婴把玩圣凯瑟琳手上戒指的场景。

科雷吉欧的画还有一幅和这幅一样有名，叫《圣夜》，又叫《牧羊人的膜拜》。画中的圣婴躺在马厩里，圣母马利亚和牧羊人围绕着他，圣婴所在的位置射出绚丽的亮光，周围朝拜者的脸都被照得明亮。

科雷吉欧去世的故事很奇特，但真实性不为人知。据说，科雷吉欧有一次为一个人作画后，那人决定用铜板来支付。如果我们用一分钱的硬币去买很贵重的东西，你知道得有几麻袋，甚至几推车的硬币量才够。同样的，由于科雷吉欧的画酬很高，那人在支付时用了很多很多铜板，加起来非常重。那天天气很热，铜板又多又沉，将其背回家的科雷吉欧又热又累，回家之后就病倒在床，接着就过世了。传说这位光影大师的一生就这样完结了，不过他的画作给观赏者带来的快乐却一直延续到今天。

Word Study

cathedral /k?'θi?dr?l/ n. 大教堂;主教座堂

sculptor /'sk?lpt?（r）/ n. 雕刻家;雕塑家