第8章　石膏雕塑

小的時(shí)候，我經(jīng)常去一家博物館，那里有用石膏制作出來(lái)的、古希臘所有偉大雕塑作品的復(fù)制品；這些復(fù)制品，被稱(chēng)為石膏雕塑。后來(lái)我得知，人們覺(jué)得，其中我最喜歡的那些雕塑，并不像我在上一章已經(jīng)跟你們提及的那些雕塑作品一樣好。孩子們似乎就是這樣的。他們小的時(shí)候會(huì)喜歡某些東西，而長(zhǎng)大成人之后，喜歡的卻是不同的東西了。我最喜歡的是一尊雕塑，上面貼著一張標(biāo)簽，寫(xiě)著“垂死的角斗士”。

“角斗士是什么人？”我問(wèn)道。

有人告訴我說(shuō)，角斗士就是一名武士；很多角斗士都是囚犯或者奴隸，被迫去彼此格斗，或者搏擊野獸，直到其中的一個(gè)被對(duì)方殺死。之所以如此，僅僅是為了娛樂(lè)觀眾；當(dāng)時(shí)，一大群觀眾會(huì)聚集到一個(gè)四周都有座位的、像是如今的體育館的圓形場(chǎng)地里，去觀看這項(xiàng)搏擊運(yùn)動(dòng)呢。

直到后來(lái)我才知道，那座雕塑上的標(biāo)簽標(biāo)錯(cuò)了。它應(yīng)當(dāng)是“垂死的高盧人”，而不是“垂死的角斗士”。高盧人是古時(shí)一個(gè)野蠻的、未開(kāi)化的民族，生活在如今的法國(guó)。當(dāng)時(shí)，高盧人正與希臘人打仗，而這個(gè)高盧人則在戰(zhàn)斗中陣亡了。他的脖子上戴著一個(gè)扭曲了的項(xiàng)飾，或者說(shuō)項(xiàng)鏈，稱(chēng)作“項(xiàng)圈”。這正是我們知道他是一個(gè)高盧人的原因：因?yàn)橹挥懈弑R人，才會(huì)佩戴這種特別的項(xiàng)圈。

The statue showed a wound made by a sword in the Gaul's side and the stony blood flowing from it. A sign on the statue read Don't Touch but I could hardly keep from touching the sword wound from which the blood flowed.It seemed so very natural.

“Come away，”said my mother.“It's dreadful-a man dying. Let's go see the Apollo Belvedere.It is one of the most beautiful statues of a man ever made.”

“Is that a man?”I exclaimed.“He looks like a woman.”

“That's just because he has long hair and it is piled on top of his head in the way many Greek men wore their hair.”

Apollo, as I've told you, was the Sun god and the handsomest of all the Greek gods. We don't know what he is supposed to be doing in this statue.Some say he was holding a bow in his left hand and that he had just pulled the bowstring with his right hand and shot a dreadful dragon-like serpent called a Python, which had killed everyone who had come near it.Others say Apollo was holding the head of Medusa in his left hand to turn his enemy into stone.Apollo, Minerva, and Perseus all had copies of Medusa's head to kill their enemies with.

Belvedere means beautiful to see, but the Apollo

雕像中的高盧人身體一側(cè)有一處劍傷，還有石制的鮮血從傷口中流淌出來(lái)。雕像上掛著一塊標(biāo)牌，寫(xiě)著“請(qǐng)勿觸摸”的字樣；可我實(shí)在沒(méi)有忍住，還是摸了摸那處流淌著鮮血的劍傷。那處傷口，看上去非常的自然、逼真。

“走吧，”我母親說(shuō)。“太可怕了，一個(gè)垂死的人。我們還是去看看《貝爾維德勒的阿波羅》吧。那可是人類(lèi)雕刻出來(lái)的最美麗的雕塑作品之一呢。”

“那是個(gè)男的嗎？”我大聲問(wèn)道，“他看上去很像個(gè)女的啊。”

“那只是因?yàn)樗念^發(fā)很長(zhǎng)，并且像許多古希臘人一樣，將頭發(fā)盤(pán)在頭頂上罷了。”

我在前面已經(jīng)跟你們說(shuō)過(guò)，阿波羅是太陽(yáng)神，也是希臘諸神中最英俊的一位。我們不清楚這尊雕像里的阿波羅正在干什么。有的人說(shuō)，他的左手持著一把弓，而右手則拉著弓弦，射出一條可怕的龍形巨蟒；那條巨蟒叫作“皮同”，任何靠近它的人都會(huì)被它殺死。還有些人則稱(chēng)，阿波羅的左手提著美杜莎的腦袋，正準(zhǔn)備把他的敵人變成石頭。阿波羅、密涅瓦和珀耳修斯這三位神靈，都曾經(jīng)用復(fù)制的美杜莎腦袋殺過(guò)敵呢。

“貝爾維德勒”的意思，是指看上去很美麗；不過(guò)，這尊阿波羅雕像被稱(chēng)為

Laoc??nis called Belvedere not because he was beautiful to see but because the room in which the statue now stands in the Vatican Museum in Rome is called the Belvedere Room.

But I was more interested in the statues that told a story, especially if the story seemed to be something terrible. There was a big statue of three men caught in the coils of two huge serpents called Laoc??n and His Two Sons.Laoc??n was a Trojan priest who told his people that the Greeks were pulling a trick on them.Just then two huge snakes attacked Laoc??n’s sons.He went to help them, and all three were killed by the serpents.The people believed this was a sign that Laoc??n was not telling the truth about their enemy, although later it turned out-too late-that he was right.Not one but three sculptors are said to have made this statue.

Why is it that some people like to see pictures and statues of suffering and dying?I used to but now I wouldn't have a picture or a statue of such a thing in my house. It is too unpleasant to have around.But in ancient times people were bloodthirsty and loved to see killings as well as statues of killing and suffering.They went to fights and took their lunches along to eat while they watched and gloated over the fighting-especially those that ended in death.There are still people who like to see bullfights in which the bull is killed.

“貝爾維德勒”，卻并不是因?yàn)榘⒉_看上去很漂亮，而是因?yàn)槿缃襁@尊雕塑存放在羅馬梵蒂岡博物館里一間被稱(chēng)為“貝爾維德勒宮”的屋子里。

不過(guò)，我對(duì)那些講述了某個(gè)故事的雕塑更感興趣；而倘若雕塑作品講述的是個(gè)恐怖故事，那就尤其如此了。有一座巨大的雕像，描繪了三個(gè)人被兩條巨蟒緊緊纏住的情形，叫作《拉奧孔和他的兩個(gè)兒子》。拉奧孔是特洛伊的一位祭司，他曾經(jīng)提醒過(guò)特洛伊人，說(shuō)希臘人正在對(duì)他們耍花招。就在那時(shí)，兩條巨蟒襲擊了拉奧孔的兩個(gè)兒子。他跑過(guò)去幫助兒子，可最終三人都被巨蟒殺死了。特洛伊人認(rèn)為這是一種預(yù)兆，說(shuō)明拉奧孔對(duì)敵人情況的分析是錯(cuò)誤的；雖說(shuō)結(jié)果表明他說(shuō)得對(duì)，可為時(shí)已晚了。據(jù)說(shuō)，這尊雕像不是由一位雕塑家完成的，而是三位雕塑家共同創(chuàng)作出來(lái)的。

為什么有些人喜歡看描繪人們受苦或者臨死時(shí)情形的繪畫(huà)和雕塑作品呢？雖說(shuō)以前我也喜歡這樣，可如今我卻不會(huì)再在家里保存這樣的繪畫(huà)或者雕塑作品了。看著這樣的東西，太讓人不舒服了。但在古時(shí)，人們卻殘忍嗜殺，喜歡看到殺戮的場(chǎng)景，喜歡看那些描繪殺戮和苦難的雕塑作品。他們經(jīng)常打仗，并且會(huì)帶上午餐，邊吃邊心滿(mǎn)意足地觀看戰(zhàn)斗場(chǎng)景，尤其是觀看那些以死亡告終的場(chǎng)景。如今，仍然有一些人很喜歡觀看斗牛比賽呢；在這種比賽中，公牛最終也會(huì)被人殺死。

But there was one little statue I've always liked. It is not a statue of a god or a mythical person-not even of a grown-up.It is of a boy pulling a thorn out of his bare foot, and it shows us that boys who go barefooted today are very much like boys who went barefooted two thousand years ago.

Have you ever noticed how people balance when sitting on a stool?They curve this way and that. And if they were sitting there trying to get a splinter out of the bottom of their foot, they would almost fall over.Remember how much trouble sculptors had making statues that were walking forward instead of standing straight up?Well, it's just as hard to make a boy pulling a thorn out of his foot while sitting on a stool without falling off！

Another statue called the Colossus of Rhodes was made around 290 B. C.It was so huge that there was no plaster cast of it.It was a giant bronze statue of the Sun god, about one hundred feet high.According to legend, it was placed so that the god's legs straddled the entrance to the harbor on the island of Rhodes and ships passed between its legs.But in reality, it stood on a pedestal near the harbor.It was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.For some reason, perhaps in an earthquake, the Colossus fell and the broken pieces were sold for junk.

不過(guò)，我一向都很喜歡一座小雕像。它既不是哪位神靈的雕像，不是什么神話人物的雕像，甚至也不是一位成年人的雕像。那是一個(gè)小男孩，正在把一根小刺從自己的光腳丫上拔出來(lái)。這座雕像向我們表明，如今光著腳走路的小男孩，與兩千多年前那些光著腳丫的小男孩是很相像的。

你們有沒(méi)有注意過(guò)，人們坐在凳子上的時(shí)候，是怎樣保持平衡的呢？他們總是會(huì)這樣或那樣地弓著腰。倘若坐在凳子上時(shí)，想要彎下腰將腳掌上的碎片拔出來(lái)的話，那么他們幾乎就會(huì)摔上一跤。還記得雕塑家們是如何費(fèi)盡心思，才制作出向前走的雕像，而不是直直地站立著的雕像嗎？好吧，制作出描繪一個(gè)小男孩坐在凳子上將腳掌上的刺拔出來(lái)，而不讓他摔倒的雕像，也同樣麻煩得很呢！

還有一尊名叫《羅得島巨像》的雕塑，是公元前290年左右制作出來(lái)的。這座雕像極其巨大，因此沒(méi)有任何石膏模型。它是一尊用青銅制成的太陽(yáng)神巨像，約有一百英尺高哩。根據(jù)神話傳說(shuō)，這座雕像的位置很特別：神像的雙腿正好跨過(guò)羅得島港的入口，而進(jìn)出的船只則在其雙腿之下駛過(guò)。可實(shí)際上，它卻坐落在港口附近的一個(gè)基座上。它也屬于世界“七大奇跡”之一。由于某種原因，沒(méi)準(zhǔn)是因?yàn)橐淮蔚卣穑@尊巨像倒塌下來(lái)，摔成了碎片，然后就被人們當(dāng)成廢品賣(mài)掉了。