小小珍品

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》，該書寫于20世紀(jì)二三十年代。

“WHERE your treasure is， there will your heart be also.” I once read a description of a group of sculptured figures that had been made for a public building. The chief thing the newspaper said about the sculpture was that it weighed ten tons. It did not say whether the statues were beautiful or not—just that they weighed ten tons. It might have been ten tons of coal. But mere size doesnt make a thing beautiful. The Greeks made some huge statues， but they were beautiful. They made， also， tiny sculptured figures so small that you have to look at them under a magnifying glass to see how really beautiful they are.

Not long ago I saw in a museum a piece of such sculpture that couldnt have weighed more than an ounce and was no larger than a domino. It was a piece of colored stone through which the light shone and it was carved with beautiful figures of Greek gods and goddesses in low relief. The figures had been cut into the stone with very fine but sharp tools. It had been made by some Greek sculptor whose name no one knows— before Christ was born. It was called a Gem， which is the name we give to anything that is very precious though it may be tiny.

In the British Museum in London is a whole room of such gems made before the time of Christ， by sculptors as great as those who made man size and colossal size figures. These gems were made for kings and wealthy people， for no others could afford them. Rich people long ago used to collect such gems as you might collect postage stamps， and museums—and some people who can afford it—do so today.

Often these tiny bits of low relief sculpture were cut in a stone that had two or three layers of different colors so that the figures were in one color and the background in another. If one layer was black and the other white， the stone was called onyx. If the top layer was reddish and those below it white and black， it was called sardonyx. Such sculptured low reliefs were known as cameos and some were very beautiful. Nowadays， cameos are made of shells of two color layers and are called shell cameos. Some are cut from two or more layers of different colored stone cemented together or from artificial sardonyx.

“你珍視的寶貝在哪，你的心就在哪?！蔽以?jīng)讀過一篇專門介紹雕像的報道，是用于介紹公共建筑的一組雕像。那篇報道不斷地強(qiáng)調(diào)這組雕像重達(dá)十噸，除此之外，比如這組雕像漂亮不漂亮、藝術(shù)價值在哪里之類的，卻完全沒提。煤炭堆也可以重達(dá)十噸，所以僅僅是形狀和重量大并不代表就是好的藝術(shù)品。不過古希臘人制作了不少巨大的雕像，卻都雕刻得很美。不僅如此，他們還制作了一些特別小的雕像，小到你必須要拿放大鏡才能看得清楚它們到底有多漂亮。

我不久前在博物館看到了一座雕像，還不到三十克重，大小與一塊多米諾骨牌接近。它是用半透明的彩色石頭制作的，能夠被燈光穿透。希臘神的很多淺浮雕刻在石頭上，要雕刻這些浮雕，必須要用很精細(xì)，而且很鋒利的工具才能夠做到。據(jù)說，這座雕像是公元前的古希臘雕塑家創(chuàng)作的，但是很遺憾，沒有人知道這個雕塑家的名字?，F(xiàn)在，人們把這座雕像叫作《寶石》，因為寶石是用來形容那些盡管袖珍，但卻珍貴的東西。

在倫敦大英博物館里有一個房間，擺滿了產(chǎn)自公元前的“寶石”，這些雕刻作品以及雕刻這些“寶石”的藝術(shù)家，和那些雕刻出真人大小或巨型雕像的雕塑家一樣偉大。在當(dāng)時，這些“寶石雕刻”只是為國王或者有錢人做的，因為其他人根本買不起這么價值連城的東西。以前的不少富人都有收集這種“寶石雕刻”的愛好，就像今天有些人喜歡集郵一樣。在今天，只有博物館以及一些非常富有的人才有財力收藏這樣的珍品。

這些用來雕刻小型淺浮雕的石頭通常都有兩到三層不同的顏色，這樣就可以讓圖案是一種顏色，而背景則是另一種顏色。如果一種石頭，一層是黑色的，而另一層是白色的，人們把這種石頭叫作“黑瑪瑙”。如果在石頭最上面的那層是紅色的，而在紅色層下面的顏色是黑色和白色，這種石頭就被人們叫作“紅條紋瑪瑙”。這些雕刻淺浮雕的寶石被稱為“寶石浮雕”，都非常漂亮?，F(xiàn)在有一種兩層色彩的浮雕是用貝殼制成的，因此又被稱為“貝殼寶石浮雕”。還有些是雕刻在用幾種不同顏色的石頭粘接在一起的寶石上的，或者是雕刻在人造的紅條紋瑪瑙上的。

Word Study

sculptured /'sk?lpt??d/ adj. 雕刻的;雕塑的

Various kinds of sculptured handicrafts will be shown at this exhibition.

artificial /'ɑ?t?'f??l/ adj. 人工的;人造的;假的

He did not want his life to be prolonged by artificial means.

It used to be the fashion for ladies to wear shell cameos as breastpins and perhaps your grandmother may have had such a cameo pin with the head of some one cut in it. Some kinds of china have white cameo-like figures on a blue background. Some cameos were cut from glass of two colors. There is a famous vase in the British Museum called the Portland Vase. It is of blue glass and the figures on it in relief are white glass. Many years ago a crazy person， just to show off， knocked over the vase and it was smashed to bits. The bits were all picked up and put together again， and so well was it repaired that you can hardly tell that it was broken.

There was another kind of gem made in great quantities， before Christ， in which the figures were hollowed out or sunken， instead of being raised. A gem of this sort was called a seal or intaglio， which means sunken. The seals were used to stamp a design in wax. Of course the stamped impression made from the sunken relief was raised in wax， and one could make as many stamped impressions with the seal as he liked. Each person who could afford it had such a seal with a special design all his own to stamp everything he wished to mark with his own hand. Every one would then know he alone had made the impression.

The marks made by seals were largely used instead of signatures， back in the days when few people knew how to write—or even how to sign their names. Sometimes the seal was fitted in a finger ring which was worn by the owner so that no one else could use it. Such rings were called signet rings， which means “signing ring”. Sometimes the seal was not mounted in a ring， but was kept in a safe place so that no one but the owner could use it.

Have you ever collected old coins， old metal money of bronze or silver？ Most boys have. Perhaps you would never think of such coins as a kind of sculpture， but that is what old coins are—pieces of low relief sculpture， and the Greeks used to make the most beautiful coins with heads or figures of famous people or gods on them in low relief. First they made a die which was a sunken relief， and then， with this die， coins were stamped out of metal—gold， silver or bronze. One difference between a coin and a gem is that a coin is made from a die and any number of coins all alike can be made from the one die， but there is only one of a gem. The coins of some countries today are also really beautiful， but none quite so beautiful as those the old Greeks made. One reason for this is that our coins have to be made quite flat， in very low relief， so that they will stack in a pile， for this is necessary in our banks. But it was not necessary to stack the old Greek coins in piles and so they could be made， and were made， in higher relief.

Coins were， of course， used to buy things with， but there were old coin-like sculptures called medals that generally were larger and were not used as money. The figures on medals were often in higher relief and made by pouring the metal into a mold instead of by stamping the metal with a die. Usually such medals were made for prizes in athletic games or honors in war or to celebrate some great event， anniversary， or celebration. Medals of this kind are made today， so your father may have one to show you.

以前，用貝殼寶石浮雕做胸針是女士的一種時尚，說不定你的奶奶就曾經(jīng)有過這樣的胸針呢，看看上面是不是刻有人物頭像的貝殼？一些陶瓷品上面也有白色寶石浮雕式樣的圖案，背景則是藍(lán)色的淺浮雕佳作。還有用兩種不同顏色的玻璃做成的一些“貝殼珠寶”。大英博物館有一個非常著名的花瓶，叫作《波蘭花瓶》?；ㄆ康钠可碛伤{(lán)色玻璃做成，而上面的淺浮雕圖案則是由白色玻璃雕刻而成的。很多年以前，曾經(jīng)有一個人狂妄地向別人炫耀自己的財富，就把這個花瓶砸到地上，結(jié)果花瓶被摔成了碎片。后來，人們把這些碎片收拾起來，小心翼翼地粘到了一起。由于黏合技術(shù)特別高超，所以你根本看不出來花瓶曾被摔破過。

還有一種在公元前也很流行的“寶石雕刻”，它們上面刻著凹下去的圖案，而不是凸出來的。這種凹下去的“寶石雕刻”又被叫作“印章”或“凹雕”，也就是“陷下去的雕刻物”的意思。這種印章也可以在蠟上面壓印出圖案，這樣用蠟壓在“凹雕”里印出來的圖案就是凸起的圖案。印章上的圖案可以任意變換，可以刻成任何想刻成的樣子。當(dāng)時只要是能買得起古羅馬的一些“寶石雕刻”印章的人，都一定有一枚自己獨特的印章，那上面的圖案獨一無二。這樣他們就可以在東西上面蓋章了，想蓋在哪兒都行。人們一看到印跡就知道那東西是誰的。

在那個時候，這些印章主要用來代替簽名，因為當(dāng)時會寫字的人鳳毛麟角，甚至絕大部分人都不會寫自己的名字。有些印章被刻在戒指上，主人可以一直把它戴在手指上，其他人就不能盜用了。這種戒指也被稱為印戒，意思就是“有印章的戒指”。也有些時候人們并不把印章一直戴在手上，而是放在一個十分安全的、只有主人知道的地方，保證除了主人沒有其他人可能使用。

你有沒有收集過古硬幣、古錢，銀幣或者銅幣之類？估計大部分男孩子都應(yīng)該收集過這些。也許你從來都沒把自己收集到的舊錢幣或者那些金屬的小玩意看作是雕像，但事實上，舊硬幣上都刻有淺浮雕。古希臘人做的錢幣一般都十分好看，上面刻著的淺浮雕有各種名人或者神明的頭像。他們制作的過程是這樣的：首先做一個刻有淺浮雕的金屬印模，然后使用這個做好的印模，壓印出大量金屬硬幣，比如金幣、銀幣、銅幣。由此可見硬幣最不同于“寶石雕刻”的一點，那就是硬幣是用同一個印模壓印出來的，一個印?？梢杂≈圃S許多多完全一樣的硬幣，而每個“寶石雕刻”卻都雕刻得各不相同。今天一些國家也發(fā)行了十分漂亮的硬幣，但是這些硬幣比古希臘人做的硬幣遜色不少。其中一個原因是，現(xiàn)在的銀行需要方便地把硬幣疊放在一起，所以要求硬幣表面很平坦，于是上面的浮雕只能使用非常淺的那一種。但是，古希臘人并沒有這種堆放的要求，他們便把硬幣上的圖案做成任何他們喜歡并可以做到的樣子，甚至是高浮雕。

硬幣自然是買東西用的。但有一種只稍稍比硬幣大一點，但和硬幣一樣古老、樣子也差不多的物品，卻不能當(dāng)作錢來買東西。這種物品就是勛章。勛章上面通常使用高浮雕圖案，它是把金屬熔化后倒在模子里做出來的，而不是用印模壓出來的。這種勛章通常是一種獎勵的象征，比如獎勵田徑比賽中的優(yōu)勝者或者是戰(zhàn)爭中的立功者，也有的是為了慶祝一些大型活動、周年紀(jì)念，或者慶典儀式而專門制作的紀(jì)念章。今天，這類勛章十分常見，所以你的父親或許就有一枚，你可以讓他展示給你看。

Word Study

smash /sm??/ v.（嘩啦一聲）打碎，打破，破碎

He smashed the radio to pieces.

stamp /st?mp/ v. 在……上蓋（字樣或圖案等）;把（字樣或圖案等）蓋在……上

Ill stamp the company name on your cheque.

mount /ma?nt/ v. 鑲嵌;安置

The diamond is mounted in gold.