Born Again Painters (Ⅰ)“重生”的画家(上)

——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》，该书写于 20 世纪二三十年代。

The old Egyptians believed they would come to life again in a thousand years perhaps， after they had died， but they never did. The old Greeks didn't think much about coming to life again， but about two thousand years after the old Greek artists had died， people were born in Italy who in many ways were like those old Greeks. Indeed， these Italians were so like the old Greeks that it seemed almost as if the old Greeks had been born again， and were living once more—not in Greece， but in Italy. So we call this time the Born Again time， or by the long name Renaissance.

古埃及人认为他们也许在死了一千年 后会重生，可实际上他们并没有重生。古 希腊人虽然不相信重生，但在古希腊的艺 术家们死后的大约两千年，一批意大利画 家在许多方面都与那些古希腊画家相似。 事实上，这些意大利人与古希腊人太像了， 以至于就好像那些古希腊人重生了一 样——不在希腊，而在意大利。由于这种 相似的重现，所以这个时期又被称为“重 生时期”，或者再长一些的名字——“文 艺复兴时期”。

One of the first artists of the Born Again time was a boy who had a very insulting nickname. Now， nicknames stick to some people when they grow up. But it seems strange that this boy， who became a great painter， was always called by his insulting nickname. To this very day we know him by the name Masaccio （Ma-zat'cho）. That may not sound very insulting because it's Italian， but it means “Dirty Tom”.

Masaccio was a very poor boy— perhaps that is why he was dirty—and he died young. When he died he was still very poor and still very dirty. No one seemed to like him or his painting while he lived and some people even say he was poisoned by his enemies. But after he died， people thought differently about him. Great artists thought his paintings so good that they went to the place where they could be seen， to study and copy them.

这个重生时期最早的艺术家之一，是 一个有着非常不雅外号的男孩。有的人小 时候的外号长大以后都还甩不掉。但是， 如果这个人后来成为伟大的画家时还带着 这样不雅的外号，就是稀奇的事了。这个 稀奇的事就发生在这个男孩身上，我们直 到今天也只是知道他的名字叫“马萨乔”。 “马萨乔”听上去并不很难听，那是因为 它是意大利语的音译，事实上意大利语里 “马萨乔”的意思是“脏兮兮的汤姆”。

马萨乔从小就非常贫穷，或许那正是他 为什么脏兮兮的原因。马萨乔在世的时间不 长，他去世的时候依然是穷困潦倒的境况。 他活着的时候没有人喜欢他，也没有人欣赏 他的画，有人甚至说马萨乔是被他的仇人给 毒死的。不过在他死后，人们却对他产生了 不同的看法。许多著名画家认为他的画画得 非常好，他们还亲自前往保存画作的地方， 去研究和临摹马萨乔的画。