A Lion, A SAint, And An EmpEror 狮子、圣人和国王

——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》，该书写于二十世纪二三十年代。

Do you  like to  go to the zoo？ Almost everybody likes to look at animals or hunt animals or play with animals or draw animals or eat animals. A man named Barye liked to make statues of animals.

Barye lived in Paris. He worked in a jewelry shop and was a goldsmith as were so many of the Renaissance sculptors of Florence. But Barye lived much later than the Renaissance. He lived in the 1800's.

Barye loved to go to the zoo in Paris. He used to take paper and crayons to the zoo and draw pictures of the animals. Then he would go home and make little statues of the animals he had drawn. When he was at work in the jewelry shop， he often made tiny gold animals for watch chains and necklaces and bronze animals to go on clocks. In this way Barye practiced until he became the best animal sculptor of his time in the world.

你喜欢去动物园吗？几乎所有人都会喜欢动物吧，只不过有的人喜欢看动物，有的人喜欢猎获动物，有的人喜欢和动物玩，有的人喜欢画动物，还有的人喜欢吃动物肉。而有一个叫巴里的人，却很喜欢雕刻动物。

巴里住在巴黎，在一家珠宝店里当金匠，这与文艺复兴时期的许多法国雕塑家一样。只不过巴里生活在19世纪，已经是文艺复兴发生很久之后了。

巴里很喜欢去巴黎的动物园，他去的时候总会带上纸和笔，给动物画像。回家后他还会给他绘制的动物形象制作雕像。在珠宝店工作的时候，巴里经常做一些可以挂在手表链和项链上的动物金像。他还做一些青铜的动物像，用来做钟表的配饰。就这样，巴里的雕刻技术越来越好。最后，他成了那个时代世界上最优秀的动物雕塑家。

His lions and tigers were especially liked by Americans and on the street corners of American towns men used to sell plaster casts of Barye's Walking Lion.

Many of Barye's bronzes show pain and cruelty. He seemed to like to make statues such as a tiger eating an alligator or a jaguar eating a rabbit. Very few people like to see one animal killing another. I'm sure I don't.

Many of Barye's bronze animals are much too small for monuments， but people call his work monumental sculpture.This means that Barye modeled his statues in the same way large monuments that you see in parks should be modeled. They are not filled with tiny details. I wonder if you would know what I meant if I told you they are heavy in shape. “Heavy in shape” doesn't mean they are not graceful， but it does mean that a Barye bronze looks beautiful even at a distance as well as near at hand—monumental.

巴里雕刻的狮子和老虎特别受美国人的喜爱。那时美国小镇的街角，总会有很多做小买卖的叫卖巴里雕刻的《走路的狮子》。

巴里雕刻的许多青铜动物像，都表现出了痛苦和残忍的一面，他似乎很喜欢雕刻类似的雕像，比如老虎吃鳄鱼或者美洲豹吃兔子。像他这样喜欢看动物厮杀场面的人确实是比较少见的。反正我是不喜欢。

其实巴里雕刻的青铜动物像大部分都很小，不能与用于纪念的雕像相比。但是，人们还是把他的作品称作“纪念性雕塑”，这是因为巴里的雕塑风格，与我们在公园里看到的大型纪念雕塑的风格是一致的，细节比较简略。如果我说巴里的雕塑外形厚重不知道你能不能理解，外形厚重并不表示雕塑不够优雅，而是很有质感，其实这种风格的作品无论是远观还是近看都相得益彰。

Word Study

goldsmith /'ɡəʊldsmɪθ/ n. 金匠；金器商

Ninety days later， true to his word， the goldsmith brought the crown.

plaster cast 石膏模型

They took a plaster cast of the teeth for identification purposes.

Almost as good as Barye at making animal statues was still another Frenchman. His name was Frémiet. Frémiet made many splendid statues of animals. In one called Pan and the Two Bear Cubs， Pan is having lots of fun tickling the little bears with a straw.

Frémiet began making statues of people as well as animals. His statues of men on horseback—equestrian statues— proved to  be  his  best ones . His  most famous equestrian statue is his Joan of Arc. Joan is clad in armor and holds aloft the flag of the King of France as she leads the king's soldiers to battle.

Frenchmen are proud of Joan of Arc. They consider her a saint. Frenchmen are proud， too， of another leader of French armies， although he certainly wasn't a saint. His name was Napoleon.

You probably already know the story of Napoleon， the boy from Corsica who went to a military school， became a lieutenant in the French army， then a famous and successful  general . He  made  himself Emperor of France and became the most powerful man of his time in Europe. At last he was defeated and went to live on Elba， an island in the Mediterranean.

另外有一个法国人，他和巴里一样也善于雕刻动物的雕像，他就是弗雷米耶。弗雷米耶也雕刻过很多杰出的动物雕像。比如《潘和两只小熊》就是弗雷米耶许多名作中的一件。作品刻画的是潘正在用稻草撩逗两只小熊取乐的场景。

弗雷米耶除雕刻动物雕像，也做人物雕像。他雕刻的骑士雕像被人们认为是所有骑士雕像中雕刻得最好的，《圣女贞德像》是他最著名的骑士雕像。圣女贞德在雕像中身穿盔甲，高举着象征法国国王的旗帜，领导国王的士兵作战。

法国人把贞德视为圣女，圣女贞德是法国人民的骄傲。另外法国还有一位将军，尽管他并没有被法国人奉为圣人，但人们还是以他为荣，这位将军就是拿破仑。

你很有可能听过拿破仑的故事。拿破仑出生于法国科西嘉岛，从小就在军事学校接受历练，后来晋升为法国军队的上尉，最后成为一名非常著名的将军。拿破仑曾经成为法国的帝王——当时欧洲最具权势的人。再后来，他被打败了，被流放到地中海的一个岛屿上生活，这个岛就是厄尔巴岛。

From Elba he suddenly returned to France . His old soldiers rallied round him. He raised an army to fight the English and the Prussians. He was beaten at the battle of Waterloo and sent to the island of St. Helena， far away in the South Atlantic Ocean. There Napoleon spent the last six years of his life longing to return to lead his armies once more to victory. And there he died.

This statue shows  Napoleon at St . Helena， a map of Europe spread on his knees， one hand clenched in rage at his loss of power， the other hand loosely open， showing how hopeless he feels his chance of returning is.

The statue was done by a sculptor named Vincenzio Vela， who was born in Switzerland . Do you like it？ It is called a  dramatic  statue  because  it  shows something  happening . It  is  not just Napoleon， but Napoleon wishing to return and win back his past glory.

可是，有一天他突然从厄尔巴岛返回了法国，重新召集起旧日的老部下，并且集结了一支军队，与英国人和普鲁士人作战。可惜他的军队在滑铁卢战役中惨遭失败，最后他被流放到了圣赫勒拿岛，那是坐落在远离家园的南大西洋上的小岛。他在圣赫勒拿岛上度过了余生——生命中最后的六年。最后的时间里，他日夜都渴望能够重回祖国，再重新率领他的军队取得胜利。但是他没有等到那一天，最后死在了圣赫勒拿岛。

左边这张雕像刻画的就是最后被困在圣赫勒拿岛上的拿破仑形象。雕像中的拿破仑膝盖上搭着一张展开的欧洲地图，他紧握着拳头的一只手表示出自己权力丧失的愤怒感，而另一只手的手掌却无力地摊开，透露出他对回国无望的绝望。

雕刻这座雕像的雕塑家叫文森索·维拉，他是一名瑞士人。你喜欢这座雕像吗？人们把这种雕像叫作“情景雕像”，因为它再现了曾经发生的故事。这座雕像表现的不仅仅是拿破仑这个人，更多的是拿破仑想要重回祖国、赢回自己当年荣耀的那种渴望的心情。

Word Study

tickle /'tɪkl/ v. 逗乐；使高兴

I was tickled to discover that we'd both done the same thing.

equestrian /ɪ'kwestriən/ adj. 马术的

There are equestrian events at the Olympic Games.

rally /'ræli/ v. 召集；集合

Many national newspapers rallied to his support.

clench /klentʃ/ v. 捏紧，攥紧（拳头等）

rage /reɪdʒ/ n. 暴怒；狂怒

His face was dark with rage.