By V．M．Hillyer ——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》。

FIRE-ESCAPES are part of the scenery in a city. Landscapes are the scenery in the country. Fire-escapes have nothing to do with painting. Landscapes have a great deal to do with painting. But once upon a time landscapes had as little connection with painting as fire-escapes have now.

It seems strange that from the time the cave men made their animal pictures， thousands of years ago， all the way up to the middle of the seventeenth century， almost no one in Europe painted a real landscape. Italy had great painters during the Renaissance. Italy had beautiful landscapes. But strange to say the great painters never thought of painting the beautiful landscapes. If there was any country scenery at all in the Italian pictures， it was always as a mere background for the figures in the foreground.

The Van Eycks in Flanders had come near to real landscapes in their famous altar-piece. But the things happening in their picture were more important than the scenery.

Some landscapes had been painted in Germany about 1500， but they didnt attract much notice.

如果說自然风光是乡村景色的话，消防通道可以称得上是城市一景了。绘画里一般不会出现消防通道，但是自然风景却应该是与绘画密切相关的才对。不过，自然景色曾经就像今天的消防通道一样，几乎与绘画没有任何关系。

从几千年前的穴居人在洞穴里画动物开始，直到17世纪中期，欧洲人几乎没有画过一张自然风景画，这一点还真是奇怪。比如意大利文艺复兴时期有许许多多的画家，而且意大利的自然风光也很美丽，但是却没有一位意大利画家想到要去把漂亮的自然风景画下来。如果在意大利画家的画中看到一两处自然风景，那也只是被用作画面中人物的背景而已。

佛兰德斯凡·艾克兄弟的《根特祭坛画》，看上去比较接近写实的风景画，但事实上这幅画的情节才是真正的主题，故事情节还是要比风景本身重要得多。

大约在公元1500年的时候，德国的一些画家画了些风景画，但当时并没有引起注意。

It seems strange that the first two painters of Italian landscapes were not Italians but Frenchmen. One was named Nicolas Poussin. He was interested in the stories of the ancient Greeks and in the old Roman ruins. His pictures generally have Greeks in the foreground， but the backgrounds are true landscapes. The next picture will show you the Greeks. It is called “Shepherds of Arcadia”.

Do you know where Arcadia is？ Arcadia used to be a country of ancient Greece noted for its kind， happy， simple country people and shepherds. These shepherds that Poussin painted seem to be talking about the marble tomb in the picture. One is pointing to some words on the tomb. The words cant be read here， but in the real picture they mean， “I too have been in Arcadia.”

The other French artist who painted landscapes in Italy is known as Claude Lorrain. His real name was Claude something else， but as he came from Lorraine， in France， he is always called Claude Lorrain. The story goes that he was once a pastry cook and later the servant of a painter in Italy. One of his duties was to clean the paint brushes of his master. This interested him in painting. His master gave him some lessons and soon Claude Lorrain was a painter himself.

后来，终于出现了画意大利自然风景的作品。但奇怪的是，最早开始画意大利自然风景的却不是意大利人，而是两位法国人。其中一个名叫尼古拉斯·普桑，他对古希腊的故事和古罗马的遗址非常感兴趣。他的画的背景就是真正的自然风景，前面一般画的是希腊人。接下来的这张画将给你展示这些希腊人，它叫作“阿卡迪亚牧人”（编者注：见本页左图）。

你知道阿卡迪亚在哪吗？阿卡迪亚是古希腊的一个乡村，那儿以善良淳朴、快乐幸福的村民和牧羊人闻名。普桑画上的牧羊人看起来正在谈论一块墓碑，其中一个牧羊人指着这块大理石墓碑上的一些文字。这些字在这张图片中很模糊，但原画上很清楚，墓碑上文字的意思是“我也曾经住在阿卡迪亚”。

另外一个画意大利风景画的法国画家，他叫克劳德·洛兰。他其实本来不姓洛兰，但是因为他来自法国的洛兰，因此人们就把他叫作克劳德·洛兰。据说洛兰原本是一个糕点师，接着又在一个意大利画家那里做仆人，工作之一就是给主人清理画笔。慢慢地，他也对绘画产生了浓厚的兴趣，再后来他的主人教给他一些绘画知识，很快他也成了一名画家。

Word Study

mere /m??（r）/ adj. 仅仅的;只不过

He seemed so young， a mere boy.

figure /'f?ɡ?（r）/ n. 人物;人士

She is a leading figure in the music industry.

shepherd /'?ep?d/ n. 牧羊人;羊倌

Claude Lorrain had people in his pictures， but generally they were small and unimportant. The landscape was the important thing， even more important than it had been with Poussin. So Claude Lorrain is sometimes called the father of landscape painting. He liked to paint pictures of the sea even more than landscapes， so we might call him a seascape painter too.

The next important French painter lived about a hundred years later than Poussin and Claude Lorrain. His name was Watteau. One of his paintings was on wood and was painted as a sign-board for a hat shop. Poor Watteau led a miserable life. In the beginning he was very poor. When he came to Paris to paint he worked hard， but he was paid so little that he almost starved. At last， when he had become well-known as a painter and was making enough money to live comfortably， he was always so ill that he could not enjoy himself much， and finally he died of the disease that had made him ill.

Now， Im telling you about the sad things of Watteaus life for this reason： The pictures he painted are just the opposite from sad. The people in them are just the opposite of the kind of person Watteau was.

Instead of painting poor people， he painted young men and women clothed in silks and satins. Instead of painting hard-working people like himself， he painted only people having a good time—dancing， picnicking， playing at garden parties. Instead of painting ugly， crude people like himself， he painted people who are almost too graceful and pretty and polite. No one could be quite so free from worries and cares as Watteaus people are.

洛蘭的画里通常都有人物，但因为他画中的人物都非常小，处于次要地位，而自然风景才是主要的，且有很多甚至比普桑画中自然风景的地位要重要。因此，人们有时也会称洛兰为“自然风景画之父”。洛兰更喜欢画海景，甚至胜过自然风景，因此人们也把他称作“海景画家”。

接下来我要给你介绍一位同样重要的法国画家，他叫华托。华托出生在普桑和洛兰时代的一百多年之后。华托画过一幅帽店的广告牌，是画在木板上的。华托的一生很凄苦，刚到巴黎画画的时候每天都要非常辛苦地工作，但是始终挣不到什么钱，差点饿死。后来他终于成为有名的画家，可以挣够钱过上好日子了，可这时候的他又总是生病，根本无法享受生活。最终，病魔夺去了他的生命。

我之所以告诉你华托的这些悲惨经历，不是要你同情他，而是因为你要是单看他的画，完全不会想到他的生活中有这么悲惨的遭遇。因为他的画一点儿也不悲伤，相反，他笔下的人物与他不幸的生活状态截然不同。

他不画穷人，他画的都是衣着光鲜艳丽的年轻男女们。他没有画和他一样辛苦工作的人，而是画那些在尽情享受生活的人，画中的人物在跳舞、野餐、聚会。他不画丑陋粗俗的人物，他画中的人物都非常优雅、漂亮、气质非凡。估计世界上再也没有人可以像他画中的人物那样的无忧无虑了。

Chardin was another French painter who was born only a little later than Watteau. He too painted a sign-board. Perhaps he got the idea from Watteau， but Chardins sign was for a surgeons office instead of for a hat shop. It showed a crowd of people in a street looking on while a surgeon binds up the wound of a man hurt in a sword fight.

Chardin liked to paint still life. Still life means a picture of any thing without life such as fruits， dead fish， basins， cut flowers， dead rabbits or pheasants and other game， pots， pans， and so on. He was also a portrait painter. But the third kind of painting that Chardin liked to do is the kind he is best known for—scenes of people inside their houses， doing the everyday things that people do. Usually there are children in these pictures. One painting shows a mother teaching her little girls to say grace before meals， another shows a little boy spinning a top on a table， another shows a mother telling her son to be careful of his new hat when he goes out.

Though the people in Chardins time dressed differently from us， still we can say when we see his paintings， “Those look like real everyday people.” We feel he didnt try to show us something astonishing or exciting， but just ordinary scenes in ordinary French families.

另外還有一位法国画家，名叫夏尔丹，比华托出生更晚一些。夏尔丹也画过一个广告牌，他的灵感也许是从华托那里获得的吧。夏尔丹的这个广告牌是为外科医生诊所而画的，画中围观的群众正在看一个外科医生工作，他正在给一个在剑术比赛中受了伤的人包扎伤口。

夏尔丹喜欢静物画。静物画画的是如水果、器皿、插花等非动态的东西，死了的鱼、兔子、野鸡也算，当然也包括玩具、锅碗瓢盆之类。夏尔丹也画肖像画。不过呢，夏尔丹画得最好的、也是最有名的还是他的第三种画，就是人们在室内的日常生活场景。这些画里通常都有小朋友的身影。有一幅画画的是一位母亲在教她的女儿们做餐前感恩祷告;另外一幅画画的是一个小男孩正在桌上玩陀螺;还有一幅是一位母亲在她儿子出门时，提醒他留心自己的新帽子。

尽管夏尔丹那个年代的人们穿衣风格和现在的我们很不一样，但是看到他的画你还是会觉得，画中的这些人看起来就像我们身边的人一样。你可以感觉到夏尔丹画的都不是什么重大的事件，他只想画出普通法国家庭里的日常生活的温馨。

Word Study

miserable /'m?zr?bl/ adj. 痛苦的;非常难受的

crude /kru?d/ adj. 粗俗的，粗鲁的

surgeon /'s??d??n/ n. 外科医生

bind /ba?nd/ v. （用长布条）缠绕

She bound up his wounds.