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。……