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》。

Have you ever gotten tired of being good？ Have you ever felt like throwing an ink—well through the window at school or standing on your head when the teacher asked you a question in arithmetic and you knew you shouldnt？

The trouble with doing any of these things is that afterward you generally wish you hadnt. Its not much fun being punished. I found that out， myself， almost every time I tried not being good.

The architects of Italy， after about two hundred years of Renaissance buildings， were like that. They seemed to be tired of being good and obeying all the rules for beautiful Renaissance buildings. The rules “cramped their style”. In the strict Renaissance architecture almost every part of the building had to be based on some idea from the ancient Romans.

有时候你会不会觉得做好孩子做得太腻味了？你有没有曾经在学校的时候突然想把墨水瓶从窗户扔出去？在老师问你算术题的时候你会不会想搞怪来个倒立？当然了，你知道这是不对的。

做了这些不符合常规的事情之后带来的麻烦，会让你后悔的。因为被惩罚的时候就一点儿也不好玩了。几乎每一次我想做一回坏小孩的时候，都能总结出这样的教训。

在文艺复兴之后两百年的时间里，意大利的建筑师就有点类似我们想做坏小孩的感觉。他们看起来像是厌倦了一直遵循保持文艺复兴式建筑的规则，因为规则限定了他们的风格。在严格的文艺复兴式建筑规则中，几乎每一个建筑设计都要来源或者遵循古罗马的建筑理念。

The new kind of architecture grew out of the Renaissance architecture， but it tried to break the rules. It was called Baroque architecture. I cant tell you for sure how the word “Baroque” started， but people say it came from a Portuguese word for a badly shaped pearl.

Baroque architecture has been punished， not by getting a spanking but by being held up as a bad example ever since. It has really been punished too much， for some Baroque buildings are very fine and very beautiful. The worst Baroque buildings are terrible. They broke too many rules， like a bully in school. But the best Baroque buildings are not bad at all. They broke just enough rules to be interesting.

Buildings in the Baroque style are generally very well planned. They fit the place where they are built. They seem to go well with the scenery around them. The trouble with them is that they look too proud， too crowded with decoration， as if they were trying to show off. They are covered， inside and out， with queer columns and statues and scrolls and twists and fancy marble slabs. They make you think of a very， very fancy birthday cake with icing frills and curlicues all over it.

然而，有一種从文艺复兴式建筑中产生的新的建筑设计，却在尝试打破成规。这类建筑被称作“巴洛克建筑”。我也不知道巴洛克这个词最初确切的来历，不过有人说它来源于葡萄牙语，意思是变了形的珍珠。

巴洛克建筑曾经受到惩罚，当然它得到的惩罚不是像我们做了坏事之后被大人打一顿，而是被树立为坏的典型。这个惩罚其实过于严重了，因为一些巴洛克式建筑实际上也很精美、漂亮。……