V. M. 希利爾（仲秋　譯）

V.M.希利爾（1875—1931），美國著名兒童教育家、科普作家 ，創(chuàng)建了卡爾弗特教育體系。他為孩子們編寫了一套趣味盎然的歷史、地理、藝術(shù)讀物，即《寫給孩子看的世界歷史》《寫給孩子看的世界地理》《寫給孩子看的藝術(shù)史》。本文選自《寫給孩子看的藝術(shù)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.

有時候你會不會覺得做好孩子做得太膩味了？你有沒有曾經(jīng)在學(xué)校的時候突然想把墨水瓶從窗戶扔出去？在老師問你算術(shù)題的時候你會不會想搞怪來個倒立？當(dāng)然了，你知道這是不對的。

做了這些不符合常規(guī)的事情之后帶來的麻煩，會讓你后悔的。因為被懲罰的時候就一點兒也不好玩了。幾乎每一次我想做一回壞小孩的時候，都能總結(jié)出這樣的教訓(xùn)。

在文藝復(fù)興之后兩百年的時間里，意大利的建筑師就有點類似我們想做壞小孩的感覺。他們看起來像是厭倦了一直遵循保持文藝復(fù)興式建筑的規(guī)則，因為規(guī)則限定了他們的風(fēng)格。在嚴(yán)格的文藝復(fù)興式建筑規(guī)則中，幾乎每一個建筑設(shè)計都要來源或者遵循古羅馬的建筑理念。

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，有一種從文藝復(fù)興式建筑中產(chǎn)生的新的建筑設(shè)計，卻在嘗試打破成規(guī)。這類建筑被稱作“巴洛克建筑”。我也不知道巴洛克這個詞最初確切的來歷，不過有人說它來源于葡萄牙語，意思是變了形的珍珠。

巴洛克建筑曾經(jīng)受到懲罰，當(dāng)然它得到的懲罰不是像我們做了壞事之后被大人打一頓，而是被樹立為壞的典型。這個懲罰其實過于嚴(yán)重了，因為一些巴洛克式建筑實際上也很精美、漂亮。最差的巴洛克式建筑的確很爛，它們打破了太多的規(guī)則，就像是學(xué)校里大家都感到頭疼的小霸王。但是最好的巴洛克式建筑卻一點兒也不應(yīng)該受到懲罰，因為它們很有趣。它們不那么循規(guī)蹈矩，恰到好處地給人新的美感。

巴洛克式建筑大多都設(shè)計得很好，它們的布局和位置都很適合建筑所處的地方，而且和周圍的景色也搭配得很協(xié)調(diào)。而巴洛克式建筑的缺點，就是它們看上去都太自負(fù)了，像是在炫耀一樣，渾身上下都是各種各樣的裝飾，里里外外都充斥著奇形怪狀的柱子和雕像，還有曲折渦卷形的花邊、花哨的大理石板?？傊吐蹇耸浇ㄖ茏屇懵?lián)想到非常花哨的生日蛋糕，對，就是有著冰激凌慕斯、奶油褶邊、雕花裝飾的那種。

Word Study

spanking /'sp??k??/ n. 打屁股（尤指打小孩）

I dont agree with spanking.

bully /'b?li/ n. 橫行霸道者

I fell victim to the office bully.

queer /kw??（r）/ adj. 奇怪的;反常的

column /'k?l?m/ n. 柱;（通常為）圓形石柱

This Baroque architecture began in Italy. It became the chief architecture of the seventeenth century in that country. And in Italy stands one of the most beautiful of all Baroque buildings. It is a church built beside the Grand Canal in Venice. This church was built for a very special reason. That frightful disease called the plague had killed about a third of all the people in Venice. Sixty thousand people had died. Then the plague stopped. The people who were left alive were so thankful for being spared， that they built the beautiful Baroque church as a monument of thanksgiving. They named it （of course in Italian） the church of Saint Mary of Good Health. Everybody calls it by its Italian name， so you will have to try to learn Saint Mary of Good Health in Italian—Santa Maria della Salute.

Santa Maria della Salute is in the form of a Greek cross. It has a big dome over the central part and a small dome over the chancel. The buttresses for the dome are shaped like rolls of ribbon.

Notice how crowded with statues and with these rolls the church seems to be. But also notice the beautiful flight of steps that leads down toward the canal. The church makes one of the most beautiful sights in Venice as you look at it across the water.

巴洛克式建筑最初發(fā)源于意大利，也是17世紀(jì)意大利主要的建筑風(fēng)格。世界上最美麗的巴洛克式建筑，也佇立在意大利的大地上。這座建筑（下圖）是一座教堂，靜靜地站在威尼斯大運河河畔。這座教堂有著特殊的修建原因：17世紀(jì)中期，一場可怕的瘟疫奪走了三分之一威尼斯人的生命，這場瘟疫后來被人稱為“黑死病”，由于黑死病而致死的有六萬多人。瘟疫過后，存活下來的人們對自己能夠幸免于難非常感恩，因此修建了這座漂亮的巴洛克式教堂，作為人們感謝主留存的紀(jì)念碑，以示感恩之情。人們給這座教堂命名為“安康圣母圣殿”（當(dāng)然，是用意大利語），因為人們都用它的意大利語名字來稱呼它，所以你也需要知道“安康圣母圣殿”的意大利語——Santa Maria della Salute。

安康圣母圣殿是希臘式十字形的教堂建筑，它的中央大廳上有一個大型的穹隆圓頂，而在圣壇的上方也有一個小圓頂。安康圣母圣殿用來支撐圓頂?shù)姆霰谠O(shè)計得也很漂亮，形狀就像卷曲的緞帶一般。

當(dāng)你面對安康圣母圣殿時，可以看到整座教堂被卷曲緞帶形狀的扶壁占滿了，不僅如此，上面還有許多許多的雕像，看起來非常擁擠。不過，當(dāng)你把目光從上方移下來，就會看見那漂亮的階梯，從圣殿通往威尼斯大運河的一側(cè)，設(shè)計得十分柔順，銜接得天衣無縫。如果你從威尼斯大運河的水道上望過去，安康圣母圣殿一定會吸引住你的眼球。正是由于它的存在，威尼斯最美麗的風(fēng)景之一就被鎖定在了大運河畔。

This fancy Baroque architecture spread all over Italy and into Spain and Portugal. In Spain a few of the Baroque churches are so crowded with decoration and seem to be showing off so much that you might think they were designed by crazy people. Other Spanish Baroque buildings are quite beautiful， although they would be ugly in a country where the sunlight wasnt so bright. The brighter the light， the more decoration a building seems to be able to stand.

Now that we have reached Spain， we come to the people who used Baroque architecture all over the world. In the Roman Catholic Church a body of men was formed to spread the Catholic religion.The men who belonged to this body were called Jesuits. The Jesuits built churches wherever they went， and usually they built their churches in the Baroque style.

In this seventeenth century， the kingdom of Spain was very powerful. The Spaniards had gone exploring. They had taken， in the name of their king， most of South America and a great deal of North America， too. Wherever the Spanish explorers went， the Jesuits soon followed， preaching Christianity to the Indians， and building churches. Soon there were more Baroque churches in the Americas than in all of Spain.

花哨的巴洛克式建筑經(jīng)過傳播，逐漸遍及整個意大利，不僅如此，巴洛克式建筑還進一步傳播到了西班牙和葡萄牙。在西班牙，有幾棟建筑裝飾得實在是太過煩瑣了，看上去非常招搖，甚至你看到這些建筑的時候都會懷疑它們是不是瘋子設(shè)計的。除此之外，西班牙大部分的巴洛克式建筑還是相當(dāng)漂亮的。不過它們的漂亮也許僅限在西班牙，因為如果沒有當(dāng)?shù)孛髁恋年柟?，這些建筑物看起來就會丑陋很多。秘密就是，建筑上的裝飾在強烈陽光的照耀下，看上去似乎輕盈了起來，就沒有那么累贅了。

好了，我們現(xiàn)在到了西班牙，接下來我們就可以去世界各地了，因為巴洛克式建筑風(fēng)格被西班牙人傳播到了世界各地。在西班牙的羅馬天主教，他們成立了一個組織專門負(fù)責(zé)傳教，這個組織叫作耶穌會。耶穌會的成員不論走到哪里都會建教堂，而且通常都是巴洛克式風(fēng)格的教堂。

西班牙王國在17世紀(jì)的時候非常強大。不少西班牙人四處探險，并以他們國王的名義，占領(lǐng)了大量的土地，差不多包括了大部分南美洲和許多北美洲地區(qū)。西班牙探險者開拓到哪里，耶穌會的成員就會馬上跟過去。他們向當(dāng)?shù)氐挠〉诎踩诵麄骰浇蹋⑶倚藿ń烫?。很快，美洲擁有的巴洛克式教堂比整個西班牙領(lǐng)土上的還多。

These Jesuit churches were so well built that most of them are still standing in spite of earthquakes， revolutions， and neglect. You can imagine what a hard job the Jesuits had. First they had to learn the Indian language or teach the Indians Spanish. They had to show the Indians how to build the stone buildings， often in the hottest kind of hot countries. Yet before the buildings could be built， the land had to be cleared and the stones dug out of the quarries.

The picture shows you the great cathedral at Mexico City. It doesnt look much like the Santa Maria della Salute， does it？ But it， too， is Baroque in style. You can see how much decoration there is on it.

Baroque architecture was used also in Germany. Some of it came to France， but very little was ever used in England. If you will remember the seventeenth century， Spain and Portugal and their colonies， and Italy and Germany， you will have in your mind the time and places where this queer， gay Baroque style was most used.

這些耶穌會成員帶領(lǐng)民眾修建的教堂非常堅固，即使經(jīng)歷了地震的破壞、國家的動蕩，以及若干年荒廢之后，大部分的建筑至今仍然屹立不倒。你可以想象這些耶穌會成員的工作是多么的艱辛。首先，他們要學(xué)會印第安語或者教印第安人學(xué)會西班牙語;然后，他們得教會印第安人用石塊修建房子的方法，大部分房屋都是在最熱的國家、最熱的地區(qū);接著在建房屋之前，還得先平整土地，從石礦里開采出石頭等，工作十分復(fù)雜煩瑣。

上面這張圖片展示的是墨西哥城大教堂。它是不是看起來和安康圣母圣殿很不相像？不過這座教堂也是巴洛克式建筑，你可以看得出來它上面有非常多的裝飾。

在德國，也有不少建筑應(yīng)用了巴洛克式風(fēng)格。不久，巴洛克式建筑也傳到了法國。但是，英國基本沒有巴洛克式風(fēng)格的建筑。如果你能記住17世紀(jì)、西班牙、葡萄牙和它們的殖民地，以及意大利和德國這些關(guān)鍵詞，相信你就會對奇特的巴洛克式建筑風(fēng)格最流行的時期和最普及的地點有了基本的認(rèn)識。

Word Study

frightful /'fra?tfl/ adj. 極壞的;很糟的

This rooms in a frightful mess.

plague /ple?/ n. 災(zāi)害，禍患

preach /pri?t?/ v. 宣傳，宣揚，宣講（教義、生活方式、體制等）

She preached about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

neglect /n?'lekt/ n. 忽視;未被重視

The place smelled of decay and neglect.