我在本章中不能展示圖畫,因?yàn)闆](méi)有圖畫可以展示。這些圖畫沒(méi)保留下來(lái)是多么可惜啊,要不然我們可以自己做判斷,看看它們是否真的那么妙不可言。
05 JARS AND JUGS瓶罐上的畫
BUT one kind of Greek painting has lasted, examples of which are in many museums. These are the paintings that were made on vases.
Our vases are made out of glass, china, or copper, and are usually for one purpose—to hold flowers. We don’t usually paint or even decorate the outside. But Greek vases were all made out of clay and they were not used for flowers at all. They were used to hold anything liquid—water, wine, oil, ointments, perfumes—as we would use jars and jugs, bottles and bowls, cups and kettles, pitchers or tin cans. They were made in many beautiful shapes. Some were tall and thin, some were short and fat. Some had one handle like a cup, some had two handles. Our pitchers and kettles and bowls to-day, whether they are made of glass or silver or china, are copies of many of the Greek vase forms. The Greeks had names for most of the shapes, and though the names are hard, you might like to learn some of them so that you may surprise your friends by calling the vases, bowls, pitchers, or dishes in your own house by their Greek names.
The kylix was a flat vase, shaped something like a fruit dish.
The askos was a low vase with a spout and a handle across the top. It was used for oil with which to fill lamps. It was, in other words, an oil can—only it was not made of tin.
The amphora was a rather fat vase with two handles on the hips.
The oinochoë was a pitcher-shaped vase.
The lekythos was a tall, thin, bottle-shaped vase with one handle.
NO.5-1 KYLIX(基里克斯陶杯)
NO.5-2 AMPHORA(阿科斯壺)
No.5-3 OINOCHOE(雙耳瓶)
NO.5-4 ASKOS(酒壇)
NO.5-5 LEKYTHOS(萊基托斯陶瓶)
All the better vases were painted on the outside, with pictures. The pictures were not of kings and queens. In Egypt, the kings and queens would have been pictured. In Assyria, there would have been pictures of kings. But at that time the Greeks had no royalty, and no use for kings and queens. So they painted Greek gods and Greek heroes and scenes from their fairy-tales or mythology. Many of these pictures on the vases are like illustrations in a book and are very graceful and lovely, but they do not fool you and make you think them real. To fool you, a picture has to be the same size as the person or object.
The pictures were usually in two styles. In the first style, they were painted black or dark on a reddish flower-pot or clay-color background. In the second style, the background was black and the pictures were reddish or clay-color as if the whole vase had been painted black, then the picture scraped out so the clay-color was left to form the picture.
No.5-6 A GREEK VASE WITH REDDISH PICTURES
AND BLACK BACKGROUND(黑底紅面的希臘花瓶)
Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
但還是有一種希臘繪畫保存了下來(lái),在許多博物館都能看到代表作品。這就是繪制在花瓶上的畫。
我們的花瓶是由玻璃、陶瓷或者銅制成的,而且通常有一個(gè)用途——插花。我們一般不在花瓶的瓶身上繪畫或裝飾。但希臘的花瓶都是用黏土制作的,不是用來(lái)插花,而是用來(lái)裝各種液體——水、酒、油、藥膏、香水——就像我們今天所用的陶器瓦器、瓶瓶罐罐,茶杯水壺等容器。它們形式多樣,美觀大方。有些瘦高,有些矮胖。有的像獨(dú)柄杯,有的有雙柄。我們今天用的水罐茶壺和碗,無(wú)論是玻璃的、銀制的或陶瓷的,都是仿造希臘花瓶的式樣。希臘人給大部分形狀不一的容器都起了名字。盡管這些名字很難讀,但還是可以學(xué)的。當(dāng)我們能用希臘語(yǔ)叫出家里的花瓶、碗、陶罐或盤子時(shí),朋友們肯定會(huì)大吃一驚。
“基里克斯陶杯”是一種扁平花瓶,形狀有點(diǎn)像水果盤。
“阿科斯壺”是一種帶噴嘴的矮花瓶,頂上有只手柄。它是用來(lái)給油燈添油的。也就是說(shuō),它是一種油罐——只不過(guò)不是鋁制品。
“雙耳瓶”是一種瓶身肥大、瓶頸處有兩個(gè)手柄的花瓶。
“酒壇”是一種水罐形花瓶。
“萊基托斯陶瓶”是一種瘦高的瓶狀獨(dú)柄花瓶。
所有上等花瓶的瓶身都繪上了畫。畫面上不是國(guó)王和王后。在埃及,畫面上總會(huì)畫國(guó)王和王后。在亞述,也肯定是畫國(guó)王。但那時(shí)的希臘還沒(méi)有王室,國(guó)王和王后也就沒(méi)派上用場(chǎng)。所以他們就把希臘諸神和英雄以及有關(guān)他們的童話或神話場(chǎng)景畫了上去。許多花瓶上的繪畫就像書中的插圖,十分雅致生動(dòng),但還不至于讓你誤以為真。要想讓人誤以為真,畫中人物或物體必須跟真人真物一樣大小才行。