弗拉•巴托羅米奧是第一個把小天使畫在圣母像底部的畫家。其他畫家也借鑒了這一思路。
11 A GREAT TEACHER AND A “GREATEST” PUPIL偉大導(dǎo)師和“最偉大”學(xué)生
MANY towns are named for persons—Washington, St. Louis Jacksonville, and others. It is not so often that persons are named for towns, but here is a painter who was named for one. The town was Perugia, in Italy, and the man was called Perugino (Payroo-jee’no). He wasn’t christened Perugino, but most people have forgotten what his real name was. Perugino wasn’t even born in Perugia, but he went to live in that town and started a school for painters there.
You can tell whom some letters are from before you open them, just by the handwriting on the envelop. In the same way you can tell a picture that Perugino has painted even if it hasn’t his name on it. He painted Madonnas and saints and after you have seen several of them, you can recognize others he did, even though you may not be able to tell just how or why. Usually they have their heads bent to one side, a very sweet expression, and usually the figure has one knee bent.
Perugino painted many beautiful pictures, but he is chiefly famous because of one of his pupils. This pupil was a boy who many people feel became the greatest painter of all time. His name is Raphael. Raphael studied with Perugino for three years. By the time he was nineteen years old he had learned everything that his master could teach him, so he started out for himself. He died when he was thirty-seven years old, but he was such a hard worker that he had painted or drawn over a thousand pictures by that time. Indeed, we are told that he died from overwork.
Raphael must have done about one picture a week, and some of his paintings are very large and have many figures in them. The only way he could have made so many, and the way we know he did, was to have his pupils help him. He always painted the faces himself, but his pupils painted the clothes and hands and other less important parts of the pictures.
It would take several books with a picture on each page to show all of Raphael’s paintings. One of the most famous is “The Madonna RAPHAEL del Gran Duca”. It was called so because it was bought by a grand duke who prized it more highly than all his riches. In fact, he was not willing to have it hanging on the wall of his palace or placed in a vault for safe-keeping. He wanted it with him all the time and is said to have carried it with him in his carriage wherever he went so that it would never be out of his sight.
No. 11 -1 THE MADONNA DEL GRAN DUCA(《大公爵的圣母》)
RAPHAEL(拉斐爾 作)
The grand duke is now dead, of course, and “The Madonna del Gran Duca” is in an art gallery in Florence, where every one can see it as often and as long as he likes, if he can afford to go there. How fortunate, you may think, for the people who live in Florence, who can see it every day without cost! Yet I know people living in Florence who have never seen it. Strange? That seems to be the way with people. Some people go thousands of miles and pay thousands of dollars to get there, while those who live almost next door don’t or won’t “go across the street” to see the picture.
Raphael painted another Madonna called “The Madonna of the Chair.” It is a tondo. Do you remember what that is? It is a round picture.
The story is that Raphael was walking one day in the country when he saw a young mother sitting in a doorway with her little baby.
“What a beautiful madonna!” Raphael said to himself. “I must paint her now, on the spot where she is, before she changes.”
He looked around for something to paint on and, in a rubbish heap near by, he saw the round top of a barrel. So he sketched the young woman and her baby then and there with a pencil. And as soon as he reached his home he made the painting of them.
But the most famous picture in the world is another Madonna by Raphael called “The Sistine Madonna” or “Madonna di Sansisto” from the name of the church where it was first placed. It is not there now, however, but in a gallery in Dresden, Germany, where it has a room all by itself, for no other picture is thought worthy to be hung in the same room.[1]
Many Madonnas that I have shown you may be beautiful themselves, but the Holy Child in the pictures may not be beautiful at all. He often looks like a little old man or just a very fat baby, and not a bit what we feel the Son of God should look like. The Christ Child in Raphael’s “Sistine Madonna” is very beautiful. Leaning on the edge of the frame, beneath the feet of the Madonna, are two little angels or cherubs. This idea Raphael got from Fra Bartolommeo, who was a great friend of his. The two other people in the picture who are worshiping the Madonna are Pope Sixtus and Saint Barbara. They, of course, did not live at the time of Christ. They were put in this picture just as Botticelli put two living boys into his picture of the Coronation.
No. 11-2 THE SISTINE MADONNA(《西斯廷圣母》)
RAPHAEL(拉斐爾 作)
courtesy of The University Prints
許多城市都以人名命名,像華盛頓、圣路易斯、杰克遜維爾等。人以城市取名的卻不多見,不過有一位畫家卻是按城市取名的。這座城市是意大利的佩魯賈,而這個人就是佩魯吉諾。他本名不叫佩魯吉諾,但大多數(shù)人忘記了他的真名。佩魯吉諾甚至不是出生在佩魯賈,但他后來到那里生活并開辦了一所繪畫學(xué)校。
有時候,我們會收到一些來信,不用打開信封,只看信封上的筆跡,就能知道是誰寄來的。同樣,即使畫上沒有署名,我們也能認出佩魯吉諾的畫。佩魯吉諾經(jīng)常畫圣母瑪利亞和圣人們的畫像。只要看過幾幅他的繪畫就能認出他的其他作品,盡管不一定能道出所以然來。他畫上的人物通常把腦袋傾向一邊,臉上帶著甜美的表情,常常有條腿跪著。
佩魯吉諾雖然畫過很多好看的畫,但主要是因他的一個學(xué)生而出名。這個學(xué)生是個年紀輕輕的小伙子,許多人覺得他是有史以來最偉大的畫家。他的名字是拉斐爾。拉斐爾跟著佩魯吉諾學(xué)習(xí)了三年,到19歲時,他已經(jīng)學(xué)會了導(dǎo)師能教他的所有東西,于是開始獨立創(chuàng)作。雖然他在37歲時就去世了,但因為他是一位勤奮的畫家,所以到去世時他已經(jīng)畫了一千多幅畫。事實上,我們聽說他死于過度勞累。
拉斐爾差不多一周就畫一幅畫,而且有些畫很大,畫面人物眾多。他能創(chuàng)作這么多畫的方法是讓他的學(xué)生們幫忙。事實上,我們知道他的確是這么做的。但是他總是親自畫人物的臉部,而讓學(xué)生畫人物的服裝、手以及畫面上其他不那么重要的部分。
如果印刷拉斐爾的畫,每頁印一幅,也要印好幾本書才能展示完他所有的畫。他最有名的一幅畫叫做《大公爵的圣母》。這幅畫之所以這樣命名是因為它被一位大公爵收買,大公爵認為這幅畫比他所有的財富都要珍貴。事實上,他不愿意把這幅畫掛在宅邸的墻壁上或放在保險柜里。他希望這幅畫始終伴隨他。據(jù)說,他乘馬車外出時也帶著它,從不讓它離開自己的視線。
當(dāng)然現(xiàn)在這位大公爵已經(jīng)去世了,而《大公爵的圣母》收藏在佛羅倫薩的一個美術(shù)館里。只要花點路費到佛羅倫薩,任何人都可以進這座美術(shù)館參觀這幅畫,看多少次,看多久都沒關(guān)系。我們會想,佛羅倫薩人多幸運啊,因為他們每天不用任何花費就能欣賞這幅畫。不過,據(jù)我所知,住在佛羅倫薩,卻從未看過此畫的,大有人在。奇怪嗎?人們似乎就是這樣。有人千里迢迢,花大筆錢專程來看這幅畫,而有些人差不多就一墻之隔,卻從沒有或就是不愿“多走幾步路”來看一看。
拉斐爾還畫了另外一幅叫做《椅上圣母》的圣母像。這是一幅圓形畫。還記得這是一種什么畫嗎?它是一幅圓形的畫。
據(jù)說,有一天拉斐爾在鄉(xiāng)間散步,他看見一位年輕的母親抱著一個嬰兒坐在門口。
“多美的一位夫人?。?rdquo;拉斐爾自言自語道,“我得趁著她還沒改變姿勢前趕快把她畫下來。”
他環(huán)顧四周想找點可以當(dāng)做畫板的東西。在附近一個垃圾堆,他找到一只圓桶蓋。于是,他立馬用鉛筆勾勒出那位婦人和嬰兒的樣子。然后,他一到家就畫出來了。
但是世界上最著名的畫是拉斐爾畫的另一幅圣母像,叫《西斯廷圣母》,依它剛開始放置的教堂命名。不過,它現(xiàn)在不在那座教堂了,而在德國德累斯頓的一個美術(shù)館里。在那兒,它被單獨放在一間屋子里,因為人們認為其他畫不值得與它同掛一屋。[2]
我所介紹的許多圣母像中的圣母可能都很漂亮,但畫中的圣嬰?yún)s一點也不好看。他看起來經(jīng)常像一個小老頭或一個胖娃娃,完全不像我們想象中上帝之子應(yīng)該具有的模樣。不過,拉斐爾《西斯廷圣母》中的圣嬰?yún)s很漂亮。畫中圣母瑪利亞的腳下有兩個小天使,他們靠在畫框邊上。拉斐爾從他好友弗拉·巴托羅米奧那兒獲得這個靈感。畫中另外兩個正在朝覲圣母的人是西克斯圖斯教皇和圣徒巴爾巴拉。毫無疑問,他們并不生活在基督時代。拉斐爾把他們放進畫中就像波提切利把兩個現(xiàn)實中的小男孩放到那幅《圣母加冕圖》中一樣。
[1] Communists took “The Sistine Madonna” to Russia at the end of World War II and kept it there.
[2] 原注:“二戰(zhàn)”結(jié)束后蘇共將《西斯廷圣母》運到俄羅斯,存放至今。