雙語+MP3|美國學生藝術史36 自然的站姿

 
這座早期的或說“古老的”雕刻可算得上充滿趣味呀。不過從那以后，希臘雕像就不僅僅是有趣了，而的確是美觀了。 
36 STANDING NATURALLY自然的站姿
 
WHEN I used to recite poetry at school assemblies, I stood like an Egyptian statue of Rameses—hands straight down at my sides and feet close together, flat on the floor.“Stiff as a poker,” my teacher used to say. “Can’t you take a more natural, an easier position? Put one foot back of the other!” 
So I stood like the wooden statue of the Schoolmaster of Boulac, but still with both feet flat on the floor. That was the best that I could do to be natural and that seemed the best that sculptors were able to do with their standing statues, until along came a Greek named Poly-clitus. Polyclitus made a statue of an athlete carrying a spear over his shoulder, and it was the first time a statue had been made in an easy, natural standing position, with the weight resting on one leg, one foot behind the other and not flat on the ground. 
The Greeks called the Spear Bearer the perfectly proportioned man, the ideal figure, and other sculptors used this statue as a pattern and copied its proportions in the statues they made. Indeed, live athletes tried, with exercises, to make their own chests and legs and arms the same size as those of the Spear Bearer. 
Polyclitus also made a statue of a woman athlete. It was called the Amazon. The Amazons were supposed to be a tribe of warlike women who had nothing to do with men—except to fight men in battle and even in duels! 
Girls nowadays may not consider the figure of the Amazon beautiful. They may think it is too muscular for a woman. But fashions change. I remember when it was the style for women to have very small waists and they wore tight corsets, but the old Greek style came back and now most girls are too sensible to wear corsets at all. 
 
No.36-1　THE SPEAR BEARER 
（《持矛者》） 
COPIED FROM POLYCLITUS 
（波利格利托斯作品的摹制品） 
Courtesy of The University Prints 
Other sculptors admired these two statues and made copies of them in marble. It is fortunate for us they did so, for all we have now are the copies. The ones that Polyclitus himself made have disappeared and no trace of them is left. What became of them no one knows. 
Polyclitus made his statues of a metal called bronze. The first metal ever discovered was not gold or silver or iron, but copper. Then tin was found; and tin and copper combined made bronze. So bronze is not a pure metal. It is a combination of copper and tin. Bronze lasts if kept dry, but when it is exposed to the weather or dampness, it is gradually eaten away. This metal could be worked so well that the Greeks loved to make statues and other things of it. It does not rust like iron, it is not expensive like gold or silver, and as it grows older it turns a rich brown or greenish color and in the course of time acquires a coating called a patina. 
I have an ancient lamp made of bronze with a beautiful patina which it perhaps took two thousand years to get. Some people try to imitate the real patina by treating bronze with acid, but only nature and time can make the real patina. 
Another Greek sculptor, a friend of Polyclitus, was named Myron. Myron went farther than Polyclitus in giving naturalness and action to his figures One of his statues was the Discus Thrower. The discus was a heavy disk and discus throwing was a sport in which the object was to see how far the discus could be hurled—underhanded as in bowling, not overhanded as in throwing a ball. It wasn’t rolled along the ground, but was hurled into the air. 
 
No.36-2　THE DISCUS THROWER（《擲鐵餅者》） 
COPIED FROM MYRON（米隆作品的摹制品） 
The Discus Thrower is shown just at the moment before the discus is to he hurled from his hand. Notice the toes of the front foot gripping the ground, those of the rear foot being drawn along the ground to balance the body. The discus weighed about two and a half pounds and the record throw was less than a hundred feet, which may not seem very far until you try it. Nowadays, the discus has been thrown a hundred and fifty-five feet, by a person swinging his body around in circles before letting the discus fly. 
This statue was first made in bronze, but the bronze has disappeared and the picture shown here was made from a copy in marble. It is one of several copies in marble in European museums. 
Myron also made a bronze cow which was so natural that it is said to have fooled everybody into thinking it a real cow. But this cow, too, has disappeared and there are not even copies left. 
Bronze statues were entirely eaten away in the course of time Marble statues often were broken but otherwise they lasted.