雙語+MP3|美國學(xué)生藝術(shù)史59 路的盡頭

  
不過，盡管我在本章只提及了兩位女雕刻家，但請記住，還有更多的女性雕刻家正在制作精美的雕像，尤其在美國。  
59 THE END OF THE TRAIL路的盡頭 
  
DO YOU save the best things till last? I know a little girl who was having tea with her aunt. The little girl very carefully ate all of her cake except the chocolate icing. She was saving the icing till last because she liked it best.  
“I see you don’t like your chocolate icing,” said her aunt. “I just love chocolate icing, so I’ll eat it myself.” And the aunt did eat it all before the little girl could tell her she really loved chocolate icing too.  
Well, I’ve saved till last several statues that I think you may like best of all. They are not supposed to be quite as great and famous as the Greek sculpture, or the best Renaissanee statues or Saint Gaudens’s work, but here they are.  
  
No.59-1　EUGENE FIELD MEMORIAL（《尤金·菲爾德紀(jì)念碑》）　MCCARTAN（麥卡坦　制）  
Photograph by Ewing Galloway  
The first of my saved-till-last statues is a monument in memory of Eugene Field. Eugene Field was the man who wrote those jolly poems “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod,” and “The Sugar Plum Tree.” The sculptor might have made a portrait bust of Eugene Field, but instead he made something much more interesting. It is a statue of a little boy and girl who have fallen sound asleep because a fairy has waved poppy blossoms over them. Poppy blossoms, you know, are supposed to make you sleepy. You can see the poppy blossoms in the fairy’s hand.  
  
No.59-2　BRONCO BUSTER（《馴馬師》）  
PROCTOR（普魯克特　制）  
The fairy, and the little boy and girl are in full round. Then there are scenes carved in low relief. One scene shows Wynken, Blynken, and Nod sailing along in the wooden shoe, with fish jumping all around theln. You remember in the song they had nets of silver and gold. You can see the nets hanging from the stern of the shoe. Another scene shows the Sugar Plum Tree with a pussy cat up in the branches and a little dog and some children looking up at the cat.  
The sculptor who made the Eugene Field Memorial (it is really a fountain in Chicago) is Edward McCartan of New York. He also made a very beautiful marble statue of the Moon Goddess Diana out hunting with her greyhound.  
I think you’ll like the next sculptor because you probably like cowboys and Indians and animals. Alexander Phimister Proctor has made statues of all of these. He helped Saint-Gaudens model the horse for the Sherman statue. Proctor’s best-known works are the famous Princeton Tigers. There are two big bronze tigers, one on each side of the entrance to Nassau Hall, a building at Princeton University.  
Now look at the Bronco Buster by the same sculptor. It stands in Denver. The bronco, or cowboy horse, is trying to throw its rider. The bronco has bucked high in the air and is coming down stiff-legged on its two front feet. What a jolt the cowboy must be getting! Notice how the whole weight of this equestrian statue is carried by the two front legs of the horse.  
James Earle Fraser is the sculptor whom we have saved to the very last. We can call him an all-round sculptor because he is good at large statues in the round as well as reliefs and portraits, medals and coins. He can do people and animals. He has modeled for equestrian statues horses that are more than life-size and he made the tiny buffalo on the United States five-cent coin—the buffalo nickel. When you are studying United States history, see if you can get hold of a picture of James Earle Fraser’s statue of Alexander Hamilton. It is a wonderful statue, full of dignity and grace.  
James Earle Fraser designed the Victory Medal given to each American who served in the army or navy during World War I. Perhaps someone in your family bas one of these medals. The medal has on the front side a has relief figure of Victory. As this is an American medal, the sculptor put a crown with spikes on Victory’s head like the crown on the Statue of Liberty. On the back are the names of the countries who were on our side in the war, and a United States shield.  
Fraser made a wonderful portrait bust of President Theodore Roosevelt, who liked it so much he said he would never pose for another bust.  
And now last of all comes Fraser’s best-known statue. It is the famous End of the Trai— an exhausted Indian on a weary, worn-out horse. A strong wind blows at their backs. You can see the Indian’s blanket and the horse’s tail whipped forward by this wind. Everything suggests weariness. The horse’s head droops low, the Indian’s head nods forward, his spear points to the ground. You feel that both horse and rider have made a terrible journey, without rest, and have reached the end of the trail too tired to keep awake any longer. The End of the Trail is to mark in San Francisco the western end of the auto highway which runs across the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific.  
In this book it will mark the end of our trail of sculpture. And now that you and I have finished this trip of ours along the trail of sculpture, from long-ago Egypt to nowadays America, I hope you are not so tired out at the end of the trail as Fraser’s Indian seems to be. Our trip had to be short, and so we missed seeing some of the finest statues and talking about some very good sculptors. And that is really a good thing. There is so much left for you to see that it should make you want to take the sculpture trail again and learn to know the sculpture I haven’t even mentioned in this book. You, just like Buffalo Bill, will have to search for signs along the trail. I wish you a very happy journey.  
  
No.59-3　END OF THE TRAIL（《路的盡頭》）　　　　　　FRASE（弗雷澤　制）  
Photograph by Ewing Galloway  

  
你喜歡把最好的東西留到最后嗎？我認(rèn)識一個(gè)小女孩，有一次，她正和她的阿姨一起喝下午茶。小姑娘小心翼翼地把蛋糕全部吃掉，卻留下了巧克力冰糕。她之所以把冰糕留到最后，因?yàn)槟鞘撬淖類邸?nbsp; 
“我看你不喜歡吃巧克力冰糕，”她阿姨說，“而我卻很喜歡吃，所以就給我吃吧。”可小姑娘還沒來得及說她也很喜歡吃，她阿姨就把巧克力冰糕都吃了。  
是的，我把幾座雕像留到現(xiàn)在才做介紹，相信你可能也是最喜歡的。它們或許不如古希臘的雕刻、文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期的雕像或圣高登的作品那么優(yōu)秀和出名，但我還是想把它們介紹給大家。  
我留到最后的第一座雕像是《尤金·菲爾德紀(jì)念碑》。尤金·菲爾德是一位詩人，寫了很多歡快的詩歌，如《云肯、布尼肯與諾德》和《糖梅樹》。這位雕刻家本來可以為尤金·菲爾德制作一座半身像，但他卻選擇了制作一些更有意思的東西。他刻了一對熟睡中的男女小孩，一位仙女在他們頭上方擺弄著罌粟花。我們都知道，罌粟花會使人昏昏欲睡。你可以從圖片上看到仙女手中的罌粟花。  
圖片上的仙女、小男孩和小女孩都是深圓雕，而其他場景則是用淺浮雕完成。其中一個(gè)場景展示的是云肯、布尼肯和諾德乘著木船航行，水里的魚兒在他們周圍歡快地跳躍著。你還記得詩歌中提到他們有銀網(wǎng)和金網(wǎng)吧。你能在圖片上看到捕魚網(wǎng)掛在船尾上。另一個(gè)場景展示的是一顆糖梅樹，樹枝上有一只貓咪，而一條小狗和一群孩童在樹底下朝那只貓張望。  
《尤金·菲爾德紀(jì)念碑》（它實(shí)際上是一座位于芝加哥的噴泉）的制作者是紐約的愛德華·麥卡坦。他還刻了一座非常漂亮的大理石像，內(nèi)容是月亮女神狄安娜領(lǐng)著她的獵犬外出狩獵的場景。  
我想你一定會喜歡下面即將出場的這位雕刻家，因?yàn)橄氡卮蠹叶己芟矚g有關(guān)西部牛仔、印第安人以及動(dòng)物的故事。亞歷山大·菲米斯特·普魯克特雕刻了所有這些題材的雕像。他曾幫助圣高登制作了謝爾曼雕像中的馬像模型。普魯克特最著名的作品要數(shù)《普林斯頓老虎》了。這是兩只很大的青銅虎像，分別立在普林斯頓大學(xué)納莎堂這座建筑物的門口兩側(cè)。  
接下來看看《馴馬師》吧。它與《普林斯頓老虎》都出自同一位雕刻家之手?，F(xiàn)在《馴馬師》豎立在丹佛。從雕像上我們可以看到，野馬，就是牛仔跨的馬，使勁想把牛仔摔下去。它后腿高抬躍到空中，兩條前腿再直挺挺地落到地上?？上攵?，這位牛仔一定被震得厲害吧！請注意看，整個(gè)騎馬像都是靠馬的兩條前腿支撐起來的哦。  
我們最后要介紹的是詹姆斯·厄爾·弗雷澤。我們一般稱他為全能雕刻家。他不僅擅長制作大型圓雕，還刻淺浮雕、半身像、勛章和硬幣；他既雕人物，也刻動(dòng)物；他既做比真馬更大些的馬兒模型，又在美國五分硬幣上刻微型野牛像——野牛鎳幣。在研習(xí)美國歷史時(shí)，你可能會看到詹姆斯·厄爾·弗雷澤為亞歷山大·漢密爾頓刻的一尊雕像。這尊像很棒，突出了高貴和優(yōu)雅。  
詹姆斯·厄爾·弗雷澤還設(shè)計(jì)了勝利勛章，這些勛章是頒發(fā)給那些參加第一次世界大戰(zhàn)的美國士兵的?；蛟S你家族中某位成員就擁有這樣一枚勛章。勛章正面是勝利女神的淺浮雕。因?yàn)檫@是美國獨(dú)有的勛章，所以雕刻家在勝利女神的頭上戴了一個(gè)尖狀皇冠，就像《自由女神像》上自由女神佩戴的皇冠一樣。勛章的反面是美國在第一次世界大戰(zhàn)時(shí)的盟國名稱和一枚美國盾。  
弗雷澤還為西奧多·羅斯?？塘艘蛔鸷馨舻陌肷硐?。羅斯?？偨y(tǒng)非常喜歡這尊半身像，還發(fā)誓說他不會再擺姿另刻半身像了。  
接下來是弗雷澤最為著名的雕像——《路的盡頭》。這座雕像刻畫的是一位筋疲力盡的印第安人騎在疲倦的馬背上。這時(shí)從后面吹來一股強(qiáng)勁的風(fēng)，使人看到，印第安人的毯子和馬尾巴被風(fēng)吹得向前擺動(dòng)。雕像上的所有事物都透露出一種深深的疲倦之感。馬低著頭，印第安人也搭聳著腦袋，他的長矛指向地面。你能感覺到，馬兒和騎士剛剛走完了一個(gè)令人疲憊不堪的旅程。他們一路馬不停蹄，終于到達(dá)旅途的終點(diǎn)。而此時(shí)他們實(shí)在太累了，再也沒有辦法保持清醒了?！堵返谋M頭》標(biāo)志著舊金山汽車高速公路西段的終點(diǎn)。這條公路從大西洋到太平洋，穿越了整個(gè)美國。  
而在此書中，這座雕像也預(yù)示著我們雕刻之旅的終結(jié)。既然我們結(jié)束了從古埃及到今天美國的漫長的雕刻之旅，我希望你不要像弗雷澤雕像上那個(gè)印第安人在走到路的終點(diǎn)時(shí)那樣疲憊不堪哦。因?yàn)樵诒緯形覀儾坏貌槐M量縮短旅程，所以我們錯(cuò)失了一些優(yōu)秀的雕刻家以及很棒的雕像。不過這也不失為一件好事，因?yàn)樗o我們留下了重新踏上雕刻之旅的機(jī)會，去學(xué)習(xí)那些本書未提及的雕刻作品。你應(yīng)該像巴法羅·比爾那樣沿途尋找信號。我衷心地希望你能享受愉快的旅行。  
PART IIARCHITECTURE建　筑