第1章　第一尊雕像

上幼儿园的时候，我曾经用陶土做过一个鸟窝，其中摆着几枚圆乎乎的鸟蛋，还有一只小鸟趴在上面呢。没准，你们以前也做过类似的什么东西。其实，那就是雕塑；可在当时，我却不知道。

长大了一点儿之后，我在冬天经常会堆上一个雪人，给雪人的脖子挂上围巾，用两块煤炭做眼睛，再用一根胡萝卜做鼻子。其实，那也是一种雕塑；可在当时，我却不知道。

再大一点之后，我又经常用半熟的面包上那软软的一部分做成一只小狗；做出的小狗，既有脑袋、尾巴，也有脚。其实，那也是一种雕塑；可在当时，我并不知道这一点。我的母亲也不知道，所以她会因为我拿着吃的东西玩而罚我回自己的房间去。

因此，在十二岁之前，我都是一名雕塑家；可从那以后，我却再也没有当过雕塑家了。

不过，还有一些男孩子和女孩子，他们直到长大成小伙子、小姑娘之后，都没有停止过当雕塑家呢。曾经有一个男孩，他在厨房里用黄油雕出了一头狮子，然后将它送到了餐桌上。长大以后，他就变成了一名伟大的雕塑家。这个小男孩，名叫卡诺瓦。我在后面会再跟你们介绍他的情况的。

从地球还很年轻的时候起，人们就已经开始制作雕塑了。不过，人们起初制

that people made was not very different from drawing.The artist first drew his picture on something flat.Then he carved the lines deeper so that, if it were outside, the rain would not wash the drawing away and the weather would not wear it down.This kind of drawing or sculpture is called sunken relief.

These sunken-relief drawings have been found in different places around the world, like Peru where pilots flew over them and were quite surprised when they looked down at the ground and saw a whole collection.

Then after that, sculptors rounded the edges of the figures they had carved and cut away some of the background so that the figures stood out a little. This is called low relief, or bas-relief.

You may have a bas-relief in your pocket right now and not even know it. A penny, nickel, dime, or another coin, medal, or medallion that has figures on it is a bas-relief.

Then sculptors began to round the figure still more and cut away still more of the background so that the figure stood out more. This is called high relief, for the figures are halfway out of the background.

Later sculptors cut away the background entirely so that the figure stood out all by itself. This is called in-the-round because you can go around it.You will see such pieces of sculpture of men or animals in parks, public squares, and museums.

作的雕塑，与绘画并没有太大的不同。艺术家先是把画在某种非常平坦的东西上绘制下来。然后，他会再将画中的线条刻得深一点儿；这样，哪怕位于室外，雨水也不会把这幅画洗去，而日晒风吹也不会将其湮灭了。这种绘画或者雕塑，称为“凹浮雕”。

这种陷浮雕式的绘画，在世界各地都有发现，比如秘鲁；当飞行员们驾驶飞机飞过这些绘画的上空，往下俯瞰，看到地面上有很多的图画时，都曾惊讶不已呢。

接下来，雕塑家会将自己雕刻出来的图案的边缘打磨圆整，并且切掉一部分背景，从而使得图案稍稍向外凸出来。这种雕塑，就叫“浅浮雕”，或者叫“基线浮雕”。

注意，你们的口袋里可能就有一件基线浮雕，可你们却浑然不知呢。一分钱的、五分钱的、一角钱的硬币或者其他面值的硬币，以及上面刻有图案的纪念章或者大奖牌，都是一种基线浮雕。

接下来，雕塑家开始继续打磨图案，再把更多的背景部分切掉，从而使得图案更加向外凸出。这种雕塑，因为图案的一半都已经凸出于背景之外了，所以就叫“高浮雕”。

再后来，雕塑家们又将背景部分彻底切除，从而使得图案完全独立地凸出来了。这种雕塑，也叫“圆雕”，因为你们可以绕着雕塑的四周去欣赏。你们在公园里、广场上和博物馆里，都会看到这种人物或者动物的圆雕。

Long before the time of Christ, ancient Egyptian artists carved pictures in sunken relief on the walls of their great buildings, such as the Great Temple Gates of the Temple of Philae.

In these sunken reliefs, some figures are sitting and some are standing. All of them may look peculiar to you.Do you know why?They have two things quite unusual about them-two things quite impossible and several things very peculiar.

Here is the first thing：The feet are stepping directly sideways and the faces are all turned sideways too, but the shoulders appear as they are viewed from the front. Now of course, no one really walks that way, with head and feet sideways and shoulders in front view.So the first unusual thing is that the figure is twisted.

The second thing is the eye. What you see is the side of a face-not the front.Yet the eye appears as you would see it from the front, not from the side.All the Egyptian reliefs had the same peculiarly shaped eye and the same twisted bodies.Shoulders and eye are front view while everything else-hips, legs, and feet-are side view.

Can you guess why the Egyptians put the front and side view of a person together?Some say it was a way to show all the important parts of the body doing what they do best-legs walking, eyes looking, and shoulders and chest facing forward.

But there are other strange things to notice about these figures. The man and woman have very little clothing on and, although they are king and queen, they are barefooted.That's because Egypt is a very warm country.In some warm countries even today neither rich nor poor wear shoes and socks.I once went to a dinner party in one of these warm

早在基督降生很久以前，古埃及的艺术家们就在他们那些伟大建筑的墙壁上，用凹浮雕的方式雕刻出了许多图案；比如，菲莱神庙中的神殿大门就是如此。

在这些凹浮雕中，有些人物是坐着的，有些人物则是站立着的。看上去，你们会觉得这些人物图案都古怪得很。知道这是为什么吗？因为在这些图案上，有两个方面都极其异常，也就是说，有两种极其不可能出现的情况；此外，还有几个地方也很古怪。

第一个方面就是，虽说图中人物的双脚都是径直朝着侧面，脸部也全都是朝向侧面，可人物的肩膀却似乎是我们从正面看去的样子。注意，如今是没有人会真的用那种方式走路的，不会是脑袋和双脚侧着，而肩膀却对着正前方地走路。因此，这些浮雕上第一个异常的方面，就是人物图案被扭曲了。

第二个方面就是眼睛。你们在图案上看到的，是一张侧脸，而不是正脸。可图案上的眼睛却让你们觉得，它们似乎是从正面而不是从侧面看上去的样子。所有的古埃及浮雕上，人物都有着这种形状古怪的眼睛和同样扭曲的身体呢。这些浮雕人物的肩膀和眼睛都是朝着前面，而其他的一切，包括臀部、双腿和双脚，却都是朝着侧面。

你们能够猜出，古埃及人为什么要把一个人物的正面像和侧面像糅合到一起吗？有些人认为，这是为了表现出身体各个最重要的部分最擅长的功能，即腿是用来走路的，眼睛是用来看的，而肩膀和胸膛则是朝着正前方的。

不过，这些人物图案上，还有其他一些古怪之处，值得我们去注意。浮雕中的人物不论男女，身上都不怎么穿衣服，并且尽管他们都是国王、王后，却都是光着脚的。那是因为，埃及是一个非常炎热的国家。在一些气候炎热的国家里，即便是

countries and all of the ladies and gentlemen were barefooted.It seemed very peculiar to see the ladies and gentlemen, all gorgeously dressed and wearing many rich jewels, go to the table barefooted！

But to make up for having little ornamentation on their bodies, these Egyptian figures have a lot on their heads-not hats but crowns. These crowns mean something.The woman's crown-she is a queen-looks like a bird cap.The bird is the vulture that feeds only on dead bodies.Above the vulture cap is a moon between two horns.The man's double crown-he is a king-is called a pschent.These figures are all sunken relief.

The next kind of relief is called low relief, or bas-relief. The sculpture on the following page of the goddess Isis-the famous goddess of ancient Egypt-is a good example of this type.It shows the goddess Isis sitting.She is wearing a headdress and you can see the shape of the eye and the details of the headdress very clearly.In her left hand she carries a rod, or scepter, to show she is a queen.In her right hand is a strange object called an ankh, an Egyptian symbol of enduring life.The peculiar designs at the top of this illustration are a type of picture writing called hieroglyphics.

The third type of relief is high relief, of which the Temple at Abu Simbel is a good example. It has four huge figures on the front.They are almost cut away from the background but not quite.These figures are colossal-that means gigantic, huge, or mammoth.A real person standing beside one wouldn't reach halfway to the knee.

The Egyptians liked to make giant figures. Notice also that these giant figures are seated in a very stiff position, sitting upright with both feet flat on the ground and both hands

到了今天，富人和穷人也都是不穿鞋子和袜子的呢。我曾经在一个炎热的国家里参加过一场晚宴，席上所有的贵妇、绅士，全都光着脚。看到这些贵妇绅士个个都穿着华丽、戴着许多贵重的珠宝首饰，却光着脚去参加宴会，感觉似乎古怪得很哩！

不过，为了弥补身上几乎没有什么装饰的缺陷，这些古埃及的人物图案里，人物头上却都装饰着很多的东西：不是帽子，而是王冠。那些王冠，都具有某种含义。女性的王冠看上去像是一顶鸟形的帽子，表明她是王后。这种鸟，就是专吃腐尸的秃鹫。而这顶秃鹫帽子的上方，还有一轮处于两个兽角之间的月亮。男性的双层王冠，叫作双重王冠，表明他是一位国王。这些人物形象，全都属于凹浮雕。

第二种浮雕，叫作浅浮雕，或者叫基线浮雕。下面这尊伊西斯女神的雕像，就是这种浮雕的典型例子。伊西斯是古埃及的一位著名的女神。她戴着头巾，你们可以很清楚地看到她眼睛的样子和头巾的细部。她的左手持着一根权杖，或者说“节杖”，表明她是一位王后。她的右手握着一种奇怪之物，被称为“十字生命章”，是古埃及象征着不朽生命的标记。而这幅图案上方那些古怪的图形，则是一种叫作“象形文字”的图画文字。

第三种浮雕便是高浮雕，而阿布辛贝神庙则是这种浮雕一个恰当的范例。神庙的前部有四尊巨型的人物雕像。它们差不多与背景完全分离开来了，当然并未彻底与背景分离。这几尊人物雕像都是庞然大物，即极其巨大、硕大、庞大。一个人站在这种雕像边上，连雕像小腿的一半都摸不到呢。

古埃及人很喜欢制作巨型雕像。注意，这些巨型人物雕像的姿态都非常呆板，

flat on the knees.They are all figures of the same king, Rameses II.He is also called Rameses the Great, for he was the greatest of all the Egyptian kings though one of the most cruel.

Rameses II was the pharaoh who lived at the time of Exodus, the book from the Bible that tells the story about Moses growing up in Egypt. Rameses honored himself by building temples and statues of himself.He had the Temple at Abu Simbel cut out of a rocky cliff and huge statues of himself made on the front.The statue to the left is the best preserved.That funny thing on his chin is a beard, which the pharaoh would attach to his face with strings for ceremonies.

Thousands of years later, the Temple at Abu Simbel was cut out of the cliffs and moved in order to make way for construction of the Aswan Dam on the Nile River. The skill of placing the temple just right to catch the Sun, which I'll talk about more in the next chapter, has been lost forever.But at least this great temple has been preserved so you can see it if you should ever travel to Egypt.

都是双脚平平地踩在地上，双手平放于膝上，正襟危坐着。它们都是同一位国王，即拉美西斯二世的雕像。拉美西斯二世也被称为拉美西斯大帝，因为他是古埃及所有国王中最伟大的一位，但也是其中最残忍的一位呢。

拉美西斯二世是古埃及的法老，生活在《出埃及记》所描述的那个时代。《出埃及记》是《圣经》的一部分，讲述了摩西在埃及长大成人的经历。拉美西斯给自己建造了许多的神庙和雕像，以此来纪念自己。他命人在悬崖上雕制出了阿布辛贝神庙，并在神庙前部为自己建造了那四尊巨型雕像。最左边的那一尊，如今保存得最为完整。雕像下巴上那种可笑的东西，其实是胡须；举行庆典的时候，法老就会用绳子将这种胡须挂到下巴上。

几千年后，人们将阿布辛贝神庙从悬崖上切割下来挪走了，目的是给尼罗河上修建的阿斯旺大坝让出位置。让整座神庙全都沐浴着阳光的那种技术，已经永远失传了；而在下一章里，我还会再来说一说这种技术的。不过，起码这座神庙被保存下来了；这样，假如你们有一天到埃及去旅游的话，就可以去看一看这座神庙了。