所以,一定要記住這位偉大的畫(huà)家——倫勃朗,在人們心目中的地位。如果在你這一生中,能夠有機(jī)會(huì)親眼見(jiàn)到一幅他的真跡,而不僅僅是書(shū)上的復(fù)制圖,一定要久久地、全神貫注地欣賞。然后,想一想,要是你來(lái)列個(gè)偉大畫(huà)家的排名表,你會(huì)把倫勃朗排在哪兒?
18 Ü AND JR.丟勒和小霍爾拜因
“DON’T forget to dot your i’s. Be sure to cross your t’s.” Has your teacher ever said that to you? I always used to have a hard time remembering to dot all the i’s when I wrote compositions at school. But suppose I had gone to school in Germany. There the school children have to be careful about dotting u’s as well as i’s! For in Germany there are two kinds of u—a plain u like ours, and a u with two dots on it like this, ü. A u with two dots is sounded something like our u in pure.
I wanted to tell you about the dotted u right at the beginning of this chapter because if I didn’t I know you would ask what the two dots are for when you see them on the name of the German artist Albrecht Dürer. His name, you notice, is not Durer but Dürer. He lived and painted at the same time as Titian, Tintoretto, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci. In fact, he knew some of the great Italian artists personally, for he took a trip to Venice and stayed there for some time. Germany was having a Born Again time as well as Italy and Flanders and later the Netherlands, and Albrecht Diirer was the great artist of the German Renaissance.
Dürer didn’t paint much like the Italians. He painted many kinds of pictures, but his portraits are more famous than his other paintings. And besides paintings, Dürer made engravings. To make an engraving the artist cuts the lines of a picture in wood or copper. Then he puts ink in the lines and presses the wood or copper on a piece of paper. The picture that is printed this way is an engraving.
Dürer made many engravings and he is one painter who is as celebrated for his engravings as for his paintings. Some of his engravings —the one called “Melancholy,” for instance—are as well-known all over the world as his best paintings.
Dürer’s woodcuts also are rightly famous. A woodcut is just the opposite from an engraving. The lines are drawn on the wood and then the wood is cut away from the lines, so that the lines are left raised. Then the raised lines are inked and pressed on the paper.
When Dürer made the trip to Venice that I mentioned, he was welcomed and honored by the Venetians as a famous man. The Venetian artist Bellini, who was then an old man, asked Dürer one day if he would give him one of the special brushes he used to paint the hair in his portraits. Dürer said, “Certainly,” and gave Bellini the brush he was using.
“Why,” said Bellini, “this is just an ordinary brush. Do you really paint those wonderful hairs with a brush like this?” Then Dürer took the brush and with it painted some hairs as only he could paint them.
Dürer admired the works of the Italian painters, but when he returned to Germany he continued to paint in his own way, without trying to make his pictures have an Italian look.
Albrecht Diirer painted several portraits of himself. He was able to do this, of course, by looking in a mirror and painting what he saw in the glass. From these self-portraits we know he was a very handsome man. Several of the other portraits he painted are equally famous. I think you’ll like the one of his father on the opposite page.
Dürer was apt to put a great deal of detail into his pictures. He filled the paintings with all kinds of odds and ends, and every tiny button is painted as carefully as if it were as important as the person’s face. Most of the German artists did this and in most of their pictures so much detail is a drawback. Your eye is drawn from the important things to the unimportant ones. But although Dürer often had just as much detail as other German painters, he was a great enough artist to keep the little things in the picture from becoming too important. The second great Renaissance artist of Germany also was a portrait painter and a maker of woodcuts. His name was Hans Holbein (Hole’bine) and we have to speak of him as Hans Holbein the Younger because his father was also an artist named Hans Holbein. If Holbein the Younger were alive now he would write his name “Hans Holbein, Jr.”
No.18-1 DÜRER’S FATHER(《丟勒的父親》)
DÜRER(丟勒 作)
The Holbeins moved to Switzerland, the country of the Alps, and Hans Holbein the Younger became the friend of a very famous man who lived there—Erasmus. Erasmus was a great thinker and wrote learned books. Holbein painted five portraits of Erasmus. The one most people prefer is the one shown on the opposite page.
It shows a side view of Erasmus. A side view of some one is called a profile. Erasmus sits writing at his desk. There do not seem to be very many details in this portrait, but in another famous portrait by Holbein, called “Portrait of Georg Gisze,” there are about twenty-five articles beside Georg Gisze himself. And yet, like Diirer, Holbein was able to keep them in their place so that after all Georg is the chief thing your eye looks at. Indeed, he left the unimportant details out of the faces of his portraits, putting in only the lines that would tell most.
No.18-2 ERASMUS(伊拉斯謨)
HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER(小漢斯·霍爾拜因 作)
Holbein found his business of painting was not doing so well in Switzerland, so he decided to take a bold step. He would go to England and see what work he could get there. He got a letter of introduction from Erasmus and went. The English liked his work and he painted portraits of most of the important Englishmen of the time including the king, Henry VIII.
The portraits by Hans Holbein are usually liked by boys and girls better than those by any other painter, except perhaps Frans Hals. And that is true for a great many grown-ups too. So I’m pretty sure you will like them yourself and that you would enjoy a picture book of portraits by this master portrait painter.
But don’t forget Diirer. You’ll like his pictures too.
Albrecht Dürer
Hans Holbein the Younger
I wonder which you are going to like the better.
“不要忘記在字母i上加一點(diǎn)。一定要在字母t上畫(huà)一橫。”老師曾這樣說(shuō)過(guò)吧?我在學(xué)生時(shí)代寫(xiě)作文時(shí),總是記不住在字母i上加一點(diǎn)。但假如我去德國(guó)上學(xué)的話,那兒的學(xué)生們不僅會(huì)注意在i上加一點(diǎn),還會(huì)在字母u上點(diǎn)點(diǎn)!因?yàn)閡字母在德國(guó)有兩種寫(xiě)法——一種是像我們的簡(jiǎn)單的u,還有一種是在u上加兩點(diǎn),即ü。加上兩點(diǎn)的u就像單詞“pure”中u的發(fā)音一樣。
我想在本章節(jié)一開(kāi)始就介紹加上兩點(diǎn)的u。因?yàn)槿绻也徽f(shuō)的話,我想當(dāng)你看到德國(guó)畫(huà)家阿爾布雷希特·丟勒的名字時(shí),一定會(huì)問(wèn)他名字上的兩點(diǎn)是干嗎用的。你會(huì)看到他名字里的u上加了兩點(diǎn)。他和前面提到的提香、米開(kāi)朗基羅還有列奧納多·達(dá)·芬奇處于同一時(shí)代。事實(shí)上,丟勒本人也認(rèn)識(shí)一些偉大的意大利畫(huà)家,因?yàn)樗?jīng)去過(guò)威尼斯,還在那里待過(guò)一段時(shí)間。德國(guó)和意大利、佛蘭德斯以及荷蘭一樣,也經(jīng)歷過(guò)再生時(shí)代。阿爾布雷希特·丟勒可以說(shuō)是德國(guó)文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期最偉大的畫(huà)家。
丟勒的繪畫(huà)方式同意大利畫(huà)家的繪畫(huà)方式不大一樣。他的繪畫(huà)題材多種多樣,但其中肖像畫(huà)還是要比其他畫(huà)更為有名。除了油畫(huà)之外,丟勒也畫(huà)版畫(huà)。在畫(huà)版畫(huà)時(shí),畫(huà)家先在木板或銅板上刻畫(huà),然后在刻出的線條里倒入墨汁,再把沾有墨汁的刻板壓在一張紙上。這樣印出來(lái)的圖畫(huà)就叫做版畫(huà)。丟勒制作過(guò)很多版畫(huà)。他是唯一一位既擅長(zhǎng)版畫(huà)又精通油畫(huà)的畫(huà)家。他有些版畫(huà)就像他最好的油畫(huà)作品一樣聞名于世,比如版畫(huà)《憂郁》。
丟勒的木刻畫(huà)也很有名。木刻畫(huà)和版畫(huà)的制作方式剛好相反。畫(huà)家先在木板上畫(huà)好線條,然后把線條以外的木頭部分刨掉,這樣只剩下凸出的線條。接下來(lái)給凸出的線條沾上墨汁再壓在紙上便成了木刻畫(huà)。
當(dāng)丟勒在威尼斯觀光旅游時(shí),威尼斯人非常歡迎和尊重他,把他當(dāng)做名人一樣盛情接待。當(dāng)時(shí)威尼斯畫(huà)家貝利尼已經(jīng)很老了,有一天他問(wèn)丟勒:“你愿意送我一支你畫(huà)人物頭發(fā)時(shí)用的特殊畫(huà)筆嗎?”丟勒說(shuō):“當(dāng)然可以。”于是就把自己用的畫(huà)筆送給了貝利尼。
貝利尼看后說(shuō):“這是為什么呢?這只是一支很普通的畫(huà)筆呀,你真是用這支筆畫(huà)出那么好看的頭發(fā)嗎?”聽(tīng)到他這么說(shuō),丟勒當(dāng)即拿起畫(huà)筆畫(huà)了一些頭發(fā)。也只有丟勒才能這樣畫(huà)出頭發(fā)來(lái)。
丟勒非常欣賞意大利畫(huà)家的作品,但當(dāng)他回到德國(guó)后,他還是繼續(xù)按自己的風(fēng)格畫(huà),而不是模仿意大利畫(huà)家的繪畫(huà)風(fēng)格。
阿爾布雷希特·丟勒給自己畫(huà)過(guò)幾幅自畫(huà)像。當(dāng)然,他只要對(duì)著鏡子,然后畫(huà)出自己在鏡子中的樣子來(lái)就可以了。從他的這些自畫(huà)像中我們可以看出,他長(zhǎng)得非常英俊。他為別人畫(huà)的肖像畫(huà)也同樣很有名。我想,你會(huì)喜歡另一頁(yè)上他為他父親畫(huà)的肖像畫(huà)的。
丟勒喜歡在畫(huà)中添加許多小細(xì)節(jié)。他畫(huà)里有各種各樣的小玩意兒,一粒小小的紐扣也畫(huà)得細(xì)致入微,就像和人物的臉龐一樣重要。大多數(shù)德國(guó)畫(huà)家都喜歡這么作畫(huà),但是在大部分畫(huà)家的畫(huà)作中,太多的細(xì)節(jié)反而成了一種缺陷,因?yàn)橐暰€很容易被這些次要的細(xì)節(jié)所吸引,不能更好地關(guān)注重要部分。不過(guò),盡管丟勒也和其他德國(guó)畫(huà)家一樣注重細(xì)節(jié),但他卻有能力將這些細(xì)節(jié)處理得恰到好處,絕不會(huì)讓它們喧賓奪主。
德國(guó)文藝復(fù)興時(shí)期第二位偉大的畫(huà)家同樣也既畫(huà)肖像畫(huà),又制作木刻畫(huà)。他叫漢斯·霍爾拜因。我們喊他小漢斯·霍爾拜因,因?yàn)樗赣H也叫漢斯·霍爾拜因,也是一位畫(huà)家。假如小漢斯·霍爾拜因活到現(xiàn)在,他一定會(huì)把自己的名字寫(xiě)成“小漢斯·霍爾拜因”。
霍爾拜因一家后來(lái)搬到了因阿爾卑斯山而聞名的瑞士。小漢斯·霍爾拜因與住在那兒的一位大名人成了好朋友,這人就是伊拉斯謨。伊拉斯謨是一位偉大的思想家,他編寫(xiě)了許多深?yuàn)W的書(shū)籍?;魻柊菀蚪o伊拉斯謨畫(huà)過(guò)五幅畫(huà)像。其中最受人們歡迎的是另一頁(yè)上的那幅畫(huà)。
這幅畫(huà)只展示了伊拉斯謨的一個(gè)側(cè)面。畫(huà)某人的側(cè)面就叫側(cè)像畫(huà)。畫(huà)中伊拉斯謨正坐在書(shū)桌旁寫(xiě)作。這幅畫(huà)中似乎沒(méi)有過(guò)多的細(xì)節(jié),但在霍爾拜因的另一幅有名的肖像畫(huà)《吉斯?jié)僧?huà)像》中,吉斯?jié)缮砼詳[放著大約二十五篇文章。但是像丟勒一樣,霍爾拜因也能很巧妙地處理了這些細(xì)節(jié),讓我們把目光集中到主人公喬治·吉斯?jié)缮砩稀J聦?shí)上,他在畫(huà)肖像畫(huà)時(shí),會(huì)省去人物臉上無(wú)關(guān)緊要的細(xì)節(jié),只留下最有說(shuō)服力的幾筆。
霍爾拜因發(fā)現(xiàn)他的繪畫(huà)事業(yè)在瑞士干得并不好,于是他做了個(gè)大膽的決定,前往英國(guó),看看在那里能有什么發(fā)展。他拿著伊拉斯謨給他寫(xiě)的一封推薦信動(dòng)身去了英國(guó)。結(jié)果證明,英國(guó)人喜歡他的畫(huà)。他給當(dāng)時(shí)大多數(shù)重量級(jí)的英國(guó)人畫(huà)過(guò)肖像畫(huà),包括英王亨利八世。
一般來(lái)說(shuō),或許除了弗蘭斯·哈爾斯,相比于其他任何畫(huà)家的肖像畫(huà),孩子們更喜歡小漢斯·霍爾拜因的肖像畫(huà)。而事實(shí)上,他的畫(huà)也受到許多大人們的青睞。所以,我確信你也會(huì)喜歡這位肖像畫(huà)大師的作品,如果你見(jiàn)到他的肖像畫(huà)畫(huà)冊(cè),一定會(huì)特別開(kāi)心。
但是不要忘了丟勒,你肯定也會(huì)喜歡他的畫(huà)。
阿爾布雷希特·丟勒
小漢斯·霍爾拜因