瓶子、罐子上的繪畫

By V. M. Hillyer V. M. 希利爾（仲秋　譯）

V. M. 希利爾（1875—1931），美國著名的兒童教育家、科普作家，創建了卡爾弗特教育體系。他為孩子們編寫了一套趣味盎然的歷史、地理、藝術讀物，即《寫給孩子看的世界歷史》《寫給孩子看的世界地理》《寫給孩子看的藝術史》。本文選自《寫給孩子看的藝術史》。

BUT one kind of Greek painting has lasted， examples of which are in many museums. These are the paintings that were made on vases.

Our vases are made out of glass， china， or copper， and are usually for one purpose—to hold flowers. We dont usually paint or even decorate the outside. But Greek vases were all made out of clay and they were not used for flowers at all. They were used to hold anything liquid—water， wine， oil， ointments， perfumes—as we would use jars and jugs， bottles and bowls， cups and kettles， pitchers or tin cans. They were made in many beautiful shapes. Some were tall and thin， some were short and fat. Some had one handle like a cup， some had two handles.

Our pitchers and kettles and bowls today， whether they are made of glass or silver or china， are copies of many of the Greek vase forms. The Greeks had names for most of the shapes， and though the names are hard， you might like to learn some of them so that you may surprise your friends by calling the vases， bowls， pitchers， or dishes in your own house by their Greek names.

The kylix was a flat vase， shaped something like a fruit dish.

The askos was a low vase with a spout and a handle across the top. It was used for oil with which to fill lamps. It was， in other words， an oil can—only it was not made of tin.

The amphora was a rather fat vase with two handles on the hips.

The oinocho? was a pitcher-shaped vase.

The lekythos was a tall， thin， bottle-shaped vase with one handle.

All the better vases were painted on the outside， with pictures. The pictures were not of kings and queens. In Egypt， the kings and queens would have been pictured. In Assyria， there would have been pictures of kings. But at that time the Greeks had no royalty， and no use for kings and queens. So they painted Greek gods and Greek heroes and scenes from their fairy-tales or mythology. Many of these pictures on the vases are like illustrations in a book and are very graceful and lovely， but they do not fool you and make you think them real. To fool you， a picture has to be the same size as the person or object.

The pictures were usually in two styles. In the first style， they were painted black or dark on a reddish flower-pot or clay-color background. In the second style， the background was black and the pictures were reddish or clay-color as if the whole vase had been painted black， and then the picture scraped out so the clay-color was left to form the picture.

（盡管有許多古希臘繪畫沒有被保存下來，）但是有一種繪畫作品卻一直保存至今，而且我們可以在博物館里看到它們，這就是希臘的花瓶繪畫。

我們很少看到今天的花瓶瓶身上畫有裝飾圖案，大多數現代的花瓶是用玻璃、瓷器或銅做成，一般僅僅用來插花。不過古希臘的花瓶都是用黏土做成的，他們的花瓶也不是用來插花，而是用來裝水啊、酒啊、油啊以及藥膏、香水等各種液體，功能類似今天的大小罐子、瓶子、碗、杯子、水壺、陶罐、錫罐等容器。古希臘的花瓶有各種各樣的形狀，非常漂亮。它們有的細細高高，有的矮矮胖胖;有的像杯子那樣側面有一個手柄，還有的呢，兩側都有手柄。

我們今天用的陶罐、水壺或碗，不管它們是否是用玻璃、銀或陶瓷制成，其實都模仿了希臘花瓶的形狀。古希臘人還為這些不同形狀的容器取了不同的名字，盡管這些名字很難記，不過你要是學上幾個希臘詞語用來稱呼你們家里的各種形狀的容器，你的朋友們可能會為你的知識淵博而驚訝。

Kylix：一種寬口平底的容器，形狀有點像果盤。

Askos：一種低矮的容器瓶，側面有一個嘴，頂上有一個長柄，是當時用來給油燈添燈油的容器。也就是說它其實就是一種儲油瓶，雖然不是用錫（或馬口鐵）做的。

Amphora：一種瓶身很肥大的花瓶，瓶頸上有兩個手柄。

Oinochoe：一種大花瓶，形狀像水罐。

Lekythos：一種細細高高的花瓶，有一個手柄，形狀像水瓶。

古希臘花瓶中，所有上等的花瓶外面都畫有圖案。這些圖畫并非國王或王后，因為在古埃及，用于花瓶的裝飾圖畫肯定是國王和王后;要是由亞述人來畫，那就一定是國王了。不過那時候的希臘沒有皇族，所以沒有國王和王后可畫，因此這些花瓶上主要畫的是古希臘的神和英雄人物，還有就是古希臘童話故事或者神話故事里的場景。古希臘花瓶上的繪畫就像書中的插圖，都非常漂亮雅致，但不會以假亂真。想讓人把畫誤以為真，除非畫中的景物與真實的一模一樣大小才行。

這些瓶罐上的圖畫根據顏色可以分為兩種風格：第一種風格的底色是紅色或陶土色，畫是黑色或暗色;第二種風格的底色是黑色，而圖畫是紅色或陶土色，看起來就像是整個瓶身先被涂成了黑色，然后在上面刻畫的圖畫露出了原本瓶身的陶土色。

Vocabulary

ointment? n. 藥膏;軟膏;油膏

spout? n. （容器的）嘴

royalty? n. 王室成員

mythology? n. （統稱）神話;某文化（或社會等）的神話

illustration? n. （書、雜志等中的）圖表，插圖

scrape? v. 刮掉;削去

scrape sth out? 挖出;掘出