Baked earth Sculpture 陶器塑像

V. M. Hillyer

——V. M.希利尔（仲秋译）

TERRA COTTA  means earth baked. A flower pot and a brick are terra cotta— that is， earth or clay baked till it is red， yellowish  red . You  have probably made things out of mud—oranges and apples， cups and  saucers — and  the  old Greeks made figures of people in the same way and out of the same thing， mud or clay. They made little statues of women， smaller than doll babies， out of clay， and then baked them so that they would not crumble to pieces.

That baking turned them int o  terra  cot t a . It  wast he custom to  place these  little figures  or  little  statues — figurines and statuettes， they were  called — in  t ombs  and graves and thousands of them have been dug up and are now in museums. As they were first dug  up  in a town  in  Greece named  Tanagra，  all  such statuettes are called Tanagra figurines.

陶器是由泥土经烘烤而制成的。一般是将泥或者黏土造型后烧成红色或者橙红色，花瓶或者砖块都属于陶器。你肯定也用泥巴捏过好玩的东西吧？比如橘子、苹果？或者杯子、碟子？其实这种方法古希腊人就会了，他们用这样的方法制作人物雕像，用的也是和我们现在一样的泥巴和黏土。他们用黏土制作小小的女性雕像，这些雕像甚至还没有玩具娃娃大。然后，他们将雕刻好的黏土雕像用火焙烧，这样一来雕刻好的雕像就不会碎裂了。

经过焙烧，这些黏土小雕像变成了陶器。它们会被放在古希腊人的墓穴中，这是当时人们的习俗。后来成千上万个这类小雕像被考古学家挖掘出来，现在都被博物馆收藏。最初这类雕像都是在希腊的一个叫作塔納格拉的小镇上挖掘出来的，因此它们被人们称为“塔纳格拉小雕像”。

crumble /'krʌmbl/ v.破碎；碎裂  Rice flour makes the cake less likely to crumble.

parasol /'pærəsɒl/ n.遮阳伞 ornament /'ɔːnəmənt/ n.装饰品

They are usually figures of ladies  carrying  a  fan  or  a parasol. Yes， the Greek ladies had fans and parasols very like the ones ladies have nowadays. W hat  is  unusual  in  G reek sculpture is that the figures are fully clothed.

Most of the statuettes are original， but some of them are copies  of large statues . As many of the large statues have disappeared， these figurine copies  show  us  what  the originals looked like . But they show us more than that. If you want to find out what the Greeks really were like， go to a museum and look at these little figures . The big， famous marble statues are of gods and goddesses， athletes and warriors . They were more nearly perfect than real people . But these terra cotta statuettes are copied from everyday Greeks. They show us what the real Greeks were like. One shows a girl milking a cow. Another shows two girls playing a game， with one riding on the back of the other. Just everyday doings.

Many of the figurines were painted in bright colors . Some had tiny necklaces of real gold or held bronze ornaments in their hands . But on many of them the only color left is the yellowish  red of the clay of which they are formed.

在这些雕像中，女子通常拿着一把扇子或者撑着遮阳伞，而且我们可以看出，这些古希腊女子用的扇子与遮阳伞和现在人们用的也相差无几。不过古希腊的这些雕像与其他雕像相比，有一点却非常与众不同，那就是这些人物身上的衣服都穿得整齐严实。

这些小雕像几乎全是原创的，虽然也有一些是仿制其他大型雕像。由于许多大型雕像都被损毁了，这些小型的仿制品就能在一定程度上帮助我们了解原作品的模样。不过这还不是它们的全部作用，如果你去博物馆看这些小雕像的话，还可以更好地了解古希腊人真正的样子。为什么这么说呢？因为那些大型的、著名的大理石雕像，通常刻画的都是神、运动员和勇士，这些雕像都被刻画得太过完美了。但是，那些陶器小雕像却刻画了日常生活中的普通人，反映了古希腊人最真实的生活。比如，有一尊小雕像就雕刻的是一个挤牛奶的小姑娘；还有一尊则刻画了两个小女孩正在玩耍的情景，一个女孩正跨在另一个女孩的身上。这样的雕刻反映的都是日常生活中的普通场景。

许多小雕像被涂上了鲜艳的颜色。还有的佩戴着真金的小项链，另外还有手中拿着铜质装饰品的。但大部分小雕像里里外外就只有一种颜色，那就是用来制作它们的黏土的颜色——橙红色。

The  figurines  are hollow  except  for  their heads， which are solid clay. I'm sure your head has more in it than solid clay， no matter how hollow the rest of you may feel just before dinner time.

Figurines were made for the dead， lamps were made for the living . Lamps， which every house had to have， were decorated with figures in  l o w  r e l i e f . L a m p s nowadays， of course， are usually electric and quite different from those in ancient Greece and other countries . These old lamps were very small， seldom larger than your hand， and were made either of terra cotta or bronze. They had a hole in which a twisted piece of string- like cloth was stuffed for a wick. They held olive oil or grease which soaked the wick and made it burn when lighted . These lamps gave no more light than a burning match， but that was  all the  light people had at night. Perhaps they went to bed earlier than we do. The lamps often had on the top or sides the usual fairy - tale figures — Greek gods or goddesses or other c h a r a c t e r s  i n  G r e e k mythology.

这类小雕像除了头部，其他部位都是空心的。头部是用坚硬的黏土制成，是实心的。我敢保证的是，即使在晚餐前你的肚子也像这些小雕像般是中空的，但是至少你的脑袋是充实的，而且里面绝不是黏土，而是知识！

刚才说到的那些小雕塑作品，它们其实是为死去的人塑的，而用来照明的灯，是为活着的人塑的。每家的房子里都有灯，灯上通常装饰有一些浅浮雕的图案。当然，现在人们用的灯都是电灯，与古希腊人以及当时的其他国家的人使用的灯大不相同。古希腊时期的灯都是陶器或铜制成的，灯的体积很小，可能还没有你的手掌大。这种灯都会在中间留一个孔，用来塞入一根拧在一起的用布条做的灯芯。灯里会装入橄榄油或者油脂，浸泡在这些油里的灯芯就能被点亮。这类灯只能发出微弱的光，甚至不如点燃的火柴亮。但那个时候，人们整晚都只能靠这种昏暗的灯光照明。或许古代的人普遍都比我们现代人睡得早。通常有一些浮雕会雕刻在这些灯的顶部或侧面，这些浮雕一般都刻画了古希腊神话里面的人物。

Lamps were made in molds and hundreds or even thousands of lamps were made from one mold. Some of the old molds have been dug up out of the ground and are used to make modern reproductions which are sold today as souvenirs to travelers or even called antiques. If the lamps are of bronze and are really old ones that have been dug up， they have a greenish coating called a patina. If they are not really old， they are sometimes dipped in acid to make them look so， but they have sharper edges than the old and the patina made by acid does not look the same as that eaten in by time. If they are of clay， the newly made lamps look cleaner cut and fresher than the old. So if you are thinking of buying an ancient lamp tomorrow （stranger things have happened）， be sure to notice the patina or the freshness of the clay.

當时的灯也是用模具制作出来的，一个模具就可以制作出成百上千，甚至成千上万盏一模一样的灯。后来，人们将这些古老的灯的模子挖掘出来，并用它们复制了大量的古式灯卖给游客作为纪念品，甚至有些还被人当成了古董。如果是真的挖掘出来的古老的灯，而且是铜做的，灯表面会覆盖着一层青绿色的物质，叫作铜绿。不过有些年代并不久远的灯表面也会有一层类似铜绿的东西，那是经过酸性溶液浸泡后形成的，但这种灯的边缘比真正古老的灯的边缘更锐利。不只如此，用酸性溶液浸泡出来的铜绿和经过长时间氧化侵蚀而形成的铜绿，看起来还是不同的。如果是用黏土做的灯，那么新灯比旧灯上的刻痕总是更加明显。所以，假如有一天你突然想买一盏古老的灯（总会有奇怪的事发生的），那么一定要记得观察铜绿的颜色或黏土的新旧。

Word Study

hollow /'hɒləʊ/ adj. 中空的；空心的

The tree trunk was hollow inside.

stuff /stʌf/ v. 塞满；填满

All the drawers were stuffed full of letters and papers.

soak /səʊk/ v. 浸泡；浸透

I usually soak the beans overnight.

mold /məʊld/ n. 模具；模子