31 · 雕塑家的语言
The Sculptor Speaks
区分观点、依据、例子与限制，用自己的话准确重建论述。
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Appreciation of sculpture depends upon the ability to respond to form in three dimensions. That is perhaps why sculpture has been described as the most difficult of all arts; certainly it is more difficult than the arts which involve appreciation of flat forms, shape in only two dimensions. Many more people are "form-blind" than colour-blind. The child learning to see, first distinguishes only two-dimensional shape; it cannot judge distances, depths. Later, for its personal safety and practical needs, it has to develop partly by means of touch the ability to judge roughly three-dimensional distances. But having satisfied the requirements of practical necessity, most people go no further. Though they may attain considerable accuracy in the perception of flat form, they do not make the further intellectual and emotional effort needed to comprehend form in its full spatial existence.
This is what the sculptor must do.He must strive continually to think of, and use, form in its full spatial completeness. He gets the solid shape, as it were, inside his head—he thinks of it, whatever its size, as if he were holding it completely enclosed in the hollow of his hand. He mentally visualizes a complex form from all round itself; he knows while he looks at one side what the other side is like; he identifies himself with its centre of gravity, its mass, its weight; he realizes its volume, as the space that the shape displaces in the air.
And the sensitive observer of sculpture must also learn to feel shape simply as shape, not as description or reminiscence. He must, for example, perceive an egg as a simple single solid shape, quite apart from its significance as food, or from the literary idea that it will become a bird. And so with solids such as a shell, a nut, a plum, a pear, a tadpole, a mushroom, a mountain peak, a kidney, a carrot, a tree-trunk, a bird, a bud, a lark, a ladybird, a bulrush, a bone. From these he can go on to appreciate more complex forms or combinations of several forms.
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整篇课文
Appreciation of sculpture depends upon the ability to respond to form in three dimensions. That is perhaps why sculpture has been described as the most difficult of all arts; certainly it is more difficult than the arts which involve appreciation of flat forms, shape in only two dimensions. Many more people are "form-blind" than colour-blind. The child learning to see, first distinguishes only two-dimensional shape; it cannot judge distances, depths. Later, for its personal safety and practical needs, it has to develop partly by means of touch the ability to judge roughly three-dimensional distances. But having satisfied the requirements of practical necessity, most people go no further. Though they may attain considerable accuracy in the perception of flat form, they do not make the further intellectual and emotional effort needed to comprehend form in its full spatial existence.
This is what the sculptor must do.He must strive continually to think of, and use, form in its full spatial completeness. He gets the solid shape, as it were, inside his head—he thinks of it, whatever its size, as if he were holding it completely enclosed in the hollow of his hand. He mentally visualizes a complex form from all round itself; he knows while he looks at one side what the other side is like; he identifies himself with its centre of gravity, its mass, its weight; he realizes its volume, as the space that the shape displaces in the air.
And the sensitive observer of sculpture must also learn to feel shape simply as shape, not as description or reminiscence. He must, for example, perceive an egg as a simple single solid shape, quite apart from its significance as food, or from the literary idea that it will become a bird. And so with solids such as a shell, a nut, a plum, a pear, a tadpole, a mushroom, a mountain peak, a kidney, a carrot, a tree-trunk, a bird, a bud, a lark, a ladybird, a bulrush, a bone. From these he can go on to appreciate more complex forms or combinations of several forms.
欣赏雕塑，有赖于感受三维形体的能力。这或许就是雕塑被称为最难欣赏的艺术的原因；可以肯定的是，它比欣赏只涉及二维平面形状的艺术更难。“形盲”远比色盲常见。孩子刚开始学习看东西时，只能分辨平面的轮廓，还不会判断距离和深度。后来，出于安全和实际生活的需要，他们必须发展出粗略判断三维空间距离的能力，其中一部分要靠触摸来培养。然而，满足实际需要之后，多数人就不再继续了。他们对平面形状的感知可能已经相当准确，却不再投入进一步的思考和情感，去理解形体完整的空间存在。
而这恰恰是雕塑家必须做到的。他得不断努力，从完整的空间形态去思考和运用形体。可以说，他把整个立体形状装进了脑子里；无论物体有多大，想象时都仿佛把它完整地拢在掌心。他能从各个角度在脑海中看清一个复杂的形体；看着这一面，也知道另一面是什么样；他仿佛亲身感受到它的重心、体量和重量，并把它的体积理解为它在空气中占据的那一块空间。
敏锐的雕塑观赏者也必须学会，仅仅把形体当作形体来感受，而不把它当成某种描绘，或唤起回忆的线索。例如，他要把一枚蛋看成一个简单、完整的立体形状，暂时撇开它作为食物的意义，也撇开“它会变成一只鸟”这种富于文学意味的联想。贝壳、坚果、李子、梨、蝌蚪、蘑菇、山峰、肾脏、胡萝卜、树干、鸟、花蕾、云雀、瓢虫、芦苇和骨头等形体，也都应如此感受。由此，他才能进一步欣赏更复杂的形态，或几种形态的组合。
学完这一课
说明一项鉴赏能力依赖哪种更基础的能力。
译文依据整理稿，由本站按中文表达重新校订；解析据吴应时整理资料及首轮审校稿；词伙与练习提示为本站学习设计。原PDF第126—130页，2022年2月第2版。