雙語+MP3|美國學生藝術史49 米開朗基羅前后

 
這座銅像起初豎在佛羅倫薩，如今還立在那里。當人們知道切利尼鑄造銅像的艱難后，更添一份欽佩之心。 
49 A.M. OR AFTER MICHELANGELO米開朗基羅前后
 
WHAT goes up must come down. Sculpture had been going up. It had been getting better and better and better sincle the beginning of the Renaissance. Renaissance sculpture got’ way up to the top under the great Michelangelo. 
Then 
it 
came 
down! 
For two hundred years after Michelangelo there were hundreds of sculptors, but only a very few good ones. One of these good ones was Cellini, the goldsmith who made the bronze Perseus. 
There were two more good sculptors after Michelangelo who were not Italians like almost all the other great Renaissance sculptors. One, named Jean Goujon (Goo-jonh’), was born in France. The other, called John of Bologna (Bo-lon’ya), came from the town of Douai in Flanders. 
Goujon is best known for some beautiful water nymphs that he carved in very low relief. Water nymphs are like water fairies or sprites, but they don’t have wings like fairies. Goujon carved the water nymphs in the most graceful way you can imagine. Each nymph is carved on a separate strip or panel of marble and as the panels are high and narrow, it must have been hard for Goujon to make each nymph so graceful and yet so different from every other one. To help show they were really nymphs of the water, Goujon made each one with a jar from which she pours the water. Many years after Goujon was dead his water nymphs were used to decorate a fountain in Paris called the Fountain of the Innocents. Now they are in the Louvre in Paris. 
I told you that, John of Bologna was born in Flanders, but he didn’t stay there. He moved to Italy and lived in Italy the rest of his life. All his important work was done in Italy. As a famous fountain he made was placed in the city of Bologna in Italy, people began to think he was a man of Bologna and called him Giovanni da Bologna, which means John of Bologna. 
 
No.49-1　RELIEFS FROM THE FOUNTAIN OF THE INNOCENTS（《無辜者之泉·浮雕局部》） 
GOUJON (古戎　制） 
Courtesy of The University Prints 
I’ve often heard people say when they get some joyful news, “I’m walking on air!” But that is really pretty hard to do. Don’t try it. 
Giovanni da Bologna made a statue that is walking on air. How? A statue can’t walk on air any more than a person can! But this statue is walking on air. It is called the Flying Mercury and is Giovanni da Bologna’s masterpiece. Now, to make a Mercury flying through the air, there shouldn’t be anything but air to hold him up. So Giovanni made Mercury held up only by the wind. The wind is a bronze wind and is shown coming out of the mouth of a bronze wind god. The wind is blowing on the bottom of Mercury’s foot. Look closely and you can see the head of the wind god facing up toward the sky. 
Mercury really looks as if he were running in the air as well as flying with his winged cap and sandals and caduceus. The caduceus is Mercury’s staff or wand that has the two snakes curling round it. Mercury was believed to be the messenger of the gods. He was also the god of commerce and hospitality and flocks and herds and speechmaking and sly tricks and dreams and peace and traveling and health and riches. The Greeks believed he invented the alphabet and numbers and astronomy and music and boxing and weights and measures and gymnastics and growing olive orchards. So you see what an important fellow he was. His caduceus is used as the sign of doctors in the United States army because Mercury was the god of health. When animals or people quarrel the caduceus was supposed to make them friends again. Mercury once saw two snakes fighting. He threw his staff down between them and the two snakes curled peacefully around it. So Mercury kept them there to show the power of his staff. 
Nowadays when people think of Mercury, they generally think of him as looking like this Flying Mercury of Giovanni da Bologna. That statue fits my idea of how a flying Mercury should look. Does it fit yours? 
 
No.49-2　FLYING MERCURY 
（《飛翔的墨丘利》） 
BOLOGNA（博洛尼亞　制）