The sculptor speaks

原文

Lesson 31

The sculptor speaks

What do you have to be able to do to appreciate sculpture?

Appreciation of sculpture depends upon the ability to respond to form in 3 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 3-dimensonal 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.

译文

第31课

雕塑家之言

要真正欣赏雕塑，你需要具备哪些条件或能力呢？

对雕塑的欣赏，取决于人们能否理解和回应三维空间中的形态（即雕塑的立体结构与形态特征）。

也许正因为如此，雕塑才被人们称为所有艺术形式中最难掌握的一种。

当然，这比那些只需要欣赏二维平面形状的艺术形式要困难得多。

有'形式盲'的人比有色盲的人多得多

正在学习视力的孩子最初只能识别二维的形状；他们还无法判断距离或物体的深度。

后来，为了自身安全和实际需要，它必须（部分通过触觉）培养出大致判断三维距离的能力

然而，在满足了实际需求之后，大多数人就不会再进一步去追求更高的目标了。

尽管他们在识别平面形状方面可以达到相当高的准确度

他们没有付出进一步的智力与情感努力，去全面理解“形式”在其空间存在中的本质（即形式在三维空间中的具体表现方式）。

这就是雕塑家必须做的事情。

他必须不断努力去思考和运用形式在空间中的完整性

他在脑海中清晰地想象出那个物体的形状；无论这个物体的实际大小如何，他都仿佛能够将其完全握在手中一样。

他在脑海中从各个角度想象出一个复杂的形体

他看着一面时就知道另一面是什么样子；他体会其重心、质量和重量

他认识到这个物体的“体积”，其实就是该物体在空气中占据的空间（即该物体将空气“挤开”后所形成的空间）。

对于雕塑而言，敏锐的观察者也必须学会纯粹地将形状视为形状本身来感知它，而不是将其视为某种描述或回忆的象征。

例如，他必须将鸡蛋仅仅视为一个简单的、独立的固体形状，而忽略其作为食物的意义。

也不把它看作会变成鸟的文学意象

同样，对于贝壳、坚果、李子、梨、蝌蚪、蘑菇等固体

山峰、肾脏、胡萝卜、树干、鸟、花蕾、云雀、瓢虫、香蒲、骨头

从这些出发，他可以进而欣赏更复杂的形式或多种形式的组合

词汇表

appreciation

名词

英:/əˌpriːʃiˈeɪʃən/

美:/əˌpriːʃiˈeɪʃən/

定义

1. 欣赏 - The recognition and enjoyment of the good qualities of something.

例子: Her appreciation of art grew after visiting the museum.

例子: The audience showed their appreciation with applause.

2. 理解 - A full understanding of a situation.

例子: He has a deep appreciation of the challenges involved.

例子: Appreciation of history requires studying primary sources.

近义词

admiration: 强调积极的情感回应，常用于赞美，而 'appreciation' 更侧重于理解和认可。

gratitude: 更专注于感谢他人，常用于人际关系中，而 'appreciation' 可以是针对事物的。

recognition: 侧重于承认或发现价值，但 'appreciation' 包括情感层面的享受。

反义词:

disregard, ignorance, contempt

用法

常用于艺术、文化或个人发展语境中，强调对事物的积极认知；可与 'of' 搭配，如 'appreciation of beauty'，在正式场合使用。

形式:

复数: appreciations, 动词形式: appreciate (verb)

关键句型 "as if [clause]"

定义

此句型用于表达一种假设或虚拟的情况，常表示与事实相反的想象或比喻。结构为：as if（好像）+ [clause]（从句），其中从句通常使用虚拟语气。根据《剑桥英语语法手册》，as if 引导一个从句，描述某事物的状态或行为如同另一种情况一样，强调非真实性。例如，在文章中：“as if he were holding it completely enclosed in the hollow of his hand”，它帮助描述雕塑家对形状的想象。

这个句型在英语中常用于生动描述，适合表达抽象概念或情感。

用法

as if 常用于描述假设场景、比喻或间接表达意见，常见于叙述性或描述性语言中。规则：主句后跟 as if 从句，从句的动词通常采用虚拟语气（如用 were 代替 was）。

在语法体系中，它属于状语从句的一部分，与其他连接词如 as though 类似（二者可互换）。横向比较：与 like 相比，as if 更正式且暗示虚拟（例如，"He runs like a cheetah" 描述真实，而 "as if he were a cheetah" 强调想象）；与 if 从句相比，as if 更侧重于相似性而非条件。

跨语法联系：它常与虚拟语气结合，学生可联系条件句（如 If I were you）来理解其虚拟性质。同时，它能扩展到高级表达，如在文学中增强描述力。

注意事项

学生易犯的错误包括：不使用虚拟语气，导致句子不自然，例如说 "as if he was holding" 而非 "as if he were holding"，这会使语言显得不正式。纠正建议：记住，在 as if 从句中，如果描述与事实相反，应使用 were 或其他虚拟形式，并练习口语以习惯这种结构。

另一个常见偏误是混淆 as if 和 as though，但二者几乎相同；或过度使用导致句子冗长。提供例句：

错误示例：He acts as if he is a king in real life. (如果强调虚拟，应改为 were)
正确示例：He acts as if he were a king, commanding respect from everyone.

练习

原创例子：想象你在描述朋友的绘画习惯：“She looks at the canvas as if she were exploring a new world.” 学生可以替换 [clause]，如 “as if he were flying in the sky”，并应用到实际场景，例如写一篇短文描述欣赏艺术时的心情："I feel the sculpture as if it were alive."

通过替换关键词，学生能加深对句型的掌握，并将其用于日常描述中。

额外内容

背景知识：as if 起源于古英语的比喻表达，在现代英语文学中常见，如在亨利·摩尔的文章中增强视觉想象。对比分析：与中文的 "好像" 类似，但英语需用虚拟语气强调非真实性，而法语中的 "comme si" 也类似，需要动词变位。了解此句型能帮助学生在阅读艺术或文学时更好地把握作者意图，丰富表达方式。