Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in an art history class.

旁白：请听一段艺术史课程片段。

Professor: I am sure you've all been to museum, where you've seen beautiful white marble statues sculpted by the Greeks and Romans, or at least that you've seen photos of such statues, right?

教授：我确信你们应该都去过博物馆，在博物馆里你们看到了由希腊人和罗马人雕刻出美丽的白色大理石雕像，或者说至少你们看到过这种雕像的照片，对吗？

We've come to expect these classical Greek and Roman statues to be monochrome, just one color, white skin, white hair, white eyes, white everything, the natural color of the marble they're carved from.

我们期待这些经典希腊和罗马的雕像是单色的，只有一种颜色，白色的皮肤，白色的头发，白色的眼睛，一切都是白色的，源自于他们雕刻用的大理石的本来颜色。

Now, the ideal of plain white sculpture goes back to 15th century Europe when Renaissance artists rediscovered ancient Greek and Roman culture.

现在，白色雕塑的典范可以追溯到15世纪的欧洲，那时候文艺复兴时期的艺术家们再次发现了古希腊和罗马的文化。

They were inspired by sculptures that appeared monochrome so they created white marble statues.

他们受到了单色雕塑的激发而产生灵感，所以他们创造了白色大理石雕像。

The impact of these Renaissance statues, such as Michelangelo's David, gave rise to new standards for sculpture, standards that emphasized form rather than color.

这些文艺复兴时间的雕像的影响力，比如米开朗琪罗的大卫，提升了新的雕塑的标准，这个标准强调的是形式而不是颜色。

But what if many of those ancient statues were originally polychrome, colored from head to toe?

但是如果那些古代的雕像中大多数最初都是彩色的，并且从头到脚都是有颜色的呢？

Early in the 19th century, archeologists found traces of paint on ancient sculptures and since then, classical art historians have begun to realize that Greek and Roman marble sculptures were originally colored.

早在19世纪，考古学家发现了古代的雕像上有油漆的痕迹，自此，古典艺术历史学家开始意识到希腊和罗马的大理石雕像最初是有颜色的。

Even if an ancient marble statue doesn't have any visible traces of paint, that does not mean it was originally monochrome.

即使古代大理石雕像没有明显的油漆痕迹，也不意味着它原来就是单色的。

In many cases, the pigment would've simply deteriorated.

在很多情况下，颜料会轻易地变质。

Ancient artists used mineral-based paints with organic binding media that would've disintegrated on its own over time.

古代艺术家使用矿物基颜料和有机粘合剂，这些颜料会随着时间的推移自行分解

In other cases, the pigment may have been weathered away while exposed to the elements or someone may have rigorously cleaned the statues and unknowingly removed the last traces of pigment.

在其他情况下，颜料可能在暴露于自然环境中时风化掉了，或者有人可能对雕像进行了仔细的清洁， 在不知不觉中清除了最后一点颜料。

So, the fact is, we do have evidence of polychrome sculptures from Greece and Rome from the 7th century B.C.E.

因此，事实是，我们确实有证据表明彩色的雕塑来源于公元前七世纪的希腊和罗马。

all the way through at least the third or fourth century C.E.

一直延续到公元三、四世纪。

It's now generally accepted that most, maybe even all marble sculptures from that time period, receive some kind of surface treatment, like the application of pigments, colored stones or metals that would've modified their color.

现在，被大众接受的认知是，大多数，甚至所有的来自于那个时期的大理石雕塑，均接受过某种表面处理，比如颜料的使用，彩色的石头或金属，这些可以更改它们的颜色。

So do we interpret the statue differently if we had known it had originally been polychrome?

所以如果我们已经知道了雕塑原本是彩色的，我们对雕塑的解读会有不同吗？

I feel strongly when it comes to this.

说到这里，我感受很强烈。

A marble sculpture that had been colored has another layer of meaning that was meant to affect the viewer.

一个彩色的大理石雕塑有另一层含义，这是为了影响观众

As art historians, we must try to interpret the intentions of the artists.

作为艺术历史学家，我们必须努力去解读艺术家们的意图。

What were the artists trying to achieve?

那艺术家们试图去实现一些什么呢？

Certain features of the sculpture were highlighted through color, were made to stand out.

雕塑的某些特点可以通过色彩得以突出，使其变得很显眼。

In other words, they caused the viewer to focus on certain features.

换句话说，他们使观赏者集中注意力于某些特点上。

And certain colors represented certain things to the ancient artists and cultures.

某些特定的颜色对于古代艺术家和文化来说代表了一些特定的东西。

A color might symbolize heroism, divinity or youth.

一种颜色可能象征着英雄主义，神学或者青春。

One example to consider is the statue of Roman emperor Augustus.

有一个需要考虑的例子是罗马国王Augustus的雕塑。

This particular statue of Augustus that I am referring to was discovered just outside of Rome in 1863 and was in terrific condition.

这个特别的Augustus的雕塑，我指的是在1863年罗马外所发现的那个，状况优良。

It's about 2 meters tall, just larger than life size.

它大概两米高，比真人的尺寸要大些。

It was made from an expensive high quality type of marble and was obviously carved by an expert.

它是由昂贵的高质量的大理石所构成的，而且明显由专家雕刻而成。

Now, it still had visible traces of color on the hair, eyes and its clothing and armor.

现在，在它的头发，眼睛，衣服和盔甲上仍然有着明显的颜色痕迹。

The paints have been very carefully studied.

这些油漆已经被非常认真地研究过了。

And it turns out that the colors weren't just from any pigments.

结果表明，这些颜色并不仅仅来自于任意的颜料。

They were from expensive pigments.

它们是来自于昂贵的颜料。

The use of these pigments showed the importance of Augustus and that he should be honored.

这些颜料的使用表明了Augustus的重要性，他应该被尊重。

And let's consider the extensive traces of a red pigment that were found on the statue's cloak.

那么让我们考虑下在雕塑的斗篷上发现的明显的红色颜料的痕迹。

The cloak is a special garment that was traditionally worn by an emperor on the battlefield.

斗篷是一种特殊的服饰，传统角度来说是给战场上的帝王穿的。

And in real life it was a red color, which to the Romans, signified the emperor's authority, military and political authority.

在现实生活中，它是一种红色，对于罗马人来说，这种红色象征着君主的权威，军事和政治的权力。

Ok, I won't point out any further details about the colors on the Augustus statue, because you can already begin to see that there was cultural importance associated with the colors, symbolism, which should help us understand the status better.

好，我将不会指出任何更多的关于Augustus雕塑上的关于颜色的细节了，因为你们已经开始看到有关于颜色，象征意义的文化的重要性了，这些应该对我们更好地理解雕塑有所帮助。

There are many, many more sculptures that have traces of pigments left on them and we have the technology these days to be able to carry out effective studies of these pigments.

有很多很多的雕塑上遗留有颜料的痕迹，我们目前有技术能够对这些颜料进行有效的研究。

There is a lot of work to be done, but it needs to be done fast.

还有很多的工作要做，但是需要快一点做。

Like I said before, these pigments deteriorate rapidly so we really need to do the research before the traces are gone so that we can increase our understanding of ancient polychrome sculptures and the cultures which created them.

像我之前所说的，这些颜料迅速地消退，因此我们确实需要在痕迹消失之前做这个研究，从而我们能够提高对古代彩色雕塑以及创造出他们的文化的理解。