Ever see a medieval painting of baby Jesus sitting or standing on his mother's lap and wonder why she's so large?
你可曾注视过一幅中世纪圣婴图，小耶稣站或坐在他母亲的腿上，并感到好奇为什么她这么大？
Paintings like Cimabue's enthroned Madonna with angels or Duccio's Maesta also appear out of proportion.
一些画作，如契马布耶的《宝座圣母像》或是杜奇欧的《宝座上的圣像》，同样都不成比例。
If Mary were to stand up, it seems, the angels in the picture would be as tall as her shin bone,
如果圣母玛丽亚站起来，看起来图画里的天使只到她的胫骨高，
and her torso would be disproportionately small when compared to her legs.
而她的上半身与腿相比则是不成比例的小。
Maybe you thought the artist simply wasn't skilled enough to paint realistically or lacked the mathematical skill of perspective.
或许你认为这些艺术家只是技巧还不够纯属，不能写实作画，或是缺乏透视画法的数学基础。
But that's not the full story.
但事实上并不尽然。
To understand why, we need to go back to the late fifth century when the city of Rome was attacked by the Goths.
要了解为什么，我们得回到五世纪末，当时罗马城被哥德人攻击。
Rome was built in marble and meant to last forever.
罗马以大理石建城，意图永流万世。
It represented, for many years, the pinnacle of human civilization, so its destruction left a huge void.
很长一段时间，它代表了人类文明的尖峰，所以其毁灭（在人类文明史上）留下了巨大的空洞。
Theologians, who preached about a world beyond the physical, began attracting an audience as Rome crumbled,
神学家，这些宣讲形而上世界的人，在罗马崩毁时开始获得人心，
and Christianity started to fill the void left by the Empire.
而基督教开始填满罗马帝国所留下的空洞。
As a replacement for the physical beauty of Rome,
罗马强调的是人体美，
Christianity offered a metaphysical beauty of virtue and an eternal heaven that could not be destroyed as Rome had.
但取而代之的是被基督徒提出的形而上美德，以及不像罗马那样会被摧毁的永恒天堂。
After the fall of Rome, early medieval theologians turned away from physical beauty, rejecting it in favor of inner-beauty.
罗马帝国没落之后，中世纪早期的神学家撇弃了人体美，为了内在美而否定了它。
They maintained that while the physical world was temporary, virtue and religion were permanent.
他们主张有形的世界只是暂时，而美德及宗教才是永恒。
Beautiful objects could lead to a misguided worship of the object rather than the worship of goodness.
美丽的事物可能会误导我们去崇拜它的实体，而非其所代表的美德。

It is said that the early sixth century preacher, St. Benedict, upon thinking of a beautiful woman,
传说六世纪早期的传道人圣本笃，在想到一位美女后
threw himself into a thorn patch, and through his suffering, regained his focus on spiritual beauty.
纵身跃入荆棘丛，而他在这苦难中得以重新专注于灵魂之美。
He feared his desire for the beautiful woman would distract him from his desire to love God.
他担心自己对美女的欲望会分散他渴望去爱神的心。
As European civilization transitioned away from empires and towards religion,
随着欧洲文明逐渐从帝国转移到宗教，
monasteries became the gatekeepers of knowledge, which meant that classical books that praised physical pleasures were not copied or protected.
修道院成了知识的守门人，也就是说这些颂赞肉体快感的经文古籍不再被抄录或保存。
Without protection, they became the victims of natural decay, fire, flooding, or pests.
这些书籍一旦失去了保护，便成了自然腐败力量的牺牲品：火灾、水灾或虫蛀。
And without the help of monks transcribing new copies,
没有了僧侣的手抄本，
these texts and the philosophies they carried disappeared in Western Europe
这些书籍的文字及所要传达的哲理就在西欧文化中消失了，
and were replaced by the works of people like St. Benedict, which brings us back to these depictions of Jesus and Mary.
取而代之的，是像圣本笃这样的人的作品，这把我们带回之前说的圣婴及圣母图。
Because Christianity had so fervently rejected physical beauty,
因为基督教是如此强烈的抗拒人体美，
these medieval artists purposefully avoided aesthetically pleasing forms.
这些中世纪艺术家会刻意避免赏心悦目的美丽形体。
At first, decorations for churches or palaces were limited to interesting geometric patterns,
首先，教堂或宫殿的装饰限制于有趣的几何图案，
which could be pleasing without inspiring sinful thoughts of physical pleasure.
这会令人心情愉悦，但不会撩起对肉体的邪念。
As the medieval period progressed, depictions of Jesus and Mary were tolerated,
随着中世纪的前进，描绘耶稣及圣母渐渐被默许，
but the artist clearly made an effort to veil Mary and give her disproportionately large legs, with those enormous shin bones.
但艺术家非常明显地努力要遮蔽玛利亚的形体，并给了她一双不成比例的长腿与巨大的胫骨。
The fear remained that a beautiful illustration of Mary might inspire the viewer to love the painting or the physical form of Mary,
他们仍然害怕一幅美丽的玛利亚图会导致观画者爱上绘画本身，甚至爱上玛利亚的肉体，
rather than the virtue she's meant to represent.
而不是欣赏她所代表的美德。
So even though it may be fun to think we can paint more realistically than Cimabuey or Duccio,
所以即使想到我们能比契马布耶或杜奇欧画的更栩栩如生可能会很有趣
we need to remember that they had different goals when picking up a paintbrush.
但我们必须记住当他们提起画笔时，其实是抱着不同的目的的。