When you hear the word art, what comes to mind?
听到“艺术”这个词，你会想到什么？
A painting, like the Mona Lisa, or a famous sculpture or a building?
一幅像“蒙娜丽莎”一样的画？还是一座著名的雕塑或建筑物？
What about a vase or a quilt or a violin?
又或者是一个花瓶，一床被子或者一把小提琴？
Are those things art, too, or are they craft? And what's the difference anyway?
这些东西，是艺术还是工艺品呢？它们的区别究竟是什么呢？
It turns out that the answer is not so simple.
其实答案没有那么简单。
A spoon or a saddle may be finely wrought, while a monument may be, well, uninspired.
一把勺子或一个马鞍可能是经过精心锻造而成，然而，一座纪念碑也可能缺乏创造性。
Just as not every musical instrument is utilitarian, not every painting or statue is made for its own sake.
正如不是每个乐器都具备实用性一样，并不是每一幅画、每一座雕像都是为了创造而被创造出来的。
But if it's so tricky to separate art from craft, then why do we distinguish objects in this way?
如果艺术与手工艺之间的区别如此微妙，我们为什么还要用这两个标签将各类物体区分开来呢？
You could say it's the result of a dramatic historical turn of events.
也许你会说，这是事件发生巨大历史转变的结果。
It might seem obvious to us today to view people, such as da Vinci or Michelangelo,
也许在今天看来，我们将达芬奇、米开朗基罗之类的人
as legendary artists, and, of course, they possessed extraordinary talents,
看作具有传奇色彩的艺术家是再自然不过的事，当然，他们都拥有非凡的才华，
but they also happened to live in the right place at the right time,
但他们也恰好生在了恰当的地方和适当的时间，
because shortly before their lifetimes the concept of artists hardly existed.
因为在他们之前的时代，“艺术家”这一概念几乎不存在。
If you had chanced to step into a medieval European workshop, you would have witnessed a similar scene,
如果你有机会进入一个中世纪的欧洲艺术工作室，你都会看到类似的场景，
no matter whether the place belonged to a stonemason, a goldsmith, a hatmaker, or a fresco painter.
无论这个工作室是属于一位石匠、金匠、制帽工匠还是一位壁画画家。
The master, following a strict set of guild statutes,
大师们都会遵守一套严格的行规，
insured that apprentices and journeymen worked their way up the ranks over many years of practice and well-defined stages of accomplishment,
确保学徒和雇工们通过多年经验的积累以及界限十分清晰的不同等级的成绩，来逐步晋升高位，
passing established traditions to the next generation.
并把那些业已形成的传统代代相传。
Patrons regarded these makers collectively rather than individually,
顾客们会把这些劳动者们看成一个集体，而不是只关注于某个个体，
and their works from Murano glass goblets, to Flemish lace,
他们的作品涵盖了包括穆拉诺岛的玻璃酒杯，以及弗兰德人制作的蕾丝，
were valued as symbols of social status, not only for their beauty, but their adherence to a particular tradition.
这些都被视为社会地位的重要象征，不只是因为它们具备美感，还因为它们遵守特定的传统。
And the customer who commissioned and paid for the work, whether it was a fine chair,
比起那些制作这些作品的工匠们，无论是这些作品是一把制作精良的椅子，
a stone sculpture, a gold necklace, or an entire building,
还是一尊石雕、一条金项链或是整栋大楼，
was more likely to get credit than those who designed or constructed it.
那些委托制作这些作品并付以报酬的客户们，都更容易赢得作品背后的功劳。
It wasn't until around 1400 that people began to draw a line between art and craft.
直到1400年，人们才开始试图区分艺术与手工艺。
In Florence, Italy, a new cultural ideal that would later be called Renaissance Humanism was beginning to take form.
在意大利佛罗伦萨，一种被后人称为“文艺复兴人文主义”的文化思潮正逐渐成形。
Florentine intellectuals began to spread the idea of reformulating classical Greek and Roman works,
佛罗伦萨的知识分子们开始传播重新系统化古希腊罗马文化的思想，
while placing greater value on individual creativity than collective production.
并更重视个人创造力，而非集体生产。
A few brave painters, who for many centuries, had been paid by the square foot,
几百年来，仅以平方英尺为标准计算酬劳的勇敢的画家们，
successfully petitioned their patrons to pay them on the basis of merit instead.
开始要求客户们以作品的价值来支付酬劳。

Within a single generation, people's attitudes about objects and their makers would shift dramatically,
在一代人的时间里，人们对于不同物体及其制作者的态度出现了戏剧性的转变。
such that in 1550, Giorgio Vasari, not incidentally a friend of Michelangelo,
1550年，米开朗基罗的朋友乔尔乔·瓦萨里，
published an influential book called, 'Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects,'
出版了一本很具影响力的书，《最优秀的画家、雕塑家和建筑师的生活》，
elevating these types of creators to rock star status by sharing juicy biographical details.
这本书通过分享艺术家们有趣的生平事迹，大大地提升了他们的地位，将他们塑造成犹如摇滚明星一般炙手可热的人物。
In the mind of the public, painting, sculpture and architecture were now considered art,
在普通民众的心中，绘画、雕塑和建筑在那时已被视为艺术，
and their makers creative masterminds: artists.
而这些艺术的创造者们则成为了艺术家。
Meanwhile, those who maintained guild traditions and faithfully produced candelsticks, ceramic vessels,
与此同时，那些恪守协会传统、兢兢业业地制作烛台、陶瓷容器、
gold jewelery or wrought iron gates, would be known communally as artisans,
黄金首饰或锻造铁门的人，则被社会归为了工匠，
and their works considered minor or decorative arts, connoting an inferior status
他们的作品被视为辅艺术或装饰艺术，这将这类艺术放到了更低等的地位，
and solidifying the distinction between art and craft that still persists in the Western world.
并模糊了艺术与手工艺的区别，在西方，这种模糊的界线一直延续至今。
So, if we consider a painting by Rembrandt or Picasso art, then where does that leave an African mask?
所以，如果我们把由伦勃朗或者毕加索创作的油画看做艺术的话，那非洲面具又算什么呢?
A Chinese porclein vase? A Navajo rug?
中国瓷花瓶呢？印第安纳瓦霍地毯呢？
It turns out that in the history of art, the value placed on innovation is the exception rather than the rule.
其实在艺术史上，对创新的重视，只是一种例外，而不是一个规定。
In many cultures of the world, the distinction between art and craft has never existed.
世界上许多文化中，艺术与手工艺之间的区别从未存在。
In fact, some works that might be considered craft, a Peruvian rug,
事实上，一些可能被视为工艺品的作品，例如秘鲁的地毯，
a Ming Dynasty vase, a totem pole, are considered the cultures' preeminent visual forms.
中国明代的花瓶，图腾柱，都被看作各种文化最卓越的视觉形式。
When art historians of the 19th Century saw that
在19世纪，当艺术史学家们看到
the art of some non-Western cultures did not change for thousands of years, they classified the works as primitive,
一些非西方文化的艺术作品历经千年而没有任何变化时，他们将这些作品视为粗糙的劳动，
suggesting that their makers were incapable of innovating and therefore were not really artists.
暗示作品制作者们缺乏创造性，因此，他们并不是艺术家。
What they didn't realize was that these makers were not seeking to innovate at all.
他们没有意识到的是，这些制作者并不力争创新。
The value of their works lay precisely in preserving visual traditions, rather than in changing them.
其作品的价值完全在于对视觉传统的保护，而不是改变。
In the last few decades, works such as quilts, ceramics and wood carvings
在过去的几十年里，棉被、陶瓷、木雕等作品，
have become more prominently included in art history textbooks and displayed in museums alongside paintings and sculpture.
逐渐在艺术史教科书中被归为了艺术品的行列，并在博物馆中与绘画和雕塑一同被展出。
So maybe it's time to dispense with vague terms like art and craft
也许是时候抛弃使用像“艺术”和“工艺”这类模糊的术语了，
in favor of a word like visual arts that encompasses a wider array of aesthetic production.
取而代之地，我们应该使用诸如“视觉艺术”一类的词，这包括更广泛类别的具备美学价值的产品。
After all, if our appreciation of objects and their makers is so conditioned by our culture and history,
毕竟，如果我们欣赏物品及其制作者的标准在很大程度上是由我们的文化和历史决定的，
then art and its definition are truly in the eye of the beholder.
那么艺术及其定义只有在能欣赏它的人眼中清晰明了。