Back in the fourteenth century, in a tiny village near Nuremberg, lived a family with twelve children. In order to merely keep food on the table for this mob, the father and head of the household, a goldsmith by profession, worked almost eighteen hours a day at his trade and any other paying chore he could find in the neighborhood.
14世紀時,在德國的一個小村莊裡,住著一個有12個孩子的家庭.父親是一名金匠,作為家中的頂樑柱,為了維持一家生計,他每天要工作18個小時,除了做他的本行,他還要在鄰居那裡尋找一些差事.
Despite their seemingly hopeless condition, two of the children had a dream. They both wanted to pursue their talent for art, but they knew fully well that their father would never be financially able to send either of them to Nuremberg to study at the Academy.
儘管生活窘迫逼人,但是這個家庭裡的兩個孩子卻懷著同樣的夢想-他們都希望可以發展自己在藝術方面的天分.不過他們也瞭解,在經濟上父親無法供他們兩個中的任何一個到紐倫堡藝術學院讀書.
After many long discussions at night in their crowded bed, the two boys finally worked out a pact. They would toss a coin. The loser would go down into the nearby mines and, with his earnings, support his brother while he attended the academy. Then, when that brother who won the toss completed his studies, in four years, he would support the other brother at the academy, either with sales of his artwork or, if necessary, also by laboring the mines.
一天晚上,兩兄弟在床上經過多次討論後,達成一個約定：擲銅板決定-勝者到藝術學院讀書,敗者則到附近的礦場工作賺錢供另一人讀書,來支持勝者在藝術學院裡的費用；四年後,在礦場工作的那個人再到藝術學院學習,由學成畢業的那個人賺錢供他學習.如果需要,這個人可能也要到礦場去工作賺錢.
阿爾佈雷特•丟勒(自畫像)
They tossed a coin on a Sunday morning after church. Albrecht Durer won the toss and went off to Nuremberg. Albert went down into the dangerous mines and, for the next four years, financed his brother, whose work at the academy was almost an immediate sensation. Albrecht's etchings, his woodcuts, and his oils were far better than those of most of his professors, and by the time he graduated, he was beginning to earn considerable fees for his commissioned works.
週日早上做完禮拜,他們擲了銅板,結果,弟弟阿爾佈雷特•丟勒勝出,去了紐倫堡藝術學院.哥哥阿爾伯特則去了危險的礦場工作,四年來一直給弟弟提供經濟支持.阿爾佈雷特在藝術學院表現很突出,他的蝕刻畫、木刻畫和油畫畫得簡直比教授還好.畢業時,他的作品已經能賺不少錢了.
More than 550 years have passed. By now, Albrecht Durer's hundreds of masterful portraits, sketches, water colors, charcoals, woodcuts, and copper engravings hang in every great museum, but the odds are great that you, like most people, are familiar with only one of Albrecht Durer's works. More than merely being familiar with it, you very well may have a reproduction hanging in your home or office.
550多年過去了,阿爾佈雷特•丟勒有成百上千幅傑作流傳下來,他的肖像畫、素描、水彩畫、木炭畫、木刻、銅刻等傑作可以在世界各地博物館裡看到；然而,大多數人最為熟悉的,卻只有一件作品.也許,你的家裡或者辦公室裡就掛著一件它的複製品.
愛的畫作——祈禱之手
One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he had sacrificed, Albrecht Durer painstakingly drew his brother's abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward. He called his powerful drawing simply "Hands", but the entire world almost immediately opened their hearts to his great masterpiece and renamed his tribute of love "The Praying Hands".
為了表達哥哥所做犧牲的敬意,一天,阿爾佈雷特•丟勒下了很大的工夫把哥哥合起向上的粗糙的雙手給畫了下來.他把這幅偉大的作品簡單地命名為"雙手",然而,全世界的人看到這幅作品都立刻被震撼了,並將這幅愛的作品重新命名為"祈禱之手".
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