Now，Houdon thought，just as you probably do，that a portrait statue ought to have eyes with iris and pupil.So Houdon invented a way of his own for doing this.He made a deep hole for the pupil and made the iris in relief.He also left some of the marble for the white part of the eye a little raised so as to catch the light.Houdon’s scheme worked very well.His portrait busts look very much alive.Some of the busts even seem to have a twinkle in their eyes.
When Benjamin Franklin was in France he had his portrait bust made by Houdon.Franklin liked the bust of himself so much that he asked Houdon to come to the new United States to make a statue of George Washington.It took Houdon and Franklin almost two months to sail from France to America and that was a fast trip in 1785.Some of the side views of Franklin on our postage stamps have been taken from Houdon’s bust of Franklin.
Houdon went to Mount Vernon and stayed with Washington until he had made the bust that the postage stamp is copied from.This bust has never left Mount Vernon and you can still see it when you visit the home of Washington.Then Houdon made a full-length marble statue of Washington which is now in the Capitol at Richmond，Virginia.Here is a picture of it.
No.51GEORGE WASHINGTON（《乔治·华盛顿》））HOUDON（乌敦制）Courtesy of The U University Prints
Besides busts of Voltaire，Franklin，and Washington，Houdon made busts of John Paul Jones，Thomas Jefferson，Lafayette，and many other people—men，women，and children.
And now，even if you are not a stamp collector，you know more about the portrait on one stamp than many stamp collectors know.
【中文阅读】
我小时候就集邮。现在大了，还保留着以前收集的邮票，而且还喜欢收集新票，以充实我的邮册。
如果你也集邮，相信你至少会有一张乔治·华盛顿侧面头像票。华盛顿侧面头像于1851年首次印在邮票上。从那以后，美国的普通邮票几乎每期都发行华盛顿侧面头像票。有时候印在三分邮票上，有时候印在二分邮票上，有时候也印在一分邮票上。
邮票上的这些侧面像是根据华盛顿的一尊半身像绘制而成。这尊半身像刻画的是芒特弗农的华盛顿，作品出自一位擅长制作半身像的雕刻大师。他雕刻的人物看起来都栩栩如生。
这位雕刻大师是法国人，名叫让·安东尼·乌敦。一看他名字，就知道他是法国人。乌敦是过去两百年来法国最优秀的雕刻家之一。乌敦小时候，在巴黎学习艺术。到20岁时就获得雕刻大奖。这个大奖使他有足够的钱到意大利进行为期四年的学习，于是他便动身去了意大利。乌敦非常喜欢意大利。四年学习期满后，他并没有立刻回国，而是在意大利生活了十年，后来才返回法国。
乌敦认为，雕刻家应当竭尽全力将那些为自己国家带来荣誉的人惟妙惟肖地雕刻出来，使普通大众了解他们的长相。在雕刻半身像方面，乌敦做得与古罗马人一样成功。有人甚至认为他做得比罗马人还要好。乌敦最著名的雕像要数他为一个法国作家——伏尔泰刻的雕像。雕像伏尔泰坐在一把椅子上。
有没有疑惑为什么这么多雕像的眼睛没有瞳孔呢？我认识一个孩子，他在浏览一本有关雕像的图画书时，用铅笔给图画书上所有的雕像画了瞳孔。他说他不喜欢这些雕像都眼神空洞。
雕刻家们让雕像没瞳孔，是因为他们想精准地刻画眼睛的形状。众所周知，人的眼球上并没有孔，所以雕刻家们觉得在雕像的眼球上弄个洞并不适合。如果一个雕刻家想要展示虹膜（彩色部分）和瞳孔（黑色部分）的话，他会在眼睛上画虹膜和瞳孔，或者在雕像上放一个玻璃或水晶眼球。眼睛里没有瞳孔的确没错，不过这却使雕像的眼睛看起来空洞无神。米开朗基罗在雕刻《大卫》时，在大卫的眼睛上刻了一个圆圈和一个点，但他的其他的雕像作品几乎都是没有瞳孔的。
乌敦的想法可能和你一样，觉得半身像的眼睛里应该有虹膜和瞳孔。为此，乌敦发明了一种新的雕刻方法。他将瞳孔雕刻成一个深洞，而将虹膜做成浮雕。他还将用大理石雕刻的眼睛白膜稍稍抬高点，使眼睛接收到光线。乌敦的方法非常奏效，他雕刻的半身像看起来简直活灵活现。有些半身像看起来甚至在向我们眨眼睛呢！
本杰明·富兰克林在法国期间，乌敦为他雕刻了一尊半身像。富兰克林十分喜欢这尊半身像，于是邀请乌敦去新美国，为乔治·华盛顿雕像。经过两个月的航行，乌敦和富兰克林终于到达美国。在当时来说（1785年），这已经算是很快了。我们邮票上的一些富兰克林的侧面像就是根据乌敦为他雕刻的半身像绘制的。
乌敦去了芒特弗农后一直同华盛顿待在一起，直到半身像完成。后来美国邮票上华盛顿的侧面像就是根据这尊半身像复制而来的。华盛顿的这尊像一直存放在芒特弗农。如果去华盛顿故乡参观，就还能看到这尊雕像。后来，乌敦又用大理石为华盛顿雕了一尊全身像，如今这尊全身像收藏在弗吉尼亚州里士满市的国会大厦。见下图。
乌敦除了为伏尔泰、富兰克林和华盛顿制作过半身像外，还替约翰·保罗·琼斯、托马斯·杰斐逊、拉斐特以及其他许多人，包括男女老少，都刻过半身像。
现在，就算不是集邮爱好者，想必你也比一些集邮者更了解邮票上的肖像了吧。
A LION，A SAINT，AND AN EMPEROR
狮子、圣人和国王
DO YOU like to go to the zoo？Almost everybody likes to look at animals or hunt animals or play with animals or draw animals or eat animals.A man named Barye liked to make statues of animals.
Barye lived in Paris.He worked in a jewelry shop and was a goldsmith as were so many of the Renaissance sculptors of Florence.But Barye lived much later than the Renaissance.He lived in the 1800’s.
Barye loved to go to the zoo in Paris.He used to take paper and crayons to the zoo and draw pictures of the animals.Then he would go home and make little statues of the animals he had drawn.When he was at work in the jewelry shop，he often made tiny gold animals for watch chains and necklaces and bronze animals to go on clocks.In this way Barye practised until he became the best animal sculptor of his time in the world.His lions and tigers were especially liked by Americans and on the street corners of American towns men used to sell plaster casts of Barye’s Walking Lion.Perhaps there is one of these Barye lions on the mantel-piece in your house.
No.52-1WALKING LION（《行走的狮子》）BARYL（巴里制）Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of ArtMany of Barye’s bronzes show pain and cruelty.He seemed to like to make statues such as a tiger eating an alligator or a jaguar eating a rabbit.Very few people like to see one animal killing another.I’m sure I don’t.
Many of Barye’s bronze animals are much too small for monuments，but people call his work monumental sculpture.This means that Barye modeled his statues in the same way large monuments that you see in parks should be modeled.They are not filled with tiny details.I wonder if you would know what I meant if I told you they are heavy in shape.“Heavy in shape”doesn’t mean they are not graceful，but it does mean that a Barye bronze looks beautiful even at a distance as well as near at hand—monumental.
Almost as good as Barye at making animal statues was still another Frenchman.His name was Frémiet （Fray-mee-ay）.Frémiet made many splendid statues of animals.In one called Pan and the Two Bear Cubs，Pan is having lots of fun tickling the little bears with a straw.
Frémiet began making statues of people as well as animals.His statues of men on horseback—equestrian statues—proved to be his best ones.His most famous equestrian statue is his Joan of Arc.Joan is clad in armor and holds aloft the flag of the King of France as she leads the king’s soldiers to battle.
No.52-2PAN AND THE TWO BEAR CUBS（《潘和两只小熊》）FRéMIET（弗莱米耶制）Frenchmen are proud of Joan of Arc.They consider her a saint.Frenchmen are proud，too，of another leader of French armies，although he certainly wasn’t a saint.His name was Napoleon.