爱华网美国文化的五大象征（转）
The Statue of Liberty
In the mid-1870s, French artist Frederic Auguste Bartholdi wasworking on an enormous project called Liberty Enlightening theWorld, a monument celebrating US independence and theFrance-America alliance. At the same time, he was in love with awoman whom he had met in Canada. His mother could not approve ofher son’s affection for a woman she had never met, but Bartholdiwent ahead and married his love in 1876.
That same year Bartholdi had assembled the statue’s right arm andtorch, and displayed them in Philadelphia. It is said that he hadused his wife’s arm as the model, but felt her face was toobeautiful for the statue. He needed someone whose face representedsuffering yet strength, someone more severe than beautiful. Hechose his mother.
The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on an island in Upper New YorkBay in 1886. It had his mother’s face and his wife’s body, butBartholdi called it "my daughter, Liberty".
Barbie
Before all the different types of Barbie dolls for sale now, therewas just a single Barbie. Actually, her name was Barbara.
Barbara Handler was the daughter of Elliot and Ruth Handler,co-founders of the Mattel Toy Company. Ruth came up with the ideafor Barbie after watching her daughter play with paper dolls. Thethree-dimensional model for Barbie was a German doll—a joke giftfor adults described as having the appearance of "a woman who soldsex". Mattel refashioned the doll into a decent,all-American—although with an exaggerated breast size—version andnamed it after Barbara, who was then a teenager.
Since her introduction in 1959, Barbie has become the universallyrecognized Queen of the Dolls.
Mattel says the average American girl owns ten Barbie dolls, andtwo are sold somewhere in the world every second.
Now more than sixty years old, Barbara—who declines interviews butis said to have loved the doll—may be the most famous unknownfigure on the planet.
Barbie’s boyfriend, Ken, was introduced in 1961 and named afterBarbara’s brother. The real Ken, who died in 1994, was disgusted bythe doll that made his family famous. "I don’t want my children toplay with it," he said in 1993.
American Gothic
Grant Wood instantly rose to fame in 1930 with his paintingAmerican Gothic, an often-copied interpretation of the solemn prideof American farmers.The painting shows a serious-looking man and awoman standing in front of a farmhouse. He was strongly influencedby medieval artists and inspired by the Gothic window of an oldfarmhouse, but the faces in his composition were what captured theworld’s attention.
Wood liked to paint faces he knew well. For the grave farmer heused his dentist, a sour-looking man. For the woman standingalongside him, the artist chose his sister, Nan. He stretched themodels’ necks a bit, but there was no doubt who posed for theportrait.
Nan later remarked that the fame she gained from AmericanGothic saved her from a very boring life.
The Buffalo Nickel
Today, American coins honor prominent figures of the USgovernment—mostly famous former presidents. But the Buffalo nickel,produced from 1913 to 1938, honored a pair of connected tragediesfrom the settlement of the American frontier—the destruction of thebuffalo herds and the American Indians.
While white people had previously been used as models for mostAmerican coins, famed artist James Earle Fraser went againsttradition by using three actual American Indians as models for hiscreation.
For the buffalo on the other side, since buffalo no longer wanderedabout the great grasslands, Fraser was forced to sketch an agingbuffalo from New York City’s Central Park Zoo. Two years later, in1915, this animal was sold for $100 and killed for meat, a hide,and a wall decoration made from its horns.
Uncle Sam
Fourteen-year-old Sam Wilson ran away from home to join his fatherand older brothers in the fight to liberate the American coloniesfrom the British during the American Revolution. At age 23, hestarted a meat-packing business and earned a reputation for beinghonest and hard-working.
During a later war in 1812, Wilson gained a position inspectingmeat for US Army forces, working with a man who had signed acontract with the government to provide meat to the army. Barrelsof meat supplied to the army were stamped "EA-US", identifying thecompany (EA) and the country of origin (US). According to onestory, when a government official visited the plant and asked aboutthe letters, a creative employee told him "US" was short for "UncleSam" Wilson. Soon soldiers were saying all Army supplies were from"Uncle Sam".
After the war, a character called Uncle Sam began appearing inpolitical cartoons, his form evolving from an earlier cartooncharacter called Brother Jonathan that was popular during theAmerican Revolution. Uncle Sam soon replaced Brother Jonathan asAmerican’s most popular symbol. The most enduring portrait of UncleSam was created by artist James Montgomery Flagg in his famous armyrecruiting posters of World Wars I and II. That version—a tall manwith white hair and a small white beard on his chin, a dark bluecoat and a tall hat with stars on it—was a self-portrait ofFlagg.
美国文化的五大象征
自由女神像
19世纪70年代中期，法国艺术家弗里德里克·奥古斯特·巴托尔迪正在设计一个大项目，名为“自由照耀世界”。这是一座庆祝美国独立和美法联盟的纪念碑。与此同时，他爱上了一位他在加拿大认识的女子。他母亲不赞成自己的儿子和一个她没有见过的女子恋爱，然而巴托尔迪不为所动，和心中所爱于1876年结为伉俪。
同年，巴托尔迪组装完雕像的右臂和火炬，并将它们陈列在费城。据说，他用了妻子的手臂为模本，但觉得她的脸太漂亮，不适合做雕像模本。他需要这样一个女人：面容沧桑却不失坚定，庄重多于美丽。他选择了自己的母亲。
1886年，自由女神像在纽约湾北部落成。雕像综合了他母亲的脸和他妻子的身材，不过巴托尔迪称之为“我的女儿，自由之神”。
芭比娃娃
在现今销售的各式各样的芭比娃娃之前，原本部门只有一种芭比娃娃。实际上，她的名字叫芭芭拉。
芭芭拉·汉德勒是马特尔玩具公司的联合创始人艾略特和鲁思·汉德勒夫妇的女儿。鲁思是在见到女儿玩纸娃娃之后才想到做芭比娃娃的。芭比娃娃的三维模特是一个德国洋娃娃，一个哄成年人开心的礼物，被描绘成具有“风尘女子”的模样。马特尔公司将这个娃娃做了一番改造，变成了体面而地道的美国版本，尽管胸围有些夸张。它以当时10多岁的少女芭芭拉的名字命名。
自从1959年面世，芭比娃娃就成了全球公认的“娃娃女王”。马特尔公司说，一般的美国女孩拥有10个芭比娃娃，全球每秒钟就有两个芭比娃娃售出。
如今芭芭拉已有60多岁了，她拒绝接受采访，但据说她非常喜欢芭比娃娃。她可能是当今世上最著名的不为人知的人物了。
1961年，芭比娃娃的男朋友面世，按芭芭拉的弟弟肯的名字命名。真正的肯于1994年去世。他对令自己全家名扬天下的娃娃极为厌恶。他在1993年说：“我可不想让我的孩子玩这洋娃娃。”
《美国哥特人》
1930年，格兰特·伍德因其画作《美国哥特人》一举成名。此画体现了美国农民庄严的自豪，常常被人复制。画面展示了一位神色严肃的男子和一位女子站立在农舍之前。伍德深受中世纪艺术家的影响，他的灵感来自于一所古老农舍的哥特式窗户，但最令世界注目的是画中人物的脸。
伍德喜欢画他熟悉的脸。为画神色严肃的农夫，他选择了他那表情木讷的牙医，至于站在他身边的农妇，他选择了自己的姐姐南。他把模特的脖子稍稍画长了一些，但无疑能看出谁是画像的原型。
南后来说道，《美国哥特人》带给她的名誉使她摆脱了一种非常乏味的生活。
野牛镍币
今天，美国的硬币都用来纪念美国政府的杰出人物，其中大部分是著名的前总统。但1913至1938年间发行的野牛镍币，却是为了纪念由美国拓居引起的两起相互关联的悲剧──野牛群的灭绝和美洲印第安人的毁灭。
此前一直是白人被用作美国镍币上的模特，而著名的艺术家詹姆斯·厄尔·弗雷泽却反传统而行之，起用了三名真正的美洲印第安人作为自己创作的原型。
由于大草原上不再有野牛漫步，弗雷泽为了镍币另一面上的野牛，只好到纽约中央公园的动物园里素描一只老野牛。两年后，即1915年，此牛以100美元的价格售出，然后被宰杀取肉、剥皮，牛角制成了墙上的装饰品。
山姆大叔
美国独立战争时期，14岁的山姆·威尔逊离家出走，加入父亲和哥哥们的行列，为美国殖民地独立于英国而战。23岁时，他开始从事肉类加工业，并因为人诚实、工作勤奋而赢得声誉。
此后在1812年的战争中，威尔逊获得了一个职位，为美国军队检验肉食。他的合伙人和美国政府签订了一份合同，给军队提供肉食。送到军队的肉桶上面都印有EA-US标志，EA代表公司名，US代表原产国。
传说有一回，有个政府官员来参观加工厂，问及这些字母的含义，一个想象力丰富的雇员告诉他，“US”是“山姆大叔”威尔逊的缩写。很快，士兵们都说所有的军需品都来自“山姆大叔”。
战后，政治漫画里开始出现一个名叫“山姆大叔”的人物。他的原型是一个早期漫画人物，名叫乔纳森大哥，此人在美国独立战争时期非常出名。很快，山姆大叔就取代了乔纳森大哥，成了最受美国人欢迎的象征。最令人难忘的山姆大叔的画像是由画家詹姆斯·蒙哥马利·弗拉格创作的，用在两次世界大战期间他画的很多著名的征兵招贴画上。山姆大叔的形象是：高个子，白头发，下巴上有一小撮白胡子，身着深蓝色外套，头戴一顶高帽，上有星星点缀。这模样其实就是弗拉格的自画像。
