【旅行見聞篇】English after Mandarin
小管在北義大利這些日子以來，最常看到的就是在各地方黑白相間的教堂。往中義過去這樣的建築樣式就逐漸變少。納悶啊納悶。於是就再度發揮N年沒用過的在校寫報告的精神找出可接受的答案。
In Norman’s time in North Italy, black and white striped churches can be found in many cities. The more south you go, the less this type of architecture can be spotted. I was having a big question mark in mind. Thus, I resumed my super power used while studying in college to hopefully find out an acceptable answer.
條紋的使用可以推溯希臘文化及羅馬文化(拜占庭)。在這兩種文化中很常見到條紋的布料、馬賽克以及建築外觀。而北義黑白相間的教堂大多建築於12世紀。也就是說這時期的條紋使用可能是繼承於先前時期的審美觀。
The use of stripes can be dated back in Greek and Roman (Byzantine) times. Striped cloth, mosaic, and building exteriors were often found in those two cultures. And, the use of black and white striped facades on churches in North Italy peaked in the 12th century. One can infer that the style was probably a succession of the aesthetic value of the former times.
至於黑白條紋的運用在意義上是希望橫向的條紋所產生的擴張寬度的效果可以為教堂帶來更宏偉的感覺。不過黑白相間的使用在西方歷史上也有欺瞞的意涵，比如說犯人入獄後穿黑白條紋的衣服。這點便無法用在此種外表風格的解釋上。
As for the meaning of the use of black and white stripes on church facades, it can be explained with the illusionary effect of horizontal stripes which makes objects wider than they actually are. However, black and white stripes also represent deception and negative feelings. A good example is the traditional black and white striped inmate clothes. This makes it difficult to explain the use of black and white stripes on church facades.
另外建築教堂用的石頭通常都是品質優良的岩石種類，像是白色多用大理石而黑色則是蛇紋石(serpentine)。品質好的白色大理石在當時似乎並不那麼容易取得。而黑色(其實是深綠色，圖三可以證明)的蛇紋石在貫穿義大利的亞平寧山裡隨處可見。所以，將兩者交錯使用也就能夠理解成本上的考量了。
In addition, the stones used for building churches were usually rocks with fine quality and value. White stones could be marble stones and black stones were often serpentines (dark green). White marble stones with fine quality was not easy to come by at the time, whereas serpentines could be easily found throughout the Apennine mountains which extends through Italy half island. Therefore, it makes sense to stagger two types of stones on the building of churches.
以上的推論參考自底下的一篇短論文。有興趣的朋友可以跟我一樣把第一部份給啃完吧。
The inference above came from a short paper discussing the origin of the architecture style mentioned above. You are welcome to gnaw through the first part of the paper (warning: pretty dry).
http://www.academia.edu/…/Fa%C3%A7ades_and_Stripes_An_Accou…
with Virginia Tang, 張樹美, 鄒香華, 廖己未, Eileen Chen,
