单选题
下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题，每题后面有4个选项。请仔细阅读短文，并根据短文回答其后面的问题，从4个选项中选择1个最佳答案。
{{B}}第一篇{{/B}}
{{B}}Art of the middle Ages{{/B}}
In the art
of the Middle ages, we never encounter the personality of the artist as an
individual; rather it is diffused (普及的) through the artistic genius of centuries
embodied (具体表达) in the rules of religious art. Art of the middle Ages is first a
sacred(神的，宗教的) script, the symbols and meanings of which were well settled. The
circular halo placed vertically (神学,神性). By bare feet, we recognize God, the
angels, Jesus Christ and the apostles (使徒), but, for an artist to have depicted
the Virgin Mary with bare feet would have been tantamount (等价的) to heresy (异教).
Several concentric, wavy lines represent the sky, while parallel lines water or
the sea. A tree, which is to say a single stalk with two or three stylised
leaves, informs us that the scene is laid on earth. A tower with a window
indicates a village, and, should an angel be watching from the battlements, that
city is thereby identified as Jerusalem. Saint Peter is always depicted with
curly hair, a short beard, and a tonsure, while Saint Paul has always a bald
head and a long beard.
A second characteristic of this
iconography is obedience (服从，顺从) to a sacred mathematic. "The Divine Wisdom,"
wrote Saint Augustine, "reveals itself everywhere in numbers," a doctrine
attributable to the neo-Platonists who revived the genius of Pythagoras. Twelve
is the master number of the Church and is the product of three, the number of
the Trinity, and fours, the number of material elements. The number seven, the
most mysterious of all numbers, is the sum of four and three. There are the
seven ages of man, seven virtues, seven planets. In the final analysis, the
seven-tone scale of Gregorian music is the sensible embodiment of the order of
the universe. Numbers also require a symmetry. At Charters, a stained glass
window shows the four prophets, Isaac, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Jeremiah, carrying
on their shoulders the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
A third characteristic of this art is to be a symbolic language, showing
us one thing and inviting us to see another. In this respect, the artist was
called upon to imitate God, who had hidden a profound meaning behind the literal
and wished nature itself to be a moral lesson to man. Thus, every painting is an
allegory. In a scene of the final judgment, we see the foolish virgins at the
left hand of Jesus and the wise at his right, and we understand that this
symbolizes those who are lost and those who are saved. Even seemingly
insignificant details carry hidden meaning: The lion in a stained glass window
is the figure of the Resurrection.
These, then, are the defining
characteristics of the art of the Middle Ages, a system within which even the
most mediocre talent was elevated by the genius of the centuries. The artists of
the early Renaissance broke with tradition at their own peril. When they are not
outstanding, they are scarcely able to avoid insignificance and banality in
their religious works, and, even when they are great, they are no more than the
equals of the old masters who passively followed the sacred rules.