RE5 Unit 9A · DECODING LEONARDO (破解达·芬奇密码)

Reading 9A · DECODING LEONARDO (破解达·芬奇密码)

探寻文艺复兴全才列奥纳多·达·芬奇横跨艺术、解剖学与机械工程的旷世传奇。

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According to legend, in the year 1505 near the Tuscan town of Fiosole, a great bird rose

相传在1505年，在托斯卡纳小镇菲耶索莱附近的切切里山（天鹅山），一只巨鸟腾空而起、直入云霄。这场试验虽无目击证词流传于世，但若当时确有人伫立在那片山坡上，最可能的主角便是列奥纳多·达·芬奇——多年来，他最大的夙愿就是像鸟儿一样在天际翱翔。约半个世纪后，其熟人格罗拉莫·卡尔达诺写道：“列奥纳多·达·芬奇……曾试图飞翔，却铩羽而归。他是一位卓绝的画匠。”

from Monte Chicherry, Swan Mountain, and took to the air.

No witness testimony remains of the event, but if anyone was present on that hillside,

the most likely candidate is Leonardo da Vinci.

A man whose ambition for many years had been to fly like a bird.

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Leonardo da Vinci attempted to fly, but failed.

将列奥纳多仅仅称为“卓绝的画匠”，就像把莎士比亚轻描淡写为“聪明的文字工匠”一样可笑。他是真正的千古奇才，在生前便备受推崇，在当代更被世人奉若神明。他的画作兼具隐秘与蛊惑人心的魅力，如他本人一样神秘莫测，融合了天使般纯熟的技法、科学家的缜密理性以及浪漫主义者的灵魂。他的素描图稿堪称人类有史以来最精美的杰作；而他最受珍视的油画《蒙娜丽莎》，更毫无疑问是举世闻名、妇孺皆知的旷世杰作。

He was an excellent painter.

To call Leonardo an excellent painter is like labelling Shakespeare a clever wordsmith.

He was a true genius, recognized in his own time and idolized in hours.

His paintings are as secret and seductive as himself, done with the hand of an angel,

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His drawings are among the most beautiful ever made.

尽管对绘画倾注了无限热爱，但达·芬奇此生真正挚爱的却是知识本身——知识，以及孕育知识的亲身体验。为了求知，列奥纳多跨界涉足了极度庞杂的学科领域：数学、几何学、光学、天文学、地质学、植物学、动物学、水力学、力学、解剖学，当然还有绘画与制图。作为一名机械工程师，他具备超凡的三维空间想象力，能在脑海中构想并运转极其繁复的机械联动系统。

His most treasured painting, the Mona Lisa, is undoubtedly the most famous in the world.

His love of painting notwithstanding, it was knowledge itself that was Leonardo's great

love, knowledge, and the experience from which it may be drawn.

To acquire it, Leonardo turned to a diverse array of fields, mathematics, geometry, optics,

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and drawing.

达·芬奇于1452年出生于佛罗伦萨附近的芬奇小镇。他是一名公证员与农家女的非婚生子。私生子的身份使他被剥夺了升入大学深造或加入显赫工匠行会的资格。然而因祸得福，他几乎完全走上了自学成才之路，靠顽强的毅力自习拉丁语和高等数学。约14岁时，他进入佛罗伦萨著名画家与雕塑家韦罗基奥的工坊当学徒，并在那里迅速精通了油画绘制、青铜铸造与机械工程设计。

As an engineer, he could think in four dimensions, visualizing not only the shapes of mechanical

parts but also their interrelated motions.

Among his designs for flight, Leonardo imagined parachutes, landing equipment, even an aerial

screw that acted like the blades of a helicopter.

But like so much else in his life, Leonardo's attempts to actually create a workable flying

machine are a mystery.

There remains only one enigmatic reference.

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that his great bird will bring eternal glory to the nest where it was born.

大约在1482年，为了寻求更有力的权贵赞助与更广阔的施展空间，列奥纳多移居米兰为卢多维科·斯福尔扎公爵效力。在一封著名的自荐信中，达·芬奇详尽罗列了自己的各项硬核技能，浓墨重彩地强调自己作为军事工程师的造诣：能设计攻城搭桥工具、投石机、火炮以及重甲战车。直到信函的最末尾，他才轻描淡写地附带提及自己同样擅长绘画与雕塑，水平“不输世间任何名匠”。

Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452, the illegitimate child of a peasant girl named

Katarina and respected notary, Piero da Vinci.

Leonardo lived at first with his mother in a three-room stone house on a hill just outside

the village of Vinci, some 20 kilometers west of Florence.

In that idyllic Tuscan countryside began the youngster's lifelong love of nature, a love

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that would remain implicit in all his later works.

在米兰期间，列奥纳多在圣玛利亚感恩修道院的墙壁上创作了里程碑式的壁画《最后的晚餐》。他没有采用传统的湿壁画工法（因其必须在灰泥风干前争分夺秒画完），而是别出心裁地在干燥灰泥层上尝试油彩与蛋彩调和技法，以便从容不迫地反复推敲修改笔触。然而不幸的是，这一前卫的试验性工法极为脆弱不耐湿气，画作在完工短短数十年后便开始剥落风化。

Around 1469, Leonardo's father took him to Florence, where the statesman, Lorenzo de

Medici, had established a society that actively encouraged all forms of artistic expression.

For years, art had been an instrument of religious expression, and the parameters of what was

ideologically acceptable had been decided by the church.

But in the more tolerant atmosphere of Florence, painters represented things as they saw them,

rather than as the church said they must be.

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Leonardo commenced an apprenticeship at the Academy of Andrea del Verrocchio, with whom

达·芬奇还倾注了数年心血，计划为斯福尔扎公爵的先父铸造一座高达7米以上的巍峨青铜巨马雕像。他先期塑造了庞大的黏土全尺寸模型，并设计出破天荒单次浇铸完成的复杂模具。然而在青铜尚未注浆铸造之际，法国军队于1499年大举入侵米兰，原本预备铸马的上百吨铜料被火速熔化充作军火大炮。占领米兰的法军士兵竟将这座精美的黏土骏马当作射击打靶道具，将其彻底摧毁轰成齑粉。

he studied for at least six years.

The boy mastered every medium, and continued his studies of nature, discovering so much

so fast that it seemed to him that everything must eventually be revealed to his searching.

In painting, he not only outshone his more mature colleagues, but also his teacher.

Asigned to paint the figure of an angel, he gave it a whole new dimension that drew the

viewer directly into the painting, in a way that Verrocchio's inhibited style could

never do.

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Some say that Verrocchio never painted again.

重返佛罗伦萨后，达·芬奇受托在韦奇奥宫市政大厅绘制巨幅壁画《安吉亚里之战》，而年轻气盛的米开朗基罗则在对面的墙上同时绘制《卡希纳之战》。由于达·芬奇再次大胆试验古罗马的蜡画烤胶技法，试图用火盆烘烤固化颜料，结果颜料遇热熔化淌流顺墙滑落，迫使他不得不抱憾放弃了这一宏伟工程。

Early Masterworks

Leonardo left Florence in 1482 at the age of 30, and he stayed away for 18 years.

The young Florentine hoped to find the glory he sought in the court of Ludevico Seforza,

ruler of Milan.

A practical city, Milan cared more for knowledge than for the arts.

Leonardo came as a musician, but presented himself as an engineer, describing in a long

boastful letter his inventiveness in the field of weapons.

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any other, whoever he may be.

达·芬奇是一名左撇子，他极其著名地使用“镜像体文字”撰写私密笔记——自右向左反向书写，只有借助镜面折射方能正常辨读。学者们至今争论不休：他究竟是为了防止前瞻思想被剽窃、为了避免左手划过湿墨弄脏纸页，还是纯粹出于左右脑习惯？这些数千页流传至今的稀世手稿中，密密麻麻地勾勒着直升机旋翼、潜水艇、降落伞乃至人型机械发条偶人的精密构想。

It was as an artist that Leonardo was accepted.

He established an art factory, much like Verrocchio's shop in Florence, and at once accepted

assignments.

These included a portrait of Seforza's beautiful and learned mistress Cecilia Galarani, a portrait

of a musician that some scholars believe is really a self-portrait, and a brilliant early

version of Virgin of the Rocks, begun in 1483 and now in Louvre.

Around 1485, he began his notebooks.

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These are detailed cryptic compilations of material on a seemingly arbitrary range of

在1508至1513年间，达·芬奇在米兰与解剖学家马尔坎托尼奥合作开展了开创性的人体解剖研究。他先后亲手解剖了30多具人类尸体，以史无前例的解剖学精度绘制了血液循环路径、肌肉力学牵引、骨骼构造以及母体内胎儿发育的剖面图。这些惊世骇俗的解剖图稿领先了当代医学数个世纪，可惜在他在世期间从未得以公开发行出版。

topics, from geology and geometry to anatomy and astronomy, all interwoven as one burning

interest gave way to the next.

His notes are written, left-handed, from right to left, and there are sketches everywhere

that compliment his text.

His discussions were addressed to himself, leaving an extraordinary record of the movements

of his mind.

Bronze Horse and Last Supper Two great works marked Leonardo's years with Seforza.

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The other, ordered by Seforza for his favourite church, was a Last Supper.

晚年时期，达·芬奇欣然接受法国国王弗朗索瓦一世的盛情相邀，迁居至昂布瓦斯的克洛·吕斯城堡。年轻的法王尊封他为“国王的首席画家、工程师与建筑家”，并向他发放丰厚的年金，只为能时常与他促膝长谈、汲取其博大精深的智慧。1519年5月2日，达·芬奇在克洛·吕斯城堡溘然长逝，享年67岁，为全人类留下了永恒启迪现代艺术、自然科学与前沿科技的伟大遗产。

The themes were not unlike other commissions of the time, but if the subjects lacked originality,

their treatment did not.

The horse was to be colossal, in a pose full of motion and life, and the concept was so

bold, so ambitious that it finally brought the artist the praise he sought.

His contemporaries thought it could not be created, but Leonardo devised workable plans.

💡 审辩式思维 (Critical Thinking: Evaluating Genius)

1. Which accomplishment of Leonardo da Vinci stands out most prominently above the others?

达·芬奇在绘画、雕塑、军事工程、解剖学与飞行力学皆有登峰造极的造诣。你认为哪一项成就最能代表他的伟大？

思维指引 (Sample Perspective):
• 机械与飞行工程：在人类尚处于中世纪农耕手工业时期，他便率先通过解剖鸟类翼展设计出扑翼机、降落伞与直升机螺旋浆，甚至构想出装甲坦克与潜艇，思维超越时代400年。
• 艺术与解剖融合：《蒙娜丽莎》与《最后的晚餐》将科学级的光学晕涂法（Sfumato）与严密的人体骨骼解剖融为一体，赋予肖像画摄人心魄的永恒生命力。

2. Can modern individuals still achieve universal polymath status in an era of hyper-specialization?

在学科分化极细的当今社会，人类是否还能诞生如达·芬奇般横跨多个领域的“全才”？

思维指引 (Sample Perspective):
• 挑战与可能：现代知识浩如烟海，单个领域钻研终生也难以窥其全貌；但随着人工智能与交叉学科的兴起，善于打破学科壁垒、将计算机科学与生物学、认知科学深度跨界融合的领军者，依然能成为当代的跨界奇才。

📝 课文理解深度练习 (Comprehension & Skills)

Reading Comprehension: Multiple Choice (P.185) Reading Comprehension: Chronological Milestones (P.186) Reading Skill: Renaissance Diagrams & Inventions (P.187)

预习练习得分: 0 / 20 题

Reading Comprehension Part A: Multiple Choice (P.185)

READING COMPREHENSION · MAIN IDEA

1. What is the main idea of the reading passage?

READING COMPREHENSION · INFERENCE

2. In paragraph B, the author compares calling Leonardo an 'excellent painter' to Shakespeare being called a 'clever wordsmith' to show that:

READING COMPREHENSION · DETAIL

3. Why was Leonardo prevented from attending university or joining a prestigious guild?

READING COMPREHENSION · DETAIL

4. What happened to Leonardo's monumental clay model of the horse in Milan?

READING COMPREHENSION · DETAIL

5. Why did Leonardo write his personal notebooks in mirror script (from right to left)?

READING COMPREHENSION · DETAIL

6. Why did Leonardo's mural 'The Last Supper' begin deteriorating so quickly?

READING COMPREHENSION · DETAIL

7. How did King Francis I of France treat Leonardo in his final years?

Reading Comprehension Part B: Chronological Milestones (P.186)