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Books and Arts;Leonardo in London；Deciphering the da Vinci code；
Scientist, engineer, musician and great artist, Leonardo da Vinci is the archetypal Renaissance man. This undisputed genius, who lived to be 67, was also one of history's most accomplished underachievers. He started many projects he did not finish; he accepted commissions he never began; his many planned treatises remained just notes. Only 18 of his paintings survive. Half of them are included in a show that opened on November 9th at London's National Gallery, making this the most important da Vinci display ever.
集科學家，工程師，音樂家和偉大的藝術家于一身的李奧納多達芬奇就是文藝復興時期人類的原型。毫無疑問，達芬奇是個天才，他活到了67歲，雖然有很多成就，但是這位天才也是歷史上沒有充分發揮真實水平的藝術家之一。他啟動的很多工程都沒有收尾，他接受了任務卻從來沒開始做，他計劃的很多論文卻僅僅停留在幾條注釋上。達芬奇的畫作只有18幅流傳了下來。11月9日在倫敦國家美術館舉辦了一次畫展，達芬奇9幅作品也在其中展出，這是迄今為止最隆重的達芬奇畫展。
The artist was born near Florence in 1452 and went to Milan at the age of 30. Luke Syson, the show's curator, has come to believe that the freedom da Vinci enjoyed there as court painter to Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, was the key that unlocked his genius.
達芬奇1452年生于佛羅倫薩附近，三十歲的時候他去了米蘭。該展館館長盧克塞森相信，宮廷畫師達芬奇在為米蘭公爵Ludovico Sforza創作時，享受了充分的自由，這是激發達芬奇繪畫天賦的關鍵
Mr Syson's contention that Leonardo's great breakthrough came in Milan and not later in Florence, as has generally been accepted until now, has captivated curators, collectors and museum directors who have been generous in loaning works to the show; from the Vatican, Prague, Cracow, Paris and the Royal Collection.
塞森認為，李奧納多取得的重大突破在米蘭，而不是在后來的佛羅倫薩，一直到今天這一看法都被普遍接受。而塞森的這一主張也吸引了許多展館館長，收藏家和博物館負責人，他們都慷慨的將作品借給這次畫展，這些畫作有的來自梵蒂岡，有的來自布拉格，有的來自克拉科夫，有的來自巴黎，還有的來自皇家珍藏。
All the pictures on show were painted during da Vinci's 18 years in Milan. Never has it been possible to see so many of da Vinci's paintings together. There are also some 50 drawings, including the monumental “Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist” (sometimes called “The Burlington House Cartoon”).
展出的所有畫作都是達芬奇在米蘭18年間創作的。以前要同時見到那么多幅達芬奇作品是不可能的。畫展還展出了50幅炭筆素描，具有里程碑意義的《圣母圣嬰和圣安妮及施洗約翰》（有時也稱《柏林頓宮的漫畫》）也包括在其中。
The one picture missing from this period is “The Last Supper”, which is painted on a wall. This work, which is badly damaged, is represented here by a large photograph and a near-contemporary (though far inferior) copy. In pages from a notebook da Vinci's slanted “mirror” writing describes the guests at a dinner. With a novelist's interest in detail, he carefully observed the shrug of one man's shoulders, the position of another's hands, the scowl on one face and the frown on yet one more.
在這一時期，繪制在墻上的畫作《最后的晚餐》已經遺失了，這幅作品損壞嚴重，只能用一張大照片和一幅近現代仿品代替（盡管這幅仿品遠遠比不上真作）.達芬奇在一本筆記本里用傾斜的鏡像書寫描繪了晚餐中的客人。他帶著一個小說家對細節的興趣。細致入微地觀察誰聳了一下肩膀，誰的手怎么放，誰的臉上有怒容，或者誰皺了眉。
The exhibition is arranged thematically; in addition to “Beauty and Love”, there is also “Character and Emotion” and “Body and Soul”. The visitor quickly comes face to face with the portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, also known as “The Lady with an Ermine” (pictured above). Although the image is familiar from reproductions, the radiance of the painting is surprising. Further along is an unfinished, yet searing, “Saint Jerome”. For the first time, both versions of “The Virgin of the Rocks”, one the National Gallery's own and the other belonging to the Louvre, are shown together.
這是一次主題展覽。除了“美與愛”的主題外，還有“個性于情感”，“身體與靈魂”兩個主題。參觀者一進美術館立即就能與《西西莉亞·加萊拉尼的畫像》，也叫《抱貂的女人》打個照面。盡管各種仿制品已經讓我們對這幅畫很熟悉了，但是真作所散發出來的光輝仍讓人驚嘆。往前走能看到一幅未完成但卻飽含激情的《圣杰羅姆》。首次，《巖間的圣母》的兩個版本同時展出，一幅屬于國家美術館本館，另一幅來自盧浮宮。
The two versions hang at opposite ends of the long exhibition space. The more one looks at the two pictures, the more visible are the differences between them; the strangely formed rocks in the Louvre's version create a protective atmosphere, whereas in the National Gallery's painting the rocks seem quite eerie, contributing to the overall sepulchral feel of the work.
這兩幅畫分別掛在長長的展覽區兩個相對的盡頭，遙遙相望。而且你看得越仔細，就會發現它們的區別也更明顯。盧浮宮的版本中，巖石奇特的形狀營造出一種保護性的氛圍，然而在國家美術館的版本中。巖石似乎十分可怖，給整幅畫蒙上了一層陰森森的感覺。
As a philosopher and scientist, da Vinci strove to understand what he observed in his close studies of nature. Art was an expression of his thoughts. “The Lady with an Ermine” shows the Duke of Milan's teenage mistress in a fashionable red gown, its slit sleeves revealing a pale underdress. Da Vinci, always fascinated by knots, carefully details the way the black ribbons are tied on Cecilia's left sleeve. Her right arm is in shadow. The ties on that sleeve are sketchy. The artist has taken into account his observation that visual acuity declines in the dark. The brain fills in necessary information. The sketchiness of the right sleeve helps bring the portrait to life, creating what Walter Pater, a 19th-century British essayist and art critic, described as a “reality which almost amounts to illusion”.
做為一個哲學家和科學家，達芬奇總是在努力的理解他在對自然深入研究中所觀察到的一切。藝術曾是他用來表達自己想法的一種形式。《抱貂的女人》畫的是米蘭公爵年輕的情婦，她身著時髦的紅袍，從袖子側縫中透出她淺色的內衣。打好的結，，還有系在西西莉亞左側袖子上的黑緞帶的精心處理過的細節深深吸引著達芬奇。她的右臂處在陰影之中，所以右側袖子上的緞帶只是粗略的幾筆。這位藝術家觀察到在陰暗處視覺敏銳度會下降，并把這種觀察結果應用到繪畫中。達芬奇的大腦總是裝滿了各種必要的信息。正是右側袖子的模糊輪廓將這幅肖像變得栩栩如生，正如19世界英國評論家和藝術批評家沃特帕特所描述的那樣，創造出了“幾乎等同于幻想的現實”
Da Vinci would sometimes spend years thinking about a single painting. Mr Syson hopes visitors to the National Gallery will, in turn, look long and hard at these works. Advance tickets for entry to the end of the year had sold out by the opening day. The show does not close until February 5th 2012, but advance tickets for its final weeks are going fast. Meanwhile, the only way to get in now is to queue for one of the 500 tickets being held back for sale each morning. The security checks are elaborate, but the wait is well worth it.
達芬奇有時候會花上幾年的時間思索一幅畫。所以塞森希望來國家美術館參觀的人們反過來也能仔細的欣賞這些作品。到年末的預售票在開館當天就已經搶購一空。展覽將一直持續到2012年2月5日，展覽最后一周的預售票正在大賣?，F在要進去參觀的唯一方式就是去排隊買票，每天早上美術館只出售500張票。而且安全檢查十分復雜，不過這種等待是絕對值得的。
