达·芬奇是怎样的一个天才
画家，建筑师，工程师，科学家，发明家，雕塑家，解剖学家……没错，这些都是达·芬奇的身份。他凭借丰富的想象力、强烈的好奇心和旺盛的精力与创造力，在多个领域取得了非凡成就。
1519年5月2日，列奥纳多·达·芬奇与世长辞。500年后的今天，他仍然是无法逾越的绝世天才，广受世人尊崇。今天就为大家分享达·芬奇的一段故事，一起来听听他的“自我介绍”吧。
Leonardo da Vinci
列奥纳多·达·芬奇
1452–1519
the man who painted the Mona Lisa
《蒙娜丽莎》的创作者
In 1481, the monks at Scopeto commissioned me to make a picture for them. I started to work on the painting, which was called The Adoration of the Magi. But I didn’t finish the job. I had to leave Florence suddenly.
monks n. 修士，僧侣
commission v. 委托
The Adoration of the Magi
《三博士来朝》
Why was this? I’d made a musical instrument from silver. It was a kind of harp which looked like a horse’s head. A prince called Lorenzo de’ Medici heard about this instrument. Lorenzo was the ruler of the city at that time. He decided to send me to Milan with the instrument. He wanted to give it to his enemy, Ludovico Sforza, the ruler of Milan. He wanted Florence to make peace with Milan and he hoped that his present could help this to happen.
instrument n. 仪器
harp n. 竖琴
make peace with 与某人和解
I did what Lorenzo wanted me to do, and for the next 17 years I spent most of my time working in Milan. It was there in 1483, that I made the first of my two paintings of The Virgin of the Rocks.
《岩间圣母》第一版
Two years later, I painted The Lady with an Ermine. These paintings later became very famous. I also designed a kind of parachute at that time.
parachute n. 降落伞
《抱银貂的女子》
In 1487, I made a drawing which is also very famous. I was very interested in proportions at that time. And I was interested in the work of Vitruvius. This ancient Roman architect had written a lot about the subject. He thought that there were rules about proportions in nature. And he thought that there were similar rules for the proportions between the different parts of buildings. I agreed with him.
proportion n. 比例
My drawing, which is now called The Vitruvian Man, shows a man’s body. The arms and legs of the man are drawn in two different positions. And the man is contained by both a circle and a square.
《维特鲁威人》
I thought that the proportions between the parts of a human body were interesting. I thought that they were like the proportions in art and architecture and in the rest of nature. I wrote my thoughts about this subject next to my drawing.
Those years in Milan were very busy for me, and I worked on the cathedral in the city, as well as on paintings for rich patrons. I also made a ceramic model of a horse, called the Gran Cavallo. My idea was to make a very large copy of this model, using the metal called bronze. It didn’t happen – the bronze version was never made. Why? Unfortunately, the government of the city used the bronze to make large guns. They needed guns to defend Milan from its enemies.
cathedral n. 大教堂
ceramic adj. 陶瓷的
version n. 版本
Between 1495 and 1498, I created a large mural in a church. The painting was called The Last Supper. But Milan was no longer a safe place, and in 1499, a French army, led by King Louis the Twelfth, invaded the city. I didn’t stay to fight. I was 48 years old and I wasn’t well. I couldn’t fight.
mural n. 壁画
invade n. 入侵
《最后的晚餐》
以上段落节选自“柯林斯名人故事集”第2级中的《了不起的建筑师和艺术家》。图片来自网络。
柯林斯名人故事集
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the man who was responsible for the Theory of Relativity
纪念达尔文
the man who changed people's ideas with his theory of evolution
青年马克思
the man who wrote The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital
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