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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.
集科学家，工程师，音乐家和伟大的艺术家于一身的李奥纳多达芬奇就是文艺复兴时期人类的原型。毫无疑问，达芬奇是个天才，他活到了67岁，虽然有很多成就，但是这位天才也是历史上没有充分发挥真实水平的艺术家之一。他启动的很多工程都没有收尾，他接受了任务却从来没开始做，他计划的很多论文却仅仅停留在几条注释上。达芬奇的画作只有18幅流传了下来。11月9日在伦敦国家美术馆举办了一次画展，达芬奇9幅作品也在其中展出，这是迄今为止最隆重的达芬奇画展。
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.
达芬奇1452年生于佛罗伦萨附近，三十岁的时候他去了米兰。该展馆馆长卢克塞森相信，宫廷画师达芬奇在为米兰公爵Ludovico Sforza创作时，享受了充分的自由，这是激发达芬奇绘画天赋的关键
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.
塞森认为，李奥纳多取得的重大突破在米兰，而不是在后来的佛罗伦萨，一直到今天这一看法都被普遍接受。而塞森的这一主张也吸引了许多展馆馆长，收藏家和博物馆负责人，他们都慷慨的将作品借给这次画展，这些画作有的来自梵蒂冈，有的来自布拉格，有的来自克拉科夫，有的来自巴黎，还有的来自皇家珍藏。
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”).
展出的所有画作都是达芬奇在米兰18年间创作的。以前要同时见到那么多幅达芬奇作品是不可能的。画展还展出了50幅炭笔素描，具有里程碑意义的《圣母圣婴和圣安妮及施洗约翰》（有时也称《柏林顿宫的漫画》）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.
在这一时期，绘制在墙上的画作《最后的晚餐》已经遗失了，这幅作品损坏严重，只能用一张大照片和一幅近现代仿品代替（尽管这幅仿品远远比不上真作）.达芬奇在一本笔记本里用倾斜的镜像书写描绘了晚餐中的客人。他带着一个小说家对细节的兴趣。细致入微地观察谁耸了一下肩膀，谁的手怎么放，谁的脸上有怒容，或者谁皱了眉。
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.
这是一次主题展览。除了“美与爱”的主题外，还有“个性于情感”，“身体与灵魂”两个主题。参观者一进美术馆立即就能与《西西莉亚·加莱拉尼的画像》，也叫《抱貂的女人》打个照面。尽管各种仿制品已经让我们对这幅画很熟悉了，但是真作所散发出来的光辉仍让人惊叹。往前走能看到一幅未完成但却饱含激情的《圣杰罗姆》。首次，《岩间的圣母》的两个版本同时展出，一幅属于国家美术馆本馆，另一幅来自卢浮宫。
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.
这两幅画分别挂在长长的展览区两个相对的尽头，遥遥相望。而且你看得越仔细，就会发现它们的区别也更明显。卢浮宫的版本中，岩石奇特的形状营造出一种保护性的氛围，然而在国家美术馆的版本中。岩石似乎十分可怖，给整幅画蒙上了一层阴森森的感觉。
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”.
做为一个哲学家和科学家，达芬奇总是在努力的理解他在对自然深入研究中所观察到的一切。艺术曾是他用来表达自己想法的一种形式。《抱貂的女人》画的是米兰公爵年轻的情妇，她身着时髦的红袍，从袖子侧缝中透出她浅色的内衣。打好的结，，还有系在西西莉亚左侧袖子上的黑缎带的精心处理过的细节深深吸引着达芬奇。她的右臂处在阴影之中，所以右侧袖子上的缎带只是粗略的几笔。这位艺术家观察到在阴暗处视觉敏锐度会下降，并把这种观察结果应用到绘画中。达芬奇的大脑总是装满了各种必要的信息。正是右侧袖子的模糊轮廓将这幅肖像变得栩栩如生，正如19世界英国评论家和艺术批评家沃特帕特所描述的那样，创造出了“几乎等同于幻想的现实”
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.
达芬奇有时候会花上几年的时间思索一幅画。所以塞森希望来国家美术馆参观的人们反过来也能仔细的欣赏这些作品。到年末的预售票在开馆当天就已经抢购一空。展览将一直持续到2012年2月5日，展览最后一周的预售票正在大卖。现在要进去参观的唯一方式就是去排队买票，每天早上美术馆只出售500张票。而且安全检查十分复杂，不过这种等待是绝对值得的。
