Five hundred years have passed since the death of Leonardo da Vinci, and much has been written about him. Leonardo the artist, the scientist, the architect, the inventor, whose genius has been perceived as the allure of an unfathomable riddle. But some of the words written about Leonardo after he died at Clos-Lucé in France on 2 May 1519, hint at a very different man to the one many of us presume to know. According to his first biographer Giorgio Vasari, Leonardo died lamenting ‘that he had offended God and mankind in not having worked at his art as he should have done’ (Vasari, 1996; Nicholl, 2004; Vecce, 2006).
莱昂纳多·达·芬奇去世已经500年了，但这些年来，有关他的报道仍不绝于耳。达·芬奇不仅是艺术家、科学家，同时也是建筑师、发明家，他身上所展现的这种天才能力被视为是人类难以企及的谜之魅力。1519年5月2日，达·芬奇在法国克洛-吕西去世，从后人对他的描述中，我们看到了一个与世人所了解的截然不同的达·芬奇。据他的第一位传记作家乔治·瓦萨里(Giorgio Vasari)描述，达·芬奇在去世时曾哀叹，“他没有按照自己本应该做的那样从事艺术活动，这冒犯了上帝和人类”(瓦萨里，1996年；尼科尔，2004；维奇, 2006)。
The story of Da Vinci is one of a paradox—a great mind that has compassed the wonders of anatomy, natural philosophy and art, but also failed to complete so many projects (Freud, 1922; Kemp, 2006). The excessive time dedicated to idea planning and the lack of perseverance seems to have been particularly detrimental to finalize tasks that at first had attracted his enthusiasm. Leonardo’s chronic struggle to distill his extraordinary creativity into concrete results and deliver on commitments was proverbial in his lifetime and present since early childhood:
达·芬奇的一生充满了矛盾——虽然他在解剖、自然哲学和艺术领域留下了奇迹般的作品，但其中也有很多作品并未完成(弗洛伊德，1922；坎普，2006)。他将很多时间花在构思上，又总是缺乏毅力，所以他很难完成那些一开始激发他热情的作品。自早期童年生活以来，莱昂纳多都努力将自己非凡的创造力注入到具体的作品中，也一直努力践行这些作品所赋予他的责任：
‘in learning and in the rudiments of letters he would have made great proficiency, if he had not been so variable and unstable, for he set himself to learn many things, and then, after having begun them, abandoned them.’ (Vasari, 1996).
“在学习和识字方面，如果他能够持之以恒，保持心态平和，他一定会熟练掌握这些知识，达·芬奇总是下定决心要大干一场，但往往一开始学习，便放弃了。”(瓦萨里,1996)
His difficulties with focusing became even more evident later in adolescence, when he moved from the small village of Vinci to Florence in the workshop of Andrea Verrocchio. Verrocchio, a true Renaissance man, shared Leonardo’s wide breadth of interests and eclectic talent. But Leonardo lacked his master’s rapid power of execution and organizational skills. Leonardo’s first important commissioned works, some obtained through his father’s connections, were prepared at length but quickly abandoned. Other programmed works were never started. Leonardo's struggle to work independently as an artist might also explain his unduly prolonged stay in the Verrocchio workshop lasting until the age of 26 when he probably managed to set up his own independent studio in Florence. On 10 January 1478 he received his first recorded commission as an independent painter, a large altarpiece to hang in the Chapel of San Bernardo.
青春期后期，达·芬奇从他所在的小村庄搬到安德烈·维罗基奥(Andrea Verrocchio)工作室所在的佛罗伦萨，这时他已越来越难以集中注意力。维罗基奥是一位文艺复兴时期的艺术家，他和莱昂纳多一样兴趣广泛、才华横溢。但莱昂纳多缺乏维罗基奥的快速执行力和组织能力。他生平接到的第一批重要画作委托中，部分是通过他父亲的关系拿到的，达·芬奇一开始会精心构思这些画作，但随后便很快放弃了。其他后续工作也被搁置。莱昂纳多致力于成为一名独立艺术家，这可能也是他一直在维罗基奥的工作室待到26岁的原因，当时他可能已经在佛罗伦萨建立了自己的独立工作室。1478年1月10日，作为一名独立画家，他第一次接到有记录的画作委托任务，这份工作要求他完成一幅大型的祭坛画，并悬挂在圣伯纳多的教堂里。
For this prestigious commission he obtained a cash advance of 25 florins, but he never delivered the work (Nicholl, 2004). Probably, given his unreliability in finishing the commissioned projects, he did not obtain much success as an independent painter and, unlike other artists of the Verrocchio workshop who were transferred to work in papal Rome, he was sent by Lorenzo de’ Medici to Milan as a musician (Kemp, 2006). We do not know in what state of mind Leonardo left Florence but it is possible that he felt ‘a sense of failure and frustration—his paintings unfinished, his lifestyle controversial, his reputation a mix of brilliance and difficulty’ (Nicholl, 2004). For comparison, by the same age, Raphael had already realized more than 80 paintings, including large frescos in the Vatican.
从这次重要的画作委托任务中，他获得了25弗洛林的现金预付款，但遗憾的是他没有按期交付工作(尼克尔，2004)。也许，正是因为他在完成委托画作方面的不可靠，在早期的独立画家时期，他没有获得太大的成功，而且，当工作室的其他艺术家被纷纷调往罗马教皇处工作时，他却以一名音乐家的身份被洛伦佐·德·美第奇(Lorenzo de’Medici)派往米兰从事音乐工作(坎普, 2006)。我们无法了解莱昂纳多离开佛罗伦萨时是什么心情，但我们可以推测他应该感到了“一种失败和挫败感——画作未完成，生活方式也不被认可，人们对他褒贬不一”(尼克尔，2004)。而在同一阶段，拉斐尔却已经完成了80多幅画作，这其中包括梵蒂冈的大型壁画。
更多资讯、资料请关注雅思小伦哥。最后，雅思小伦哥祝大家在雅思考试中取得好成绩!
全城的300骑士出动为自闭症男生庆生：原来这世上真的有英雄！
英国发布2019年《国际毕业生追踪报告》，中国留学生薪水是国内毕业生3倍！
作者：雅思小伦哥
来源：博珂英华（微信公众号）
博珂英华：专注财经以及英语的知识分享、教材编写和提升课程
网友评论