什麼是達文西

Leonardo da Vinci

文藝復興時期的畫家、雕塑家、工匠、建築師、工程師、科學家。父母爲地主與農婦，他在佛羅倫斯附近的文西城出生和長大。後來師從韋羅基奧，接受繪畫、雕塑、機械工藝方面的訓練。在佛羅倫斯成名後，1482年他以「畫家暨工程師」的身分在米蘭公爵麾下服務。他的藝術和創作天分在米蘭有所發揮，約1490年開始計畫寫作「繪畫科學」、建築、機械、解剖學等方面的論文。其理論是基於他相信畫傢俱有感受力和把觀察入畫的能力，是唯一有條件探索自然奧祕的人。現存無數的手稿以倒寫、需要用鏡子來閱讀而聞名。1502～1503年擔任博爾吉亞的軍事建築師及工程師，爲現代製圖奠定了根基。回到佛羅倫斯（1503～1508）進行繪畫和科學研究之後，他重回米蘭，如火如荼地展開他的科學工作。1516年有一段時期在羅馬受麥迪奇家族的贊助，後來爲法王法蘭西斯一世服務，此後不曾回到義大利。雖然僅有十五件完成的繪畫留存下來，卻被舉世公認是傑作。《最後的晚餐》（1495～1497）的氣勢部分來自巨匠式的構圖。在《蒙娜麗莎》（1503年～1506）中，主題的特徵與象徵性弦外之音達到完美的整合，就像藝術與科學在達文西無與倫比的生涯中的情形一樣。

1452～1519年

Leonardo da Vinci

Renaissance painter, sculptor, draftsman, architect, engineer, and scientist. The son of a landowner and a peasant, he was born and raised in the town of Vinci, near Florence. He received training in painting, sculpture, and mechanical arts as an apprentice to Andrea del Verrocchio. In 1482, having made a name for himself in Florence, he entered the service of the duke of Milan as “painter and engineer.” In Milan his artistic and creative genius unfolded. Around 1490 he began his project of writing treatises on the “science of painting,” architecture, mechanics, and anatomy. His theories were based on the belief that the painter, with his powers of perception and ability to pictorialize his observations, was uniquely qualified to probe nature's secrets. His numerous surviving manuscripts are noted for being written in a backward script that requires a mirror to be read. In 1502-3, as military architect and engineer for Cesare Borgia, he helped lay the groundwork for modern cartography. After five years of painting and scientific study back in Florence (1503-8), he returned to Milan, where his scientific work flourished. In 1516, after an interlude under Medici patronage in Rome, he entered the service of Francis I of France; he never returned to Italy. Though only some 15 completed paintings survive, they are universally seen as masterpieces. The power of The Last Supper (1495-97) comes in part from its masterly composition. In the Mona Lisa (c. 1503-6) the features and symbolic overtones of the subject achieve a complete synthesis, as did art and science in the unparalleled achievement of Leonardo's career.