/ Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest creative minds of the Italian Renaissance. He was not only hugely influential as an artist and sculptor but also talented as an engineer, scientist and inventor. He was widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time. He was born on 15 April, 1452 near the town of Vinci in Florence. In about 1483, he moved to Milan to work as an engineer, sculptor, painter and architect. Da Vinci remained in Milan until the city was invaded by the French in 1499. He may have visited Venice before returning to Florence. During his time in Florence, he painted several portraits (肖像画), but the only one that survives is The Mona Lisa.
It is primarily as a painter that Leonardo was and is renowned. Two of his works, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper occupy unique positions as the most famous, most reproduced and most imitated portrait and religious painting of all time, their fame approached only by Michelangelo's Creation of Adam. Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also iconic. Perhaps fifteen paintings survive, the small number due to his constant, and frequently disastrous, experimentation with new techniques, and his chronic procrastination. Nevertheless these few works, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, comprise an unmatched contribution to later generations of artists. As an engineer, Leonardo conceived ideas vastly ahead of his own time, conceptualising a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, and the double hull, and outlining a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or even feasible during his lifetime, but some of his smaller inventions such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire entered the world of manufacturing unheralded. As a scientist, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics.
The Mona Lisa was one of Da Vinci’s favourite paintings, and he carried it with him until he died. Today, it is regarded as the most famous painting in the world, and is visited by many thousands of people every year.
The painting, a half-length portrait, depicts a woman with an expression often described as mysterious. Who is this familiar figure? Many suggestions have been made, but the most likely one is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine silk merchant. Another more unlikely — but popular — theory is that the painting was a self-portrait. There are certainly similarities between the facial features of the Mona Lisa and of the artist’s self-portrait painted many years later. Could this be why Da Vinci gave the subject such a mysterious smile?
Da Vinci used a technique known as sfumato (渲染层次) — the blurring (使模糊不清) of sharp edges by mixing colours — to leave the corners of the eyes and the mouth in shadow. It is this technique that makes the Mona Lisa’s expression ambiguous. Today, the Mona Lisa looks rather sad, in dull shades of brown and yellow. This is due to a layer of varnish (清漆) covering the paint, which has yellowed over the years. It is possible that the painting was once brighter and more colourful than it is now.
课件23张PPT。Artpaintingarchitecturephotographysculpturemusic1. Which period does the picture belong to?
2. What is the theme of each one?Revision923456781Mona LisaLeonardo da Vinci
（列奥纳多·达·芬奇）Reading comprehension Task1: What’s the main idea of this passage? Task2: True or False 1. Among the titles of engineer, scientist, inventor, sculptor, Leonardo da Vinci is best known as a painter.
2. A large number of works were left behind after Leonardo da Vinci died.
3. As an engineer, Leonardo da Vinci had a lot of new ideas and predictions, all of which were put into use at that time.
4. It is most likely that the woman in “Mona Lisa” was the wife of a silk merchant.TFFTTask 3: What can learn from Leonardo da Vinci ? It's about the __________ _ of Leonardo da Vinci and his___________
-----"______________."achievementsMona Lisamasterpiece 1. Surf the internet to dig out more stories of Leonardo da Vinci.
2. Finish the Exs. in your reference books.
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