8 Chapter 7 Leonardo's Ladies

Chapter 7 Leonardo's Ladies Not everything in Leonardo's career ended in failure. Sometimes he actually finished a job. It is true that only ten completed paintings are known to be by Leonardo. That's a tiny number. But each and every one is a treasure. The story is that in 1505 a rich silk merchant wanted a portrait of his wife. He asked Leonardo to paint it. Leonardo had told friends that he had "grown weary of the paintbrush." He meant that painting didn't bring him much joy anymore. But perhaps he needed the money. Or perhaps the woman's face caught his interest, especially her smile. Whatever the reason, Leonardo took the job. And he finished the painting although he worked on it for many years.

列奥纳多的事业并非一切都以失败告终。 有时他真的完成了一项工作。 的确，已知只有十幅已完成的画作出自达·芬奇之手。 这是一个很小的数字。但每一个都是一笔财富。 故事是这样的:1505年，一位富有的丝绸商人想要一幅他妻子的肖像。 他请列奥纳多画这幅画。 列奥纳多曾告诉朋友，他已经“厌倦了画笔”。 他的意思是绘画不再给他带来多少快乐了。 但也许他需要钱。 也可能是那个女人的脸引起了他的兴趣，尤其是她的微笑。 不管是什么原因，莱昂纳多接受了这份工作。 尽管他花了许多年的时间，他还是完成了这幅画。

Nobody knows for sure what the woman's name was. Her first name may have been Lisa. She may have been Lisa del Giocondo. In English, the painting is called the Mona Lisa. In the portrait, only the top half of Mona Lisa's body is shown. Behind her is a landscape. A winding road leads back to craggy mountains that disappear in mist.

没有人确切知道那个女人的名字。 她的名字可能是丽莎。 她可能是丽莎·德尔·吉奥康多。 在英语中，这幅画被称为《蒙娜丽莎》。 在这幅肖像画中，蒙娜丽莎只露出了上半身。 她身后是一片风景。 一条弯弯曲曲的路通向消失在薄雾中的崎岖山脉。

Mona Lisa's black dress is very simple. And she does not wear fancy jewelry. A thin black veil covers her long curling hair. Then, as now, it was the custom for widows to wear black. So perhaps Mona Lisa was not the wife of a silk merchant. Perhaps she was someone else about whom we know nothing. It is one of the mysteries surrounding the painting. Her hands are crossed and rest one on top of the other. They are very graceful with soft, long fingers. Looking at them, it is easy to believe there is muscle and bone beneath the skin. It is possible to forget that her hands are just brushstrokes of paint on a flat surface. But it is the expression on her face that draws people to her. Her lips are pressed together in a calm half-smile. She looks as if she is keeping a secret. Her eyes are full of mystery, too. They appear to look out at something only she can see.

蒙娜丽莎的黑色连衣裙非常简单。 她也不戴花哨的珠宝。 一条薄薄的黑色面纱盖住了她卷曲的长发。 当时和现在一样，寡妇穿黑衣服是一种习俗。 所以也许蒙娜丽莎不是一个丝绸商人的妻子。 也许她是另一个我们一无所知的人。 这是围绕这幅画的谜团之一。 她的双手交叉着，一只放在另一只的上面。 它们非常优雅，手指柔软而修长。 看着它们，很容易相信皮肤下面有肌肉和骨骼。 我们可能会忘记她的手只是在平面上的一笔一画。 但吸引人们的是她脸上的表情。 她的嘴唇紧贴在一起，露出平静的半笑。 她看起来好像在保守秘密。 她的眼睛也充满了神秘。 他们似乎在看什么只有她能看到的东西。

The Mona Lisa is probably the most famous painting in the world. Why? No one can really answer that question. But Leonardo loved the painting, too. When he was finished, he decided to keep it. In fact, he kept it with him, wherever he went, for the rest of his life. Many people consider another portrait of a woman by Leonardo even more beautiful than the Mona Lisa. It is called Young Girl with Ermine. An ermine is a type of weasel. In winter, its coat turns white—just as it appears in the painting. Ermine hairs were used for paintbrushes. So it's possible that Leonardo painted the ermine with an ermine brush!

《蒙娜丽莎》可能是世界上最著名的画作。 为什么?没有人能真正回答这个问题。 但列奥纳多也喜欢这幅画。 当他完成后，他决定保留它。 事实上，无论他走到哪里，他的余生都带着它。 许多人认为列奥纳多的另一幅女性肖像比《蒙娜丽莎》更美丽。 它叫《抱貂的少女》。 貂是鼬鼠的一种。 冬天，它的皮毛会变成白色，就像画中一样。 貂毛被用来做画笔。 所以很有可能达芬奇是用貂毛刷画这只貂的!

Why is an ermine in the picture? It may be there as a play on words. The young girl's name was Cecilia Gallerani. And gale in Greek means "ermine." As in the Mona Lisa, only the top half of the young girl is painted. But there is no landscape behind her. She stands against a dark solid background. Neither she nor the animal looks directly at the viewer. Instead, her face is turned so

为什么画里有只貂? 这可能是一个文字游戏。 这个小女孩的名字叫塞西莉亚·加勒拉尼。 gale在希腊语中的意思是“银鼠”。 和《蒙娜丽莎》一样，这个年轻女孩只画了上半身。 但她身后没有风景。 她站在黑暗的纯色背景下。 她和动物都没有直视观众。 相反，她的脸是这样的

that she is gazing off to the side. At what or at whom? No one knows. She wears richer clothes than the Mona Lisa's. A long strand of beads is looped around her neck. Her dress is part blue, part red, with gold lining and black trim. The fabric looks as if it is made of velvet. Mona Lisa is dreamy looking. The young lady here looks like she has a quick, sharp mind. You can see it in her alert eyes, the set of her mouth and chin. One hand holds the ermine closely against her shoulder. The ermine looks alert and intelligent, too. The girl's hand is beautiful. It's painted to perfection. But her thin fingers are tense. Mona Lisa's fingers are plump and relaxed. Through the poses and the faces, Leonardo catches the soul of two very different women. Young Girl with Ermine is not as famous as the Mona Lisa. It hangs in a museum in Kraków, Poland. The Mona Lisa is in the Louvre, a famous museum in Paris where crowds come every day to see her. Which painting is more beautiful? People

她在向一边凝视。 对什么，对谁?没人知道。 她穿的衣服比蒙娜丽莎的还要华丽。 一长串珠子绕在她的脖子上。 她的裙子半蓝半红，镶着金色衬里和黑色镶边。 这种织物看起来好像是天鹅绒做的。 蒙娜丽莎看起来很梦幻。 这位年轻女士看起来头脑敏捷。 你可以从她警觉的眼睛、嘴巴和下巴上看出来。 一只手紧紧地把貂抱在肩上。 貂看起来也很警觉和聪明。 这个女孩的手很漂亮。 画得很完美。 但她纤细的手指很紧张。 蒙娜丽莎的手指丰满而放松。 通过这些姿势和表情，列奥纳多捕捉到了两个截然不同的女人的灵魂。 抱貂的少女没有蒙娜丽莎出名。 它被挂在波兰Kraków的一家博物馆里。 《蒙娜丽莎》陈列在巴黎著名的卢浮宫博物馆里，每天都有很多人来参观她。 哪幅画更漂亮? 人