达芬奇密码和蒙娜丽莎的双眼

  

I love Leonardo discoveries and theories. But not bizarre rumours about his famous sitter's identity

  

我热爱关于达芬奇的发现和种种理论，但是不太推崇关于他最著名的坐像的人物猜测。

 

 

  

Leonardo da Vinci may have died in 1519, but he is always in the news. For a very good reason: he is the greatest artist who ever lived. Still, the amount of news that can be generated about a long-dead polymath is startling. I love Leonardo stories – usually – but one of the current crop really annoys me.

  

达芬奇也许死于1519年，但是他永远不缺乏新闻。这是基于一个好理由：他是人类历史上最杰出的艺术家，即便如此，围绕这样一位去世已久的博物学家所产生的新闻数目之多仍然令人瞠目。一般而言，我热爱关于达芬奇的种种故事，但是现今的一则消息惹恼了我。

    

Let's start with the most substantial and worthwhile of recent Leonardo da Vinci reports – a discovery, and a real one, in France. A local library in Nantes has found a fragmentary sheet of notes by the Tuscan émigré, who died in France, in a collection of documents it has owned since the 19th century. The newly found Leonardo mirror-writing now needs to be deciphered. How can "new" Leonardo notes still be out there to be found? Because he left masses of papers when he died, and as they were gradually sold to various collections across Europe, many must have gone missing. Leonardo's existing notes are sprawling, but only represent a part of the output he lists in his own summaries of various planned book

  

让我们从最真实以及最具价值的近期发现谈起，在法国南特市的一个地方图书馆,人们在一位原籍意大利托斯卡纳的移民的收藏文献中，发现了一份乐谱的残卷。这位意大利人最终死于法国，而他从19世纪就拥有这批文献。这一新发现的倒写文书需要解密，可是，怎么可能还会有达芬奇的手稿被人发现？在他去世时留下了大量的手稿，这些手稿被逐步卖给欧洲四处的收藏家，也许其中有相当多的文献不知所踪。现存的达芬奇乐谱十分凌乱，但是这仅仅是他列出的各式计划撰写的书籍中的一小部分。

 

  

如果你今年刚好来到伦敦的摄政街进行圣诞采购，你就能在国家地理商店（National Geographic store）的展览中见到达芬奇某些发明的复制模型。这已经是我今年看到的第三组达芬奇发明模型了。但是，就如同所有引发全球关注的议题一样，有关达芬奇的真实信息总是要和某些奇怪的理论竞争。因此，伴随着这一达芬奇真实乐谱的发现，也有一个新闻产生，声称我们可以通过蒙娜丽莎眼睛中隐藏的信息断定她的身份。  

There is a problem with this theory. Mona Lisa's identity is no longer mysterious – it is known from a solid piece of textual evidence found in Heidelberg University's library in 2007. This note records that Leonardo was working in 1503 on a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. No other theories are needed – and anyway the chief theories down the years have all seen this as a 16th-century work. It would take a lot more than some arcane codes to make this high Renaissance masterpiece look like a work of the 1490s. Still – theories about the Mona Lisa are fun, and there is no harm in them.

  

A lot of harm can potentially be done, however, by news stories that pointlessly undermine museums and sabotage exciting exhibitions. I'm suspicious of any stories reprinting the claims of axe-grinding organisation ArtWatch UK without a massive pinch of salt. According to ArtWatch, as reported this weekend, Polish art historians fear Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine will be damaged by sending it to London for a big Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the National Gallery next year. Now, I'm sure there are people harbouring such fears. But any art historians in touch with that organisation will by definition share its biased outlook, according to which every restoration is a betrayal and every old master exhibition an exercise in criminal damage.

    

但这一理论存在问题，蒙娜丽莎的身份早已不是什么秘密——2007年在海德堡大学图书馆发现的有力的文字资料证明达芬奇在1503年时正在为一位名叫莉萨·焦孔多（Lisa del Giocondo)的女士绘制肖像画。 我们已经不需要其他的解释，而且这些年所有的主流意见都认定此画完成于16世纪。因此，如果要证明这幅文艺复兴鼎盛时期的代表作完成于15世纪90年代，可能需要远比“神秘的密码”更切实的证据。不过，这些关于蒙娜丽莎的理论十分有趣，也没有什么坏处。

  

不过其他的一些活动倒有可能危害这些艺术品，例如某些博物馆产生的无意义的损害，以及那些激动人心的展览所造成的破坏。我对于照搬英国艺术观察组织（ArtWatch）那些别有用心的言论的任何理论都保持怀疑。据艺术观察报道，一位波兰艺术史学家担心，将达芬奇的《抱貂的女人》寄往伦敦，参加明年国家美术馆举办的大型达芬奇展的举动，将损害这幅画。现在，我十分清楚有些人对此满怀愤怒。但是，任何同这一组织有关联的艺术史专家都拥有一个共同的偏见，也就是任何修复工作都是一种对原作的背叛，而所有大师作品的展览都会对展品造成伤害。

    

ArtWatch has a longstanding gripe with the National Gallery, which it has accused of being especially cavalier with restorations. But this year one of the most ambitious restorations ever undertaken by the NG was highly acclaimed. Not even the most sceptical viewer can find anything wrong with the beautiful conservation of Leonardo da Vinci's The Virgin of the Rocks.

  

Instead, the organisation is attacking the National Gallery's Leonardo exhibition with claims that paintings might be damaged. Some more backstory: Nicholas Penny, the NG's director, is himself on record as a sceptic about blockbuster shows – and he also edited for publication the late Francis Haskell's book The Ephemeral Museum, which questions the value of endlessly shipping masterpieces round the world to exhibitions. In raising this issue now, ArtWatch's logic is inverted. As scrupulous a connoisseur as Penny is not about to be cavalier with anyone's art treasures. The careful and exact conservation of The Virgin of the Rocks is a triumph of responsible and exact work by the NG. In short, it is absurd to accuse this institution of casually endangering a Leonardo.

    

艺术观察和国家美术馆积怨已久，前者曾指责后者在艺术品修复工作上方法极为粗暴。但是，今年国家图书馆最富野心的修复工作之一——达芬奇的《岩间圣母》的修复受到了高度的赞扬。即使最挑剔的观察者也无法对这幅美丽的修复品指责分毫。

于是，艺术观察开始抨击国家美术馆的达芬奇展，并指出画作可能会因展览受损。然而，国家美术馆的馆长，尼古拉.佩尼本人也曾经质疑过流行的展览对艺术品的危害，他同时还编辑了《短暂的博物馆》一书，书中质疑让大师的杰作漂洋过海环游世界进行展览的价值为何。在指责国家美术馆的展览这一问题上，艺术观察的逻辑颠倒了，佩尼这般具有批判性的鉴赏家是不会粗暴对待任何艺术珍品的。《岩间圣母》一画的细心和如实修复是国家美术馆进行的负责任的以及精准工作的一大证明。简言之，指责国家美术馆会漫不经心地损害达芬奇画作是非常荒谬的行为。