500年前達(dá)芬奇·里奧納多畫了這幅當(dāng)今西方藝術(shù)上最富盛名的畫作，目前真跡被放在巴黎盧浮宮博物館，也成為了盧浮宮博物館的三大鎮(zhèn)館之寶之一，而蒙娜·麗莎那神秘的微笑更是幾百年來(lái)許多專家學(xué)者的研究對(duì)象。最新研究顯示這幅畫作中的模特可能是一位懷孕女性——而這也恰恰是達(dá)芬奇創(chuàng)作這幅畫作的原因。

Five hundred years after Leonardo painted the most famous picture in Western art, new research suggests that his model may have been an expectant mother - and that he painted her for precisely that reason.
500年前達(dá)芬奇·里奧納多畫了這幅當(dāng)今西方藝術(shù)上最富盛名的畫作，最新研究顯示這幅畫作中的模特可能是位懷孕女性——而這也恰恰是達(dá)芬奇創(chuàng)作這幅畫作的原因。

Mona Lisa is a puzzle and quite unlike any other picture of the time. In the materialistic culture of early-16th-century Florence, portraits weren't an expression of individuality and character, they were an advert for wealth and social status. But far from being the height of fashion, Mona Lisa's dress is utterly plain and timeless and, despite the fact that she is a married woman, she wears no jewellery, not even a wedding ring.
《蒙娜麗莎》這一幅作品和當(dāng)時(shí)的其他作品不太一樣。在16世紀(jì)早期的佛羅倫薩，一切都處在唯物主義的指導(dǎo)下，肖像畫作不是用來(lái)展示個(gè)畫中人物的性格而是一種財(cái)富和社會(huì)地位的象征。這幅畫作里的蒙娜麗莎卻沒(méi)有顯現(xiàn)出當(dāng)時(shí)的潮流，她穿著的服裝樸實(shí)無(wú)華，完全看不出來(lái)她是個(gè)已婚的女性，既沒(méi)有佩戴珠寶也沒(méi)有戴戒指。

The mystery deepens when we learn that Leonardo never delivered the portrait. Instead, he continued to work on it for many years and kept the Mona Lisa by his side until his death on May 2, 1519.
當(dāng)我們了解到達(dá)芬奇·里奧納多不僅沒(méi)有把這幅畫賣出，還在之后的很多年里繼續(xù)創(chuàng)作這幅畫，并最終將這幅畫珍藏到死。這一切更加加深了這幅畫的神秘感。

Rona Goffen, professor of art history at Ruttgers University, argues that although Mona Lisa began as a portrait, at some point its purpose changed: "It was intensely personal to Leonardo, something that he would develop over the years entirely for himself."
羅格斯大學(xué)藝術(shù)史教授Rona Goffen認(rèn)為《蒙娜麗莎》起初是一幅肖像畫，但是在某種意義上卻有了不同的目的：“里奧納多傾注了強(qiáng)烈的個(gè)人情感，讓他在之后幾年里都在繼續(xù)創(chuàng)作這幅畫作?！?/div>

If Mona Lisa is not a portrait, then what is it? Perhaps more than any other painter, Leonardo's art is imbued with his scientific observations. His ambition was to discover the very source of life itself.
如果《蒙娜麗莎》不是一幅肖像畫，那又會(huì)是什么呢？與其他畫家不一樣，里奧納多的藝術(shù)中充滿了他對(duì)科學(xué)的觀察。他急切的想探索生命的奧秘。

Professor Martin Kemp, widely regarded as the world's leading authority on Leonardo, describes: "If you think that Leonardo, in a sense, saw this inside her body, then you suddenly realise, wow, that is how Leonardo looked at it. He thinks he's really getting to the mystery of life, the cyclical nature of birth, maturity and death."
被認(rèn)為是里奧納多研究領(lǐng)軍人物的Martin Kemp教授說(shuō)：“如果你認(rèn)為里奧納多在某種程度上看出了她已經(jīng)懷孕了，你就會(huì)猛然發(fā)現(xiàn)里奧納多的視角原來(lái)是這樣的。他認(rèn)為自己對(duì)神奇的生命了解越來(lái)越多，了解了人類從出生到成熟最終死亡的生命周期循環(huán)?！?/div>

The life cycle and the female role in creation is still only half the story of the Mona Lisa. The other half, often overlooked, is the primeval landscape in front of which she is sitting. Most people assume that this was a product of Leonardo's fertile imagination, but there's increasing evidence it was inspired by the landscape of his childhood, the Arno Valley.
生命的循環(huán)和女性角色還只是《蒙娜麗莎》這個(gè)故事的一半。常常被忽視的另外一半則是畫中蒙娜麗莎背后的背景。大多數(shù)人覺(jué)得那是里奧納多想象出來(lái)的，但是越來(lái)越多的證據(jù)表示蒙娜麗莎背后的背景其實(shí)是達(dá)芬奇根據(jù)自己兒時(shí)的記憶創(chuàng)作出來(lái)的自己曾經(jīng)生活過(guò)的地方——亞諾河河谷。

The two great lakes continuous, hydrological cycle all match Leonardo's observations about how the landscape we see today was shaped by the power of water. Many regard him as the father of geology as a modern science.
兩條大河持續(xù)不斷的沖刷循環(huán)造就了我們今天所看到的風(fēng)景。很多人將他視為現(xiàn)代科學(xué)中的地理學(xué)之父。

It is a distillation of all that he had discovered through a lifetime's observation into the secrets of nature.
因此《蒙娜麗莎》也是達(dá)芬奇對(duì)生命和自然觀察留下的精華所在。