达文西(1452～1519年)
Leonardo da Vinci
文艺复兴时期的画家、雕塑家、工匠、建筑师、工程师、科学家。父母为地主与农妇，他在佛罗伦斯附近的文西城出生和长大。後来师从韦罗基奥，接受绘画、雕塑、机械工艺方面的训练。在佛罗伦斯成名後，1482年他以「画家暨工程师」的身分在米兰公爵麾下服务。他的艺术和创作天分在米兰有所发挥，约1490年开始计画写作「绘画科学」、建筑、机械、解剖学等方面的论文。其理论是基於他相信画家具有感受力和把观察入画的能力，是唯一有条件探索自然奥秘的人。现存无数的手稿以倒写、需要用镜子来阅读而闻名。1502～1503年担任博尔吉亚的军事建筑师及工程师，为现代制图奠定了根基。回到佛罗伦斯（1503～1508）进行绘画和科学研究之後，他重回米兰，如火如荼地展开他的科学工作。1516年有一段时期在罗马受麦迪奇家族的赞助，後来为法王法兰西斯一世服务，此後不曾回到义大利。虽然仅有十五件完成的绘画留存下来，却被举世公认是杰作。《最後的晚餐》（1495～1497）的气势部分来自巨匠式的构图。在《蒙娜丽莎》（1503年～1506）中，主题的特徵与象徵性弦外之音达到完美的整合，就像艺术与科学在达文西无与伦比的生涯中的情形一样。
English version：
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.