2016年英语六级阅读理解精炼：第八篇

　　The Amer ican Character Leonard Da Vinci

　　Leonard da Vinci was a painter, a sculptor, anarchitect, a musician, an engineer, and a scientist.He was a man of many talents, a Renaissance man1in the true sense of the word.

　　Leonard was born at a small town near Florence,where he was apprenticed to2 a painter. But he soonsurpassed his masters in uniting precision of linewith rhythm of movement, and in finding new ways to show light and shade.

　　Although Leonard is generally known as a painter, his actual output was very small. In facttoday only about twelve paintings are looked upon as3 having been done by him. This isbecause his diverse interest, his far-ranging curiosity in nature and his endless scientificexperiments and designings. To understand the man one has therefore , to read the 5, 000notebooks in which he put down his observations in life and his sketch4 drawings.

　　Nevertheless, Leonard had profound understandings of art, which exerted5 great influenceamong the painters of his own generation and generations to follow. In painting he stressed theexpression of emotional states, which , to him were, the heart of painting:

　　"A good painter has two chief objects — to paint man and the intention of his soul. The formeris easy, the latter hard, for it must be expressed by gestures and the movement of the limbs. .. A painting will only be wonderful for the beholder by making that which is not so raised anddetached from the wall."

　　His major works: Last Supper, many European art masters have painted on the same subject.But none of their versions has been as impressive as da Vinci's. And none has the enduringvalue in the art world as his.

　　Mona Lisa, if Last Supper is the most famous of religious pictures, then Mona Lisa probably isthe world's most famous portrait. Mona Lisa had as its model wife of a banker. The quietlyfolded hands, the gaze that is directed at the observer, the ambiguity of the“smile”togetherhelp to create a curious effect and a secret effect.