Who Was Leonardo da Vinci 达·芬奇 Chapter 1 An Unwanted Boy

On April 15, 1452, in a tiny hill town in Italy, a baby boy was born. His father was a well-to-do businessman, Ser Piero. His mother, Caterina, was a poor young peasant girl. We don’t even know her last name. Their baby was named Leonardo. Because the town he came from was called Vinci, he was known as Leonardo da Vinci. That means Leonardo from Vinci.

Leonardo’s parents weren’t married. His father was ashamed of the baby and left him with his mother. Ser Piero married another woman, someone more respectable¹, and started a new family. He moved nearby to the busy city of Florence. Caterina did not want to keep her baby, either. She cared for him for only a year or two. Then she, too, married someone else and began a new family.

So what was to become of little Leonardo?

Ser Piero’s answer was to leave the baby with his parents. But Leonardo’s grandparents were old—his grandfather was eighty-five at the time. At their age, what did they want with a toddler? Still, they took him in. They fed him, clothed² him, and gave him a home. But little else. No one loved the little boy. The only person who showed interest in him was an uncle named Francesco.

Francesco was a farmer and he loved the beautiful countryside around Vinci. He would take long walks in the hills, which were covered with olive³ trees.

Leonardo would go with him. It was there on these walks that Leonardo grew to love the natural world. The rolling shapes of the hills. The silvery leaves of the olive trees. The flight of birds. And the soft misty⁴ sunlight.

Everywhere he went, Leonardo took a little notebook with him. He made drawings of anything that interested him. A plant. Ducks in a stream. Flowers. An insect. Some cows. Paper was very valuable, but Leonardo was lucky. Because of his father’s business, there was always a supply. It was one of the most important things Ser Piero ever gave his son.

Even when he was a young boy, Leonardo had an amazing talent for drawing. Drawings seemed to flow out of his fingers onto the paper. His rabbits and birds didn’t look like drawings. They looked alive.

He understood the beauty of nature. He also knew its dangers. When he was only four years old, a terrible hurricane struck the countryside. Farms were destroyed, and many people were killed. Then when he was ten, the Arno River flooded Florence. Leonardo watched the storm and saw the flood; he never forgot either. All his life, he drew pictures of moving water.

Water was a source of life for animals and plants. It was also a source of destruction⁵. Leonardo wanted to understand both sides of this force and to control its power.

His father must have been aware of his son’s gift for drawing. All it would have taken was one look at one sketch⁶. Ser Piero was a practical man. He knew Leonardo’s choices in life were limited. Because Ser Piero never married Caterina, Leonardo could not attend a university. He could not be a lawyer and businessman like his father. He could not become a doctor. But he could work in one of the art studios in Florence. Being an artist was a respectable trade. Ser Piero decided⁷ to take Leonardo to the city. There, he arranged for him to live and work with a famous artist. His name was Andrea del Verrocchio. This was certainly the best thing Ser Piero ever did for his son. It changed Leonardo’s life forever.

1 respectable   

n.品格高尚的人；adj.值得尊重的，人格高尚的，不少的

参考例句：

• She seems respectable enough.她看上去挺体面的。
• His savings were just enough to pay for a respectable funeral.他的存款刚好够办一个体面的葬礼。

2 clothed   

v.clothe的过去式和过去分词；穿…；授以adj.穿…衣服的；覆盖著…的

参考例句：

• a man clothed in black 黑衣男子
• Her partially clothed body was found in woods nearby. 在附近的小树林里发现了她半裸的尸体。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 olive   

n.橄榄，橄榄树，橄榄色；adj.黄绿色的，黄褐色的，橄榄色的

参考例句：

• Have you eaten a kind of fruit called olive?你吃过橄榄这种水果吗？
• She likes olive because It'symbolizes peace.她喜欢橄榄色因为它象征着和平。

4 misty   

adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的

参考例句：

• He crossed over to the window to see if it was still misty.他走到窗户那儿，看看是不是还有雾霭。
• The misty scene had a dreamy quality about it.雾景给人以梦幻般的感觉。

5 destruction   

n.破坏，毁灭，消灭

参考例句：

• The enemy bombs caused widespread destruction.敌人的炸弹造成大面积的破坏。
• Overconfidence was his destruction.自负是他垮台的原因。

6 sketch   

n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述

参考例句：

• My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
• I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。