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艺术侦探:高科技寻达·芬奇失踪名画之谜 Art Sleuth: Using High-tech Tools to Solve the Mystery of a Missing Masterpiece(2)

位置以及天花板的高度,所以,现在我们已经准确掌握了列奥纳多作画时所见大厅的建筑布局。”专家们根据这一发现以及当时目击者描述的细节得出结论,认为《安吉亚里之战》绘制在东侧的部分墙壁上——就在“寻找下去,会有发现”那行字现在所处位置的正下方(本文题图即为瓦萨里在东侧墙壁所绘壁画)。

  Seeing Through Walls   看穿迷墙

  Using portable radar equipment, Seracini next sent microwaves into the wall. Like infrared radiation, microwaves are electromagnetic radiation12)—but with longer wavelengths. "The [microwaves] bounce back13), just like an echo," explains Raymond DuVarney, a physicist at Emory University in Georgia. "The longer it takes to get back, the farther away the surface is." The radar revealed an air gap behind the east wall, with a second wall behind the gap. None of the other walls is concealed14) a similar gap.
  接下来,塞拉奇尼借助便携式雷达仪对墙壁进行了微波探测。和红外辐射一样,微波也属于电磁辐射,但它的波长更长。“微波能像回声一样反弹回来,”美国佐治亚州埃默里大学物理学家雷蒙德·杜·瓦尼解释说,“回来所需的时间越长,物体表面离我们的距离就越远。”雷达探测的结果显示,大厅的东墙后面有一道空隙,空隙之后还有另外一堵墙。而大厅内其他墙壁后方并没有类似的空隙。

  Seracini hypothesizes15) that Vasari had left the gap in front of Leonardo's mural to preserve it. He wanted to test his theory, but without damaging Vasari's mural, which is also a masterpiece, when it seemed that the search had reached a dead end, Seracini spoke at a physics conference. DuVarney was there and heard him challenge the audience by asking, "Can you come up with some way that I can see behind this wall?" No one could. But the next morning, DuVarney woke up with an idea.
  塞拉奇尼猜测,为了保护原画,瓦萨里可能在达·芬奇的壁画前留下了这处空隙。塞拉奇尼在一个物理学会议上发言时说,他想验证自己的推理,但又不能毁坏瓦萨里的壁画,因为那同样是杰作。研究似乎陷入了死胡同。当时,与会的杜·瓦尼听到他向听众提出了一道难题:“有人能想出让我一睹墙后秘密的办法吗?”在场人员无人应答。但是,第二天杜·瓦尼一觉醒来,就想到了一个主意。

  Taking Aim   有的放矢

  The key to DuVarney's plan: The pigments16) in the missing mural's paints got their colors from different chemical elements. For instance, a list of Leonardo's materials reveals that he used white paint containing lead and bright red paint containing mercury17). If researchers could tell which elements were on the hidden wall, they would know which colors were painted there and could make out the design. DuVarney wanted to "activate" these elements so they would give themselves away18). "What you're trying to do is to get the mural behind the wall to shine back at you," he says.
  杜·瓦尼方案的关键在于:那幅失踪壁画的颜色取源于不同的化学元素。例如,根据达·芬奇的绘画用料表可知,他所使用的白色颜料里含有铅,亮红色颜料里含有汞。如果研究人员能够识别暗墙上含有的化学元素,那么就能知道墙壁上涂了哪些颜色,从而得知暗墙的设计图案。杜·瓦尼试图“激活”这些元素,使其自行显示出来。“你要做的就是促使隐藏在墙后的壁画向你发光。”他说。

  To accomplish this, DuVarney proposed shooting a beam of neutrons19)—uncharged20) particles21)—through the outer wall. If Leonardo's mural really is on the inner wall, then the nuclei22) of the paint's atoms will absorb these neutrons. This makes the atoms unstable, so they break down and give off gamma rays23)—a type of high energy electromagnetic radiation. Each chemical element emits24) gamma rays of a different energy, so this would reveal the identities of the elements in the paint. "And that would give you the color and the structure," DuVarney says. "And you could see if it matched anything that might resemble25) The Battle of Anghiari."
  为此,杜·瓦尼提议用中子束——不带电荷的粒子——来穿透外墙。如果暗墙上确有达·芬奇的壁画,那么颜料原子中的原子核就会吸收这些中子,从而使原子结构失去稳定性,继而发生分解,释放出伽马射线——一种高能电磁辐射。不同的化学元素会释放出不同能量级的伽马射线,这些射线昭示了壁画上的元素种类。“这样你就能获知壁画的颜色和构图,” 杜·瓦尼说,“然后比对一下,看看所得图像是否符合《安吉亚里之战》的概貌。”

  Seracini has already tested the new technology on mock26) walls painted with the types of pigments Leonardo used. The final step is to build a portable machine to take to Florence to scan the real thing. Seracini hopes to solve the mystery by the end of this year, but he doesn't plan to stop there. He says, "Once we have built this portable unit, we use this technology to search for hundreds of other murals hidden everywhere on the planet."
  塞拉奇尼已经在模拟墙上试验了这一新技术。他在这些模拟墙上涂上了达·芬奇使用的那些颜料。现在只剩最后一步:制造一个便携式中子发射仪,拿到佛罗伦萨对墙壁进行实体扫描。塞拉奇尼希望在今年年底前解开这一谜团,但他并不打算就此停下脚步。他说:“一旦我们研制出了这种便携式的仪器,我们将用该技术去搜寻其他所有遍布世界各地的、数以百计的隐藏壁画。”

  1. sleuth [slu:W] n. <口> 侦探;侦查者
  2. mural [5mjuErEl] n. 壁画,壁饰
  3. commemorate [kE5memEreIt] vt. 纪念
  4. stretch [stretF] vi. 伸展,延伸
  5. commission [kE5mIFEn] vt. 委托制作(或做、完成) (某事物)
  6. Giorgio Vasari: 乔治·瓦萨里(1511~1574),意大利画家、建筑师和美术史家,其画风属风格主义,代表作为《百日壁画》,尤以著作《意大利杰出建筑师、画家和雕塑家传》而闻名。
  7. remodel [7ri:5mCdEl] vt. (按另一模型或样式)改造,改制;改建
  8. scaffolding [5skAfEldIN] n. 【建】脚手架;脚手架组
  9. spot [spCt] vt. <口> 发现;发觉;
  10. thermal imaging: 热成像
  11. infrared [7InfrE5red] adj. 红外线的;红外区的
  12. electromagnetic radiation: 电磁辐射
  13. bounce back: 弹回;跳回
  14. conceal [kEn5si:l] vt. 隐藏,掩盖
  15. hypothesize [haI5pCWIsaIz] vt. 假设,假定
  16. pigment [5pI^mEnt] n. 颜料,涂料
  17. mercury [5m\:kjurI] n. 【化】汞,水银
  18. give away: 泄露;暴露
  19. neutron [5nju:trCn] n. 【物】中子
  20. uncharged [7Qn5tFB:dVd] adj. 无电荷的,不带电的
  21. particle [5pB:tIkl] n. 【物】粒子,质点
  22. nuclei [5nju:klIaI] n. nucleus的复数形式;nucleus [5nju:klIEs] n. 【核】核
  23. gamma ray: 【核】γ射线(高能光子或波长极短的电磁辐射)
  24. emit [I5mIt] vt. 发射(电子)
  25. resemble [rI5zembl]vt. 像,与……类似;类似于
  26. mock [mCk] adj. 假的,模拟的

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