Rebel Demon King

Chapter 211 Mona Lisa's Smile

Cheng Mo actually guessed that Xie Minyun would not let him go, and would definitely pull him into the water.

Probably ordinary people can't understand, this is Xie Minyun's way of expressing kindness and polite greetings, but Cheng Mo has long realized that this is Xie Minyun's embarrassing overture.You can only find this senior after getting along a lot. When she has a rigid tone, talks like memorizing a dictionary, and finds an opportunity that obviously shouldn't be an opportunity to force you to interact, it means that Xie Minyun is telling you, I think speak to you.

It's just that she never expresses herself bluntly, but turns abruptly and sharply, forcing you to follow her movements. This kind of gesture that is not soft at all is often mistaken for provocation or making things difficult.

Just like now, she doesn't even know if Cheng Mo has studied art, so why does she think Cheng Mo will be able to give her a perfect answer?

Perhaps, for Xie Minyun, Cheng Mo's soul is hidden and buried deep in the dark water. Although he is a sparkling diamond, no one can see it, so all she can do is to keep investing in it. The bitter salt changes the density of the water so that Cheng Mo, the diamond, can gradually float up.

Maybe it was futile, but she worked tirelessly.

It's really a lonely, dreary, stiff, dark device.

Unlike Yan Yitong, who put on a clear look that I just want to treat you well and warm you up, Xie Minyun always uses unexpected and stimulating ways to seek communication with Cheng Mo.

From the first time Du Leng invited him to the party, Xie Minyun's behavioral logic appeared, but it was not obvious at that time.

That's right, hedgehogs are covered in thorns.

At this time, seeing that everyone was focusing on him, and then the people around him spread out a little to isolate him, Cheng Mo could only plan to speak. After all, he and they both represent a Chinese person abroad. Image, although Cheng Mo's view of the concept of the country is far less important than that of ordinary teenagers, and he is not like a red aristocrat like Xie Minyun who has a sense of ownership.

But the word hometown still has some weight.

Cheng Mo glanced at a group of silent Japanese people, their eyes were filled with a frivolous sense of superiority, probably the kind of eyes that some city people look at country people, this kind of eyes are full of people in this world. In every corner, there are regions, races, skin colors, education backgrounds, occupations, appearances, rich and poor
There is no end to the superiority of human beings, some are explicit, some are recessive, they will always dig out their own superiority, and chew the taste of happiness carefully.

But this desire for superiority is not useless. It also provides the driving force for human progress. Human beings progress in comparison, tend to perfection in comparison, reflect in comparison, find troubles in comparison, and self-destruct in comparison. comfort.

It's like "more than what's better than what's below", this is really the most beautiful self-consolation, because in the self-cognition of human beings, we will never think that there are no worse people below us, and we are at the bottom of the world. .

He is not exempt, in his lonely and humble years, when he gradually grew envious of those vibrant, glamorous youths, he can only build up a sense of spiritual superiority, just like a mature adult overlooking these Like a child who doesn't understand social reality.

His sense of superiority comes from those countless books.

It also comes from his clearer understanding of the world, as well as his powerlessness and frailty.

It's like he knew that Xie Minyun was showing favor to him, but he still chose to turn around silently, which is both rational and unconfident.

Cheng Mo fell into a trance for a short time under the eyes of the crowd, until he came into contact with Xie Minyun's clear sight again, he seemed to come back to his senses. At this time, many Japanese people were already muttering to themselves about this ordinary-looking Is the boy worthy of being named by such an outstanding goddess?

Cheng Mo sighed, and first said in Japanese: "Actually, I don't know much about art. Before this, I have never been to the Louvre, let alone seen the authentic works of masters. Speaking of oil paintings or sculptures, I don't know much. I’m just a layman, and I basically don’t know much about the techniques of painting and sculpture, color, light and shadow, composition and perspective.”

As Cheng Mo said, the little fat man next to him was also working as a part-time translator. He stumbled and translated Cheng Mo's Japanese into Chinese, as if Cheng Mo finished the first sentence, both Japanese and Chinese were a little surprised.

It’s just that the emotions contained in their respective surprises are different. The Huaxia people feel that Cheng Mo’s confession from the beginning is too imposing. Senior Xie is the best. .

As for the Japanese, it seems that Cheng Mo is not as good at art as Xie Minyun, even some basic things. The essence of art?
When the big wave man first heard that Cheng Mo was fluent in Japanese, his heart trembled, and he thought: "I never thought that Huaxia is really full of talents. In a student group of [-] to [-] people, there are actually two geniuses who are proficient in multiple languages." It seems that I really underestimated the Chinese people." But when Cheng Mo said that he didn't understand painting and sculpture at all, he was relieved, and he interrupted Cheng Mo with a hypocritical smile: "Student, art is a luxury. Over time, it’s your first time to visit the Louvre, and you don’t even understand the most basic things. Why should you explain the essence of art to me? You should know that I am a Bachelor of Arts. If you are not sure, you’d better not say it. Otherwise, I will point out your mistakes mercilessly!"

After a pause, the big wave man said arrogantly again: "After all, you can't insult my profession."

Facing Cheng Mo's big waves, he was not as polite as Xie Minyun, who called Cheng Mo just an ordinary boy.

Cheng Mo said lightly: "I'm just standing in the perspective of an ordinary person, telling everyone how to appreciate artworks. I guess there is no chance to insult your professional level."

The big wave man continued to smirk, maintaining his superficial politeness, but in his heart he thought that if he found a chance, he must severely humiliate this ignorant boy.

Cheng Mo didn't look at the group of Japanese students, but looked at the statue of Venus and said, "Before I came to France, I did some homework on the Louvre, because when I arrived in Paris, I felt that I couldn't miss the Louvre, the palace of art." The Louvre, even thought it best not to miss any of the works, especially the Three Treasures of the Town Hall, but in fact, the Louvre has more than 40 collections, and it is difficult for a person to appreciate them all in a lifetime. The Venus of Los Angeles, the Goddess of Victory, and the Mona Lisa are three precious works of art, for most people, they don't really understand what is so good about them."

"So, as ordinary people, when we appreciate works of art, we must first understand what art is for and why it is valuable."

"To put it simply, art is one of the extensions of the human spiritual world, and it is one of the projections of wisdom acting on the real world. Personally, I think that there are three main types of extensions in the human spiritual world: philosophy, art, and science. Science is the A branch of philosophy, philosophy assigns the task of understanding the world to physics, the task of understanding the relationship between man and the world to social sciences, and the task of understanding human beings to psychology and ethics.”

"These are digressions. Let's go back to art, then art is a kind of mirror image. In fact, most of us ordinary people have difficulty understanding art, let alone the value of art. Why does the Mona Lisa The value of "Smile" exceeds 100 billion U.S. dollars? This is like Michael Jackson's red trembling leather jacket auctioned for 180 million U.S. dollars. The 180 million U.S. dollars includes: representative value, awareness value, Michael Jackson's Artistic value, the production value of the leather jacket itself, in addition to commercial value and historical value. Among them, the accumulation of each variable may increase or dilute the value of the geometric level. Therefore, the value of artwork is not completely Depending on the height of the artwork itself, a red quivering leather jacket would be almost worthless without the Michael Jackson label."

"Then what does this show? It shows that what is valuable in art is the thoughts the author wants to express, not just the painting or sculpture skills he has mastered. Therefore, fakes are worthless, no matter how similar they are and how much they are. A person who agrees with this author will have a higher artistic value."

"Speaking of which, everyone should understand that our appreciation of artworks is not just to appreciate the painting skills superficially, to recite the representative works of which period and school it is, but to see the thoughts that the painter wants to express through the works. That is to say, when looking at a painting, you must understand the background of its creation, including history, religion, politics, and the style of the painting school at that time, especially the artist’s own life background and the story behind it. Really understand a painting, not just learn some skills, if only skills can become a great artist, then people who are good at copying are not all great artists?"

"As an ordinary person, how should we appreciate artworks? I think that any love comes from interest. In fact, you don't need to mind what you miss. Is this thing famous? A painting that makes you stop, take a closer look, no matter what it is that makes you stop, you can start thinking and questioning, let's take "Mona Lisa's Smile" as an example, I am now I am very interested in him, so I will ask in my mind, who painted this work? Who is he painting? Why are the people in the painting smiling?"

"Then you can turn on your phone and start searching for all the information about this painting, and establish a connection with this painting"

Cheng Mo directly put aside the technique, cut into the history behind to tell the story of this painting, starting from the so-called "Dark Age" in the 1000 years in Europe where Da Vinci lived, and told everyone the main points of the painting at that time. It is used to express the mysterious solemnity of religion, so the portraits before this were all indifferent, numb and expressionless, so this painting is titled and named after "Smile".

In addition, Mona Lisa looks at the audience outside the painting, kindly like the wife next door, which is also rare in previous portraits, and it is even a big taboo in religious paintings.

Da Vinci borrowed this painting to express human nature, truth, and a resistance to religious oppression, because he was not only a painter, but also a great astronomer, inventor, and construction engineer, and was good at sculpture, music, etc. , invention, architecture, proficient in mathematics, physiology, physics, astronomy, geology and other subjects, Da Vinci is versatile, diligent and prolific, and his preserved manuscripts have about 6000 pages.
Even Einstein believed that if Da Vinci's scientific research results were published at that time, technology could be advanced 30 to 50 years.

After talking about the historical background, Cheng Mo went on to talk about some interesting things related to "Mona Lisa's Smile". Claiming to let the national treasure return to the country, the police also captured Pablo Picasso, an aspiring young Spanish artist who was wandering in Paris at the time, because Picasso had once fought with a local thief in Paris. make friends.

For example, the theft of this painting was widely reported by the media, making "Mona Lisa's Smile" the most exposed artwork in the world at that time, and then countless people came to the Louvre to visit the hooks on the wall. After the painting returned to the Louvre, about 10 people crowded here to see the famous painting
All of these have made "Mona Lisa's Smile" the "No.1 painting in the world". Assuming there is no miracle of theft, "Mona Lisa's Smile" would not have such a high value and popularity.

A group of Japanese people were fascinated by what they heard. They never thought that there was such a wonderful story behind a painting. As for the little fat man’s translation level, he could not keep up with it, so Xie Minyun translated it to other members of the group. People listened, everyone was deeply shocked, felt that they had taken a vivid art class, and began to have a shallow understanding of art
Then Cheng Mo talked about the story behind Venus with a broken arm. First, he started with "The Birth of Venus", Botticelli's masterpiece, about Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. The story, linked to many paintings in the Louvre, tells everyone how to judge whether the painting is Venus from the plethora of Venus paintings, one of which is to see if there is her son, Cupid, in it.

In addition, with regard to excavation and archaeology, Cheng Mo is a teacher of Cheng Yongze, so he cut in from this aspect and talked about the famous statue of Venus with a broken arm in front of everyone. It is actually a restoration and should be similar to the original The difference is relatively large. In addition, he also infers the level of technology at that time from the difficulty of marble sculptures, etc.
After finishing speaking, Cheng Mo naturally won a round of applause.

A group of Japanese students were amazed. Several Japanese girls with portfolios even asked Cheng Mo if he had FB, Twitter or Instagram. Of course, Cheng Mo didn't have one, which disappointed them a lot.

Da Bo had nothing to say, whether he was sincere or not, he showed admiration. After Cheng Mo finished speaking, he bowed and apologized to Cheng Mo, and then led away his students.

Tang Wenjun looked at the Japanese who left and gave him a middle finger, then turned his head excitedly to Cheng Mo and said, "Damn! All of you Changya are monsters!"

"Cheng Mo, you are so amazing, why do you not only know Japanese, but also know so much?" Tu Huiqin looked at Cheng Mo and asked with admiration.

"It's just that I did some homework before coming to Paris, so I just took it out." Cheng Mo was still expressionless, not proud, as if he had done an insignificant thing.

"Wow! I didn't expect to go to the museum and prepare so seriously. I really love learning." Feng Leiting, who was holding Tu Huiqin's arm, sighed.

"Can you tell us the stories of other works later?" Tu Huiqin asked again with anticipation, and immediately several girls gathered around and echoed, "I want to listen to it too, and I want to listen to Mo Biying too." Sister Ying said much better."

For knowledgeable people, girls still like and respect them, but they just like it for fun, just like treating a toy that can provide fun, this is not "that kind of like" or "love".
Of course Cheng Mo didn't want to be a commentator, and was about to think of a suitable excuse, Xie Minyun walked over, took Cheng Mo's arm and said coldly to everyone: "Sorry, I have to take him to another place, you go shopping by yourself first Bar!"

Before Cheng Mo could react properly, he was dragged out of the crowd by Xie Minyun, and walked in the opposite direction. He turned his head to look at Xie Minyun, and wanted to say let him go, but he saw the sun shining on her soft forehead and pouring down her eyes. I suddenly realized that some people are born with a living and eternal art.

Cheng Mo has never observed a girl so closely and unscrupulously in his life. He felt a kind of emptiness in the crowded Louvre, as if there was no one in the most luxurious palace in the world. Apart from him and Xie Minyun - there are also a lot of priceless works of art.

But he has no interest in those expensive works of art, none of them are more interesting than Xie Minyun.

Yes, Xie Minyun has a feeling of longing and repulsion in Cheng Mo.

It's like traveling, when you arrive in a completely strange and beautiful country, it's a wonderful thrill for you.

There is nothing like being completely ignorant of everything around you, which can stimulate the feeling of being new to everything that you had as a child. The surrounding environment has only the most basic and superficial feeling, even walking on the street, you also feel a kind of danger.

You are surrounded by unknowns and speculations. You observe everything greedily and carefully, maximizing your senses and filling your mind with wonder and imagination.

Cheng Mo thinks that this is probably the meaning of travel.

(A bit late, because it is a two-in-one update, there will be another chapter later)
(End of this chapter)