Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2429 Sonia ([-])
Let the secret sink into the sea of ​​ignorance.Every time Sonia sees this globe, she will think of this sentence.She brought the globe to the office to remind herself all the time:
The more you know about Australians, the closer you are to something horrible.

She was somewhat uneasy.It's better not to be in the office at all, but go to the herbarium to finish all the work in hand.

Sonia was about to leave the office when someone knocked on the door of the office.

"Please come in!"

She thought it was her two "apprentices" who came back, but it was her "colleague": Valentina Marino who came in.

Valentina is also one of the slave girls sold by Quark.She was an Italian woman—a subject of the Papal States, to be precise.The North African pirates ransacked the village where she lived and took her away, and then she was trafficked to Basra and then to Lingao.

Compared with Sonia, Valentina Marino is a newcomer, she has been in high school for less than two years.

Not long after she arrived in Lingao, she was bought by the elder Dong Yizhi of the education department.Dong Yuanlao's maids, without exception, work as teachers in Fangcaodi.So it was the same with his training plan for Valentina at the beginning.But he immediately realized that it was too difficult to train a girl who could only speak Italian in the 17th century to become a qualified teacher—language training alone would take at least two or three years.Even if she can speak Chinese in a few years, it will be difficult for her to be a liberal arts or science teacher.After all, Valentina Marino was only semi-illiterate in Italy, and could only read and write in simple Italian.Let alone another language.

After much deliberation, Dong Yizhi suddenly got inspiration from her national attributes: Isn't she Italian?There are many Italian artists.The royal artist of the Senate was also an Italian.That being the case, it is better to train her to be an artist.

So Valentina was sent to the studio of her compatriot Trini, and began her journey as an artist as his student.

Trini naturally welcomed this compatriot from Italy. He had not seen an Italian-speaking compatriot in the Far East for many years.Of course, he is also very careful - after all, this girl from the Pope's country is now the elder's maid.

For more than a year, Miss Valentina roughly mastered basic sketching and color techniques, and was able to draw still lifes and simple watercolor landscapes.According to the teaching process, after the basic painting course is over, it is necessary to consider the professional direction. ,
Contrary to what Dong Yizhi thought, Valentina did not show much talent in painting, although in terms of technique, she is fully capable of participating in the National Art Federation in the 21st century and reaching the provincial undergraduate score. The evaluation of the work is: "accurate perspective, attention to detail, poor control of light and shadow. The overall work is dull and not vivid".

Obviously, it is impossible to train her to be an all-round artist in the 17th century.Dong Yizhi couldn't figure out why, so he told Trini to continue to teach in the direction of painting - he could be an art teacher in Fangcaodi in the future.At this time, the Natural History Museum under preparation extended an olive branch to her.

The Museum of Natural History needs a professional painter, a "naturalist painter" to be precise.

In the era before photography was invented, the only way to visually record something, someone or something was to draw.As far as natural history is concerned, even in the 19th century, there was already photography technology, but limited by the limited photography and printing levels at that time, photos still lack sufficient details to express the real objects.

At that time, almost every natural history scholar or enthusiast who went to the field for investigation, in addition to bringing back physical objects to make specimens, record and describe them in words, they often also worked as part-time painters to do a certain degree of special tracing with a high degree of restoration. ——For a long period of time before human science and technology invented fine high-resolution imaging technology photos, they used painting to create photos.

Although naturalists can preserve the shapes and bodies of animals and plants by collecting specimens, no matter soaked or dried (exfoliated), specimens that have lost their lives will soon dry out and deform, losing their freshness.This is especially evident in plant specimens.Moreover, the collection of plant specimens is affected by the seasons, so it is difficult to express its full life cycle form at one time.

In contrast, fine paintings can show the forms of animals and plants in a very complete and comprehensive way.It can describe the details of a species' roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, etc. on the same piece of paper, and can present corresponding local close-ups in full accordance with scientific needs, with a scale attached.

The special painting form of natural history painting came into being.The origins of this particular drawing technique are very old.At least in the Renaissance era, there were already similar drawing techniques in the manuscripts of Da Vinci and others.If you want to go back to the ancient times, in the classical natural history works of various civilizations in the world, the authors have already begun to try to use simple paintings to describe various animal and plant forms.

Natural history painting has gradually developed from early line drawing and sketching, and developed a corresponding independent school of painting techniques.flourished well into the 20th century.Even in the 21st century of the old time and space, this painting technique is still used in a few fields.A typical example is the medical anatomy atlas.Anyone who has studied medicine is no stranger to this kind of atlas.Most of the geological exploration personnel also master a special kind of natural history painting: geological topography sketch.

Even in the old time and space when high-definition photography technology has become cheap and popular, various natural history paintings are still selected on various professional maps, rather than photos.It can be seen that its practical value.

The veterans of the long-distance exploration team, except for a few veterans who were professional in geological exploration who could draw geological sketches, actually did not have the ability to draw natural history paintings, and this ability was very important for exploration and investigation in the 17th century, so the exploration team As soon as it was established, it started to cultivate itself.

However, there are actually no professionals who can draw natural history paintings in the Senate.So this thing is basically self-study relying on the materials provided by the big library.

Although painting requires talent, under the guidance of experienced teachers, even those who have zero foundation and are admitted to the Eighth Academy of Fine Arts in three years of high school can do the same.The problem was that the Senate didn't have "experienced teachers" at the time, nor professional ones to go home.It is obviously quite difficult to rely on self-study to master natural history painting skills.After a lot of tossing, except for a few veterans who were born in geological survey and had a basic knowledge of sketching, the achievements of the others were hard to describe.

Trini's arrival gave them hope.Although this Italian painter is only an unknown person in the history of art, it is undeniable that his painting skills beat five hundred veterans plus one yuan.Dr. Zhong gave him various reference materials such as the techniques of natural history painting compiled by Dashu, together with several picture albums, for him to learn to copy.At the same time, Bai Guoshi and Zhao Xue were specially assigned to study with him.Because Trini's observation is still an artist's observation, he must be taught to observe with the eyes of a scientist.

Professionals are indeed professional, and Trini lived up to expectations. After half a year, he roughly mastered the related skills of natural history painting, and the couple Bai and Zhao achieved good results.

Dr. Zhong's confidence was greatly increased, and he immediately wrote to the Planning Institute under the name of "science and technology as the primary productive force", suggesting that Trini's painting and decoration work should be suspended, and instead he should be trained in natural history painting.The training targets are naturalized students who have mastered basic painting skills such as sketching and coloring in Trini's training class.

As soon as the news spread, it immediately received a warm response.Only then did Dr. Chung realize that various departments have needs for natural history paintings.In particular, the demand for sanitary and agricultural exports is particularly strong.

Because of the strong demand, the Planning Institute not only approved Dr. Zhong's suggestion, but also came forward to coordinate and decided not to assign the first batch of students, but to extend the training period as "Natural Art Teachers".After these students graduate, they will teach in the "Natural Painting Training Class" as "seed" teachers.

Valentina Marino is also one of these "seeds"—but because of her special status and the addition of compatriots, Trini took special care of her and often gave her pointers, saying that she was "handed down" Not too much.

After the six-month natural history painting training class, Valentina, who was supposed to "stay" to teach, was transferred by the Natural History Museum and became a full-time natural history painter.

Of course Sonia is no stranger to natural history painting, but to be honest, her painting attainments are very limited. Coupled with the relationship between pregnancy and childbirth, she has not been able to receive professional natural history painting training, so she has to rely on Valentina Mali for many jobs Nuo is a professional naturalist painter.

"Miss Shapoor! The expedition team's paintings are all finished. Please have a look." Valentina is actually younger than Sonia, but her personality is quiet and steady.Although they are the maids of the elders, Valentina, who was born in a peasant family and a commoner, naturally has a sense of hierarchical respect for Sonia, who was born in a noble family.

Sonia doesn't speak Italian, and Valentina used to speak only Italian.So the communication between them was carried out through a kind of "Newspeak" of the Senate.This is also the usual way of communication among foreign maids.

"Great." Sonia's spirit lifted. These natural history paintings are based on the living plants and specimens brought by the recently returned expedition team in eastern Taiwan. Sonia has already inspected many areas in Tainan and Taixi. But little is known about the Taitung area, which has always been known as the "land island".

It is a pity that she was not selected for the expedition team in the Hualien area of ​​Taitung that started half a year ago because she had just given birth.Now it’s a relief to see the results for yourself.

(End of this chapter)