An upcoming book will claim that the woman depicted in the famous Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo Da Vinci may be Chinese, reports the South China Morning Post.
Italian historian Angelo Paratico has been based in Hong Kong the last 20 years. He says it’s widely believed the woman depicted in the painting is Da Vinci’s mother.
In his book Leonardo Da Vinci: A Chinese scholar lost in Renaissance Italy he says deductive reasoning led him to believe Da Vinci has Chinese roots.
Da Vinci’s father was believed to have had a relationship with a Chinese slave.
“One wealthy client of Leonardo’s father had a slave called Caterina. After 1452, Leonardo’s date of birth, she disappeared from the documents. She was no longer working there.”
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Paratico says during the time, Italy was full of slaves from China, so he thinks his idea isn’t farfetched.
But others think Da Vinci’s mother is more likely Middle Eastern.
“Mona Lisa is probably a portrait of his mother, as Sigmund Freud said in 1910,” said Paratico. “On the back of Mona Lisa, there is a Chinese landscape and even her face looks Chinese.”
He believes DNA evidence would confirm his suspicions. You can read the various theories about the true identity of Mona Lisa in the South China Morning Post.
RE: Mona Lisa may be Chinese: Decent ploy to sell a forth coming book, but I didn’t know there were Chinese slaves in Da Vinci’s day. Personally I think Mona Lisa’s nose is too long to be Chinese….the eyes, maybe…