Close X
Sunday, November 10, 2024
ADVT 
Hollywood

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa portrait of his Chinese mother?

Darpan News Desk IANS, 03 Dec, 2014 11:39 AM
  • Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa portrait of his Chinese mother?
A Hong Kong-based historian and novelist has claimed that the woman depicted in Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa painting might be both a Chinese slave, and his mother.
 
Angelo Paratico has spent the last two years piecing documents together to connect the dots.
 
Paratico, in a non-fiction book titled "Leonardo Da Vinci: A Chinese scholar lost in Renaissance Italy", which he hopes to publish next year, traces ties between Da Vinci and the Far East, the South China Morning Post reported.
 
Paratico says he is "sure up to a point that Leonardo's mother was from the Orient, but to make her an oriental Chinese, we need to use a deductive method".
 
It is widely accepted that the artist's father was a notary but very little is known about his mother Caterina, with some believing she was a local peasant.
 
But Paratico claimed, "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."
 
Paratico believes Caterina was taken to Vinci, about 32 km from Florence, where she gave birth and the move was made because a relationship with a slave was seen as improper.
 
"During the Renaissance, countries like Italy and Spain were full of oriental slaves," he said.
 
Paratico also points to other indications of Chinese ancestry, "for instance, the fact he was writing with his left hand from left to right... and he was also a vegetarian, which was not common" among Europeans.
 
"Mona Lisa is probably a portrait of his mother, as Sigmund Freud (an Austrian neurologist) said in 1910. On the back of Mona Lisa, there is a Chinese landscape and even her face looks Chinese," Paratico added.
 
Only DNA analysis, using samples from relatives buried in Florence, can solve the mystery, he said.
 
Paratico also believes Macau's Ruins of St. Paul might have been inspired by a Da Vinci sketch.
 
Researchers, however, are sceptical about Paratico's ideas.
 
"I respect his theory and it's an interesting proposition, but I don't think that the facade was inspired by a Leonardo Da Vinci sketch," said Cesar Guillen Nunez, art historian at the Macau Ricci Institute.

MORE Hollywood ARTICLES

Johnny Depp Feels Like 'Fugitive'

Johnny Depp Feels Like 'Fugitive'
'I'm f*****g shy man. I'm living, in a sense, like a fugitive. I don't like to be in social situations -- it's fine for me in a weird way, having to run and hide

Johnny Depp Feels Like 'Fugitive'

Tom Hanks's Son Sought Help For Cocaine Addiction

Tom Hanks's Son Sought Help For Cocaine Addiction
Actor Tom Hanks's son Chet says he recently went to a rehabilitation to seek help for his cocaine addiction.

Tom Hanks's Son Sought Help For Cocaine Addiction

Jennifer Aniston's Fiance Makes Her Happy With Surprises

 Actress Jennifer Aniston says her fiance Justin Theroux loves to surprise her by “flying out of the closet”.

Jennifer Aniston's Fiance Makes Her Happy With Surprises

James Cameron Anxiously Awaits 'Avatar' Sequel Release

James Cameron Anxiously Awaits 'Avatar' Sequel Release
If one goes by "Avatar" filmmaker James Cameron's words, the planned sequel of the 2009 epic sci-fi movie will leave the audience mesmerised.

James Cameron Anxiously Awaits 'Avatar' Sequel Release

Lady Gaga shows skin in quirky dress

Lady Gaga shows skin in quirky dress
Singer Lady Gaga has done it again -- grabbed eyeballs with a revealing short dress with a plunging neckline....

Lady Gaga shows skin in quirky dress

Lindsay Lohan not invited for dad's wedding

Lindsay Lohan not invited for dad's wedding
The 28-year-old, whose father Michael Lohan tied the knot with long-term girlfriend Kate Major Oct 30, was absent from the nuptials because he did not invited her for it, reports tmz.com....

Lindsay Lohan not invited for dad's wedding