Interesting Green: Mona Lisa 'might be Chinese' claim sparks online frenzy

My Paper, Thursday, December 04, 2014, Page A2, Top Stories
From http://epaper.mypaper.sg/emnd/fvxen/fvxp/fvxpress.php?param=2014-12-04
Source Website: http://mypaper.sg/top-stories/mona-lisa-might-be-chinese-claim-sparks-online-frenzy-20141204
By AFP, mypaper, myp@sph.com.sg, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Published on Dec 04, 2014

PHOTO: FACT OR FICTION? Mona Lisa could be da Vinci's Chinese mother, according to Mr Paratico's hypothesis.
PHOTO: THE STRAITS TIMES
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6vdCDaz5yZSldtTzXiH7500_M4KuLY4z21ap8QNv0kVnhiE1lF28o_x0VI9bN9u-W2p5iI0z0idz9Q16hUoAX7esNyE8StvfIdAoGV69nAauQ14V3h7S2TKx514Y4YlQ77hk-GbEaaSM/s1600/Mona+Lisa+'might+be+Chinese'+claim+sparks+online+frenzy.jpg
http://mypaper.sg/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/20141204/MY_20141204_MONA04_P_876955.jpg
My Paper, Thursday, December 04, 2014, Page A2, Top Stories

BEIJING
AN ITALIAN historian's hypothesis that Mona Lisa might be a Chinese slave and Leonardo da Vinci's mother - making the 15th century polymath half-Chinese - sent online commentators into a frenzy yesterday.

Angelo Paratico, a Hong Kong-based historian and novelist from Italy, told the South China Morning Post: "On the back of Mona Lisa, there is a Chinese landscape and even her face looks Chinese."

Chinese web users expressed astonishment and disbelief yesterday, posting dozens of parodies of the painting, with faces from Chinese comedians to British actor Rowan Atkinson grafted over her delicate features.

PHOTO: Parodies of Mona Lisa - Megan Fox
Posted by photoshop mona lisa from Art Design Way
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiBnQV0GTvF4OdIxgpdKZvNzEoLGn4gXMoZlRN0KW0yIcPw_cyJhnz8rjNARZ3qhvLyzkGb9je474KkD-UI9ODFtG_t6BH8yrV5ZHtRgxxiM9CTic8-YdCs_MCFBNhGq0xJu7un2qvsuY/s1600/monalisa_foxed.jpg
http://www.funtoosh.com/f_images/monalisa_foxed.jpg
http://des-way.blogspot.sg/2013/03/when-monalisa-fixed-photoshop-mona-lisa.html

Little is known about Caterina, the mother of the artist, writer, mathematician and inventor, and the identity of the sitter for the portrait hanging in Paris' Louvre museum has long been a matter of debate.

Mr Paratico, who is finishing a book entitled Leonardo Da Vinci: A Chinese Scholar Lost In Renaissance Italy, cited Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud's 1910 assumption that the painting was inspired by the artist's mother.

PHOTO: Painting by Siegfried Zademack titled: 'das laecheln der mona lisa' (Mona Lisa's Smile), created in 1979
Painting by Siegfried Zademack
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY9rVmoPK52EpXrm-M6qPpzDcisavUII5OMMPeV3P8qDRzI0k5kqwcSSnlf1wZMX6-JXF-ExbIHM0pBphwf5KG04imaksFqrVbkmocRG14E58CxjJN5d9d8gY5GwUChXhJDl2Q1glWDNg/s1600/24865.jpg
http://i2.2photo.ru/front_medium/p/6/24865.jpg
http://www.2photo.ru/ru/taggedphoto/13529?page=103

"One wealthy client of da Vinci's father had a slave called Caterina. After 1452 - da Vinci's date of birth - she disappeared from the documents," he told the paper.

The evidence for a Chinese connection appears to be slight, with Mr Paratico saying he was sure "up to a point" that da Vinci's mother was from the Orient. "To make her an oriental Chinese, we need to use a deductive method," he added.

Many posters on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo were incredulous (unable to believe).

PHOTO: I'm so sad that you thought I'm a foreigner!
Posted by WallpaperUP.com
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9DDmKluo7C3UvjAKDylAjuANNh_qAXuiUxXxVvjzwjFqiqDJkOxsCED7O81o7LyqM5XmzRGS40ezrekNyRdS4OulVCXuu5nUCB4nsX-vBF-REUphj4N3FpivkO5_KfkT2hAukpbo8jIQ/s1600/big_thumb_448d268a6be1c95c7f49583c044d4ef0.jpg
http://www.wallpaperup.com/uploads/wallpapers/2013/11/29/180655/big_thumb_448d268a6be1c95c7f49583c044d4ef0.jpg
http://www.wallpaperup.com/180655/MARILYN_MANSON_industrial_metal_rock_heavy_shock_gothic_glam_mona_lisa_f.html

"I'm so sad that you thought I'm a foreigner!" wrote one, with an image of a frowning Mona Lisa holding two rolls of toilet paper and blowing her nose. "I'd rather be from wherever I am loved."

Another user replaced her features with unlikely faces ranging from Chinese male comedian Zhao Benshan to British actor Rowan Atkinson, to a grimacing robot holding a Mona Lisa mask.

The topic had been viewed more than four million times and triggered 160,000 postings by midday yesterday.

"I now understand why her smile looks so mysterious and concealed - it's typically Chinese," said another poster.

By AFP, mypaper, myp@sph.com.sg, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, Published on Dec 04, 2014

PHOTO: Exhibition – 17st MonaLisa 2008
Posted by artemilia.se
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnyyEriSFPjYTBEpzk15i3lhyUaJ62bP6trATpXnyrlE9SVsfphkW2CbUKi_3KDMRi00zPpgXGe63nc1RP5Kr-mpdA213wSIOtxv8PSZd_HQ0Om0SKHrohdOSliqKJi8yFM-0a5KVq58s/s1600/monalisa-mask.jpg
http://artemilia.se/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/monalisa-mask.jpg
http://artemilia.se/blog/17st-monalisa-2008/