{"id":618529,"date":"2023-03-16T09:48:57","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T14:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/16\/new-theory-re-ignites-debate-about-identity-of-leonardo-da-vincis-mother\/"},"modified":"2023-03-16T09:48:57","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T14:48:57","slug":"new-theory-re-ignites-debate-about-identity-of-leonardo-da-vincis-mother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/16\/new-theory-re-ignites-debate-about-identity-of-leonardo-da-vincis-mother\/","title":{"rendered":"New theory re-ignites debate about identity of Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s mother"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

\n Who’s that girl? \u2014
\n<\/h4>\n

Was Caterina a slave kidnapped from the Caucasus region?<\/h2>\n
\n

\n Jennifer Ouellette<\/span><\/a>
\n –

\n
\n \"Presumed
\n

Enlarge<\/a> \/<\/span> Presumed self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci (c. 1510) at the Royal Library of Turin, Italy.<\/p>\n

Public domain<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Could Leonardo da Vinci’s mother, Caterina, have been a slave kidnapped from the mountainous Caucasus region of Central Asia? That’s the latest hypothesis re-igniting a long-running debate about the identity of this mysterious woman largely lost to history. Historian Carlo Vecce<\/a> of the University of Naples told reporters<\/a> at a Tuesday press conference that he discovered a previously unknown document supporting the claim. He’s also written a historical novel about Caterina’s life (Il Sorriso di Caterina<\/em><\/a>\u00a0or Caterina’s Smile<\/em>) based on his research.<\/p>\n

It’s well-established that Leonardo was born<\/a> in 1452, the illegitimate son of a Florentine notary named Ser Piero d\u2019Antonio and a woman named Caterina. Ser Piero went on to marry a woman named Albiera Amadori, followed by three subsequent marriages after her 1464 death. His various unions produced 16 children (11 of whom survived their early years), in addition to Leonardo, who\u00a0grew up in his father\u2019s household and received a solid education.<\/p>\n

As for Caterina, many historians have identified her as a local peasant girl and eventual wife of a kiln worker named Antonio di Piero del Vacca (nicknamed “L’Accattabriga” or “the quarrelsome one”). But that’s all we know of her. So naturally, over the years, various alternative identifications have been suggested. Perhaps the most controversial, proposed in 2014 by Italian historian Angelo Paratico, is that Caterina had been a Chinese domestic slave imported from Crimea by Venetian traders and sold to a Florentine banker.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
\n

Enlarge<\/a> \/<\/span> The only certain contemporary portrait of Leonardo, attributed to Francesco Melzi, c.\u20091515\u20131518<\/p>\n

Public domain<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Paratico’s book, Leonardo da Vinci: A Chinese Scholar Lost in Renaissance Italy<\/em><\/a>, was published the following year. His theory was based in part on research by Renzo Cianchi of the Leonardo Library in Vinci, who proposed that Caterina had been a slave belonging to one of Ser Piero’s wealthy friends. According to the New York Times<\/a>, that is also the hypothesis of a forthcoming book about Leonardo’s genealogy by Alessandro Vezzosi, director of Leonardo da Vinci Heritage.<\/p>\n

Noted Leonardo scholar Martin Kemp of Oxford University took a different tack, arguing in his 2017 book, Mona Lisa: The People and the Painting<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(co-authored by Giuseppe Pallanti),\u00a0that Caterina had been a 15-year-old orphan girl. Kemp unearthed documentary evidence that a young girl of that age named Caterina di Meo Lippi had lived less than a mile from Vinci with her baby brother Papo. She could have become pregnant by Ser Piero during one of his hometown visits. Among the evidence: Antonio da Vinci’s 1458 tax return, confirming that five-year-old Leonardo was then living in his household.<\/p>\n

As for Vecce, he acknowledged that his own research had been “guided” by the slave hypotheses put forth by Paratico and Vezzosi, although he initially resisted the idea. But then he discovered a document dated November 2, 1452, six months after Leonardo had been born, emancipating an enslaved Circassian woman named Caterina on behalf of her mistress, the wife of Donato di Felippo di Salvestro Nati. The notary who signed the document was none other than Ser Piero, Leonardo’s father.<\/p>\n

\"Historian<\/a>
\n

Enlarge<\/a> \/<\/span> Historian Carlo Vecce found this original act of liberation of a slave named Caterina, who he believes is the mother of Leonardo da Vinci. It was notarized by Leonardo’s father, Ser Piero da Vinci.<\/p>\n

Carlo Vecce via AP<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen I saw that document I couldn\u2019t believe my eyes,\u201d Vecce told NBC News<\/a>. \u201cI never gave much credit to the theory that she was a slave from abroad. So, I spent months trying to prove that the Caterina in that notary act was not Leonardo\u2019s mother, but in the end all the documents I found went into that direction, and I surrendered to the evidence.\u00a0At the time, many slaves were named Caterina, but this was the only liberation act of a slave named Caterina [that] Ser Piero wrote in all his long career. Moreover, the document is full of small mistakes and oversights, a sign that perhaps he was nervous when he drafted it, because getting someone else\u2019s slave pregnant was a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

A healthy bit of skepticism is warranted here, and Vecce has yet to publish a scholarly paper carefully detailing his findings. (It’s apparently in progress.)<\/p>\n

\u201cCarlo Vecce is a fine scholar,” Kemp told NBC News<\/a>. “His \u2018fictionalized\u2019 account needs the sensation of a slave mother.\u00a0I still favor our \u2018rural\u2019 mother, who is a better fit, not least as the future wife of a local \u2018farmer.’\u00a0But an unremarkable story does not match the popular need for a sensational story in tune with the current obsession with slavery.\u201d At the end of the day, Kemp added,\u00a0\u201cnone of the stories are demonstrably proven.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Jennifer Ouellette<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who’s that girl? \u2014 Was Caterina a slave kidnapped from the Caucasus region? Jennifer Ouellette – Mar 15, 2023 9:14 pm UTC Enlarge \/ Presumed self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci (c. 1510) at the Royal Library of Turin, Italy.Public domain Could Leonardo da Vinci’s mother, Caterina, have been a slave kidnapped from the mountainous Caucasus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":618530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101827,46,1790],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-618529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-re-ignites","category-technology","category-theory"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}