The website Aish.com published an article saying “In all likelihood Leonardo da Vinci was only half Italian. His mother, Caterina, was a Circassian Jew, abducted as a teenager and sold as a slave several times in Russia, Constantinople, and Venice before finally being freed in Florence at age 15. This, at least, is the conclusion reached in the new book Il Sorriso di Caterina, la Madre di Leonardo, by the historian Carlo Vecce, one of the most distinguished specialists on Leonardo da Vinci.”
The discovery gives credence to the oft repeated legend regarding the origin of the Mona Lisa, Da Vinci’s most famous painting. It seems Mona Lisa was a Circassian Jew as well and, like his mother, a very strong willed and independent woman. Mona Lisa was royalty trapped in an unwanted marriage with a domineering husband who treated her like a kitchen slave. He demanded she cook elaborate meals and every evening he would return home and sneeringly ask “What have you made for dinner?” In the iconic portrait da Vinci captured the sly smile that formed the moment she decided to shift the marriage power paradigm and take control. When her husband returned that evening and asked what the newly assertive Jewish-Italian Princess had made for dinner, she would reply with one word: “Reservations!”**
(** Editor’s Note: If you don’t get it, call a Jewish friend who will be happy to explain.)