It seems illogical to deny it, and they often say that behind a great man there is a great woman.
Is Leonardo da Vinci one of the most important figures of all time? It seems illogical to deny it, and they often say that behind a great man there is a great woman. Taking into account that he did not marry any for quite obvious reasons, one would have to keep an eye on an important female figure for him. And who is more important than a mother?
Well, according to a new analysis of documents that are almost 100 years old, the mother of the incredible Florentine painter and Renaissance man was kidnapped and enslaved as a teenager in the Caucasus and sent to Italy, reports ‘Live Science’.
The documents, which have been discovered by an Italian historian, suggest that Caterina (as she was called) was kidnapped and taken from her home on the Black Sea in Circassia before being sent to Venice.
If they are accurate, it would mean that the artist was only half Italian. Carlo Vecce, a document finder and professor of Italian literature at the University “L’Orientale” in Naples, has used the find as the subject of a historical novel.
The book, “The Smile of Caterina, Leonardo’s Mother,” contains precise details of his research, although they have yet to be published in any study.