Two sisters, lui and lua
This is the story of how the older sister, lui, explains to her younger sister, lua, how she interpreted the famous painting "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci .
https://youtu.be/lsqIqIVjLdk
"Sis, even if what you say is true, then who the hell is this man?"
"Perhaps he is Salai, Leonardo's disciple [Note 6]."＜pic11＞
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"Salai?"
"Yes, he is said to have been the model for paintings such as St. John the Baptist and Bacchus, with whom Leonardo lived until just before his death [Note 6]."
"Wow."
"He was a very beautiful young man, and it seems that he and Leonardo had a very close relationship. Leonardo seemed to love him very much."
"What? Could it be homosexuality?"
"Some people seem to say that, but I don't really know."
I looked at the two paintings again.
"I looked them up on the Internet and found that some researchers claim that Sarai was the model for this Mona Lisa. They say that Sarai's facial features and those of the Mona Lisa are very similar in parts [Note 6][Note 7]."
"Do you agree?"
"No, I don't know about the facial features."
"Then why?"
"It has some sort of name (initials) painted on it."
"What?"
"Sarai's real name is Gian Giacomo Caprotti. The name Sarai is a kind of nickname Leonardo gave to him for his bad behavior, and it means little devil [Note 6]."
I pointed to the left of the supposed man.＜pic12＞
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"Look, first of all, here. This letter looks like part of the Italian writing system G [Note 8]. And this letter below it, doesn't it look like a C [note 8] in the Italian writing system?"
"Yes, at least the bottom letter is clearly a C."＜pic13＞
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"Yes, so if the letter G stands for Gian or 'Giacomo' and the letter C' for Caprotti', then these two letters stand for Sarai."
"Mmm-hmm, I see."
The eyes of the younger sister nodded in agreement, their brightness increasing as if she was trying to draw something out of them.
