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Leonardo da Vinci's mother may have been a Chinese slave according to new research by an Italian historian and novelist. 

Angelo Paratico has spent the last 20 years living and working in Hong Kong, researching the links between his homeland and China over the past half a millenium.

Mr Paratico said documentation he has uncovered during two years of research forms the basis of his latest book Leonardo Da Vinci: A Chinese scholar lost in Renaissance Italy. 

Angelo Paratico claims Da Vinci used his mother as inspiration for Mona Lisa, pictured, and looks Chinese

The book, which is due to be published next year, uncovers evidence, Mr Paratico claims, that links Da Vinci and the Far East. 

Speaking to the South China Morning Post, Mr Paratico said: 'I am sure up to a point that Leonardo's mother was from the Orient, but to make her an oriental Chinese, we need to use a deductive method.' 

'One wealthy client of Leonardo's father had a slave called Caterina. After 1452, Leonardo's date of birth, she disappeared from the documents. She was no longer working there.' 

Da Vinci's father was legal notary and it is believed his mother was called Caterina, who according to some reports, was a local peasant. 

But Mr Paratico's new work claims it is most likely Da Vinci's mother was a slave. 

Supporting his theory, Mr Paratico said: 'During the Renaissance, countries like Italy and Spain were full of oriental slaves.' 

He claimed that there were certain aspects of Da Vinci's life and work suggest an oriental link. 

He added: 'For instance, the fact he was writing with his left hand from left to right... and he was also a vegetarian which was not common. Mona Lisa is probably a portrait of his mother, as Sigmund Freud said in 1910. On the back of Mona Lisa, there is a Chinese landscape and even her face looks Chinese.'

A new work by historian and novelist Angelo Paratico claims that the mother of Leonardo da Vinci, pictured, may have been a Chinese slave

Who is the real Mona Lisa?

Mr Paratico said he believes the only way to solve the mystery is to exhume  some of Da Vinci's relations in Florence and extract some DNA.  

Mr Paratico has written several novels including Ben, which involves a young James Bond being sent off to kill Benito Mussolini to recover compromising letters sent between the dictator and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. 

His latest book is an English translation of a Latin work on Emperor Nero written in the 15th Century. 

Another book on da Vinci suggests that the artist, who painted the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, was also a weatherman.  

Geologist and Renaissance art expert Ann Pizzorusso claims the artist, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer was also the first to see the swirling patterns of water and air at the heart of a hurricane.

She came to this conclusion after seeing drawings of biblical floods by Leonardo in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle and outlines them in her book Tweeting da Vinci.

Vortex: Geologist and Renaissance art expert Ann Pizzorusso claims Leonardo da Vinci to the first to see the swirling patterns of water and air at the heart of a hurricane, as evidenced by this drawing