THERE WAS ONCE A KING who had a loyal servant named John. John was a true servant to his King, to the point that he had entrusted him all the difficult issues in his Kingdom and consulted his opinion on every occasion. The years passed, however, and the moment came when the King would pass away. He then summoned John to his deathbed and told him: "You will serve my son as you served me. When I die, show him all the rooms in the Castle, but do NOT open the door of the room that contains the Unknown Lady's portrait".

The King died and John, loyal to his promise, showed the prince all the rooms in the Castle. When at some point John was busy, however, the Prince grasped on the opportunity and sneaked in the forbidden room where he let his eyes rest on the portrait of the mysterious woman that looked like our well-known Mona Lisa. As soon as he saw her, he fell in love with her and wanted to know the real woman behind the painting. When John realized what had happened, however, he burst into tears and explained to the Prince that he should have never entered the room or looked at the specific painting by order of his father.

The next day the Prince gathered advisors from his Kingdom and asked them how he could meet the mysterious lady. What they explained to him, however, troubled him even further, as the only one who could possibly know was the one who painted the portrait. And so, the Prince boarded on a ship to go to Florence and meet the great painter Leonardo Da Vinci.

When he finally reached his destination, the famous artist told him that it was a goddess so beautiful that no mortal could ever rest his eyes on her. He further explained to him, however, that the copy that was in his Castle was not painted by him, but rather by a servant of him, who was named Jiacomo, who had a specific woman in mind.

The Prince ordered his servants to search every exhibition in Florence and find Jiacomo. They visited one after another, only to realize that there were so many different copies of Mona Lisa that it would be indeed difficult to find the one that looked the same like the painting in the Castle. Days later, they eventually found poor Jiacomo, who had grown old beyond all recognition, and who explained to them that he had painted the portrait while has a visitor in their Kingdom, and would likely recognize the girl if he saw her again.

They then set sail to return to their Kingdom and summoned all the beautiful girls so Jiacomo could see them. Yet after examining each and every one of them, he found nobody that could remind him of her. A few minutes later, however, his memory filled with images of the girl he had met that time and he remembered that he had fallen madly in love with a girl that was both ugly and poor, who however possessed a very noble soul.

When the girl one day died from an incurable disease, Jiacomo did the best he could to paint a portrait so beautiful that would reflect the nobility of her soul.