Mona Lisa [Photo provided to China Daily]

The exhibition also includes a series of later artworks inspired by Mona Lisa, from a copy of the masterpiece dating to the 16th century, to the creations of more modern artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali.

Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci, explains that this section presents Da Vinci and his masterpiece in the perspective of artistic history.

Also Vezzosi has brought to the exhibition prints, publications and physical models made after Da Vinci's designs, to show the "great man of the Renaissance" not only as an artist, but also an engineer, inventor, scientist and architect.

Contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn