Mona Lisa and Her Mysteries Trivia Quiz

Answer: Florence

Michael White, the biographer of Leonardo, believes that the "Mona Lisa" was begun during the artist's second period of residence in Milan in 1508-13, but possibly still not finished until he moved to Rome later. Most encyclopaedias and dictionaries of art, however - not to mention wikipedia - state categorically that it was painted in Florence.

Answer: sitting in an armchair by a window

According to my venerable Phaidon picture-book "Italian Renaissance Painting" by Keith Roberts, the painting was once wider but has at some point been cut at the sides, so that the sides of the window-frame are no longer visible.

Answer: Leonardo carried it there himself

Apparently the artist carried this painting with him every time he moved home, which seems to have been quite often. There is a widely-believed story that Salai, a close companion of Leonardo's, took it back to Italy after the artist's death, but that leaves a mystery as to how, in that case, it found its way back to France later, to hang in the Louvre as it does today.

Answer: La Gioconda

The name is as beautiful as the painting - and equally beautiful in French: "La Joconde".

Answer: Giorgio Vasari

Painter, architect and biographer, Vasari - like many other good writers - was not averse to making things up for himself when hard evidence was lacking, so nobody can be sure if his identification of Leonardo's sitter is the true one. He is the sole source for this, and similarly it seems to be he who is behind the belief that the painting was done in Florence rather than in Milan.

Answer: the Marquis de Sade

He had very good taste - in some respects, at least.

Answer: The picture reveals to us a secret of which, in truth, it knows nothing

Sometimes the most boring answer is the correct one! When Oscar tries to be serious he usually falls flat on his face, in my opinion.

Answer: It is an idealised portrait of Leonardo's dead mother

This is, at least, more convincing than the "self-portrait" theory, which has been advanced in all seriousness by some people.

Answer: Marcel Duchamp

He also wrote a sexually explicit comment underneath, which cannot be repeated in a family quiz - either in French or English.

Answer: Alfons Mucha

The brilliant Mucha's graceful and seductive "art nouveau" female figures are not directly influenced by Leonardo. But the famous features of "la Gioconda" have appeared on Warhol's silk-screen images, on the iconic Sergeant Pepper album, and in an instalment of "Monty Python's Flying Circus".