Leonardo didn’t compartmentalise his experiments. For example, before him, only apothecaries created fragrances which were not meant to be put directly on to the skin.

Not only is her smile strange, just about everything about her is strange.

Leonardo did not give this, or any other of his paintings, a title. He simply said it is of a Florentine lady.

Before we dive into the nitty gritty of what lies behind the painting, it never hurts to point out that the first people to see Mona Lisa outside Italy lived in Amboise in the beautiful Loire Valley.

After more than five hundred years, thousands of books and millions of words written about Leonardo da Vinci, there are not many mysteries left surrounding him.

After more than five hundred years surely everything there is to be known about the most famous painting in the world is known? Isn’t it? No.

Among world famous artists such as Turner, Ruskin and Whistler who visited Amboise to sketch the famous Château, was Whistler’s friend Rodin.

In 1888, in Amboise, James McNeill Whistler had never been so happy. He was on his honeymoon, with his beloved Trixie in his beloved France. He was fifty, Beatrix was thirty. It was his first marriage, her second. They had known each other for many years.

Turner’s book, Wanderings By The Loire, inspired English artists to paint Château Amboise.