From Marion Boddy-Evans,
Your Guide to Painting.
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Great read as it is, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction. And, as such, makes a lot of things up and alters facts to suit the plot to keep readers turning the pages. Here’s a list of some of these. (Oh, and if you haven’t read Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, you should if you enjoy a compelling who-done-it conspiracy thriller. And read it before you read this list of ‘plot-spoilers’. The Da Vinci Code is the perfect book for a cold weekend, or a beach holiday; just don’t be seen in the Louvre using it as a reference book!)

Da Vinci Code Fact No 1: Get the Man’s Name Right
If you’re going to shorten Leonardo da Vinci’s name, you ought to call him Leonardo, not Da Vinci. That just means “from the town of Vinci”.

Da Vinci Code Fact No 2: The Preface Labelled ‘Fact’
In his preface to The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown writes “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate”. Accurate in his viewpoint; many other people disagree.

Da Vinci Code Fact No 3: The Mona Lisa
Dan Brown’s character Langdon explains that Mona Lisa is an anagram of the Egyptian gods of fertility: Amon (male) and Isis (female). And is androgynous, which explains that smile. Problem is, Leonardo didn’t call the painting “Mona Lisa”; it was his first biographer, Giorgio Vasari.

Da Vinci Code Fact No 4: Mary Magdalene and The Last Supper
If that feminine-looking figure on Christ’s right hand in Leonardo’s painting of the “Last Supper” really is Mary Magdalene, as Dan Brown has it being in “The Da Vinci Code”, rather than the disciple John, then where is he? Leonardo da Vinci is hardly likely to have forgotten to include him in the painting.

Da Vinci Code Fact No 5: Folding “Virgin of the Rocks” Painting
The painting can’t be ripped or folded as Dan Brown’s Sophie character does as it’s painted on wood. And it’s some 6,5 feet tall so would take some muscles to pick up.

Da Vinci Code Fact No 6: Leonardo’s Sexual Preferences
In The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown refers to Leonardo as a “flamboyant” homosexual. In fact, historians don’t know Leonardo’s sexual preferences; it’s speculation based on circumstantial evidence, such as Leonardo’s close friendships with male students, a dismissed charge of sodomy, and the fact that he never married. Besides, who cares what he did or didn’t do under the sheets; it’s his art, ideas, and notebooks that are of interest.