I just watched a doc that mentioned Paris as the city of the Mona Lisa and wondered what is it that makes that painting so special after all these years. Btw, im in Asia and Ive seen the painting countless times through references. I cant remember the first time I heard/saw the painting but it must’ve been when I was a toddler. How can an image get so famous?
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The Mona Lisa’s fame has very little to do with the quality of the painting, there are very few art historians that would regard it as even Leonardo da Vinci’s best painting.
Most of its fame comes from how it was stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris on August 21, 1911, by an Italian handyman named Vincenzo Peruggia. Peruggia had worked at the Louvre and was familiar with the museum’s operations. He hid inside the museum overnight and, dressed in a white smock like the museum staff, was able to remove the painting early in the morning before the museum opened to the public. He took off the protective case and frame and then walked out with the painting hidden under his clothing.
Due to the telegraph and the emergence of the radio, this became one of the world’s first global news stories making the name Mona Lisa synonymous with fine art and leading to it being the most reparduced image in the world.
the correct answer was already mentioned “it was stolen and became a world wide new story, one of the first”.
Interesting fact, there are at least two other Mona Lisa floating around and another one from Leonardo’s apprentice.
Fun fact : She has no eyebrows in Leonardo’s because it was unfinished.
Check out this video by [Great Art Explained.](
https://youtu.be/ElWG0_kjy_Y?si=7tuZkf5g011uZV0r) It’s about 30 mins but goes in-depth about why the Mona Lisa is special and debunks the myth that it’s only famous because it was stolen.
Art theft and vandalism fame aside, there are a few notable and mysterious features of the Mona Lisa:
* It was painted by noted polymath and inventor Leonardo da Vinci, who would likely be famous even if he didn’t paint the Mona Lisa.
* It’s a great example of sfumato, a technique that causes the painting to look exceptionally smooth, blended, and life-like. This allows the image to look natural even though she has no visible eyebrows or eyelashes anymore (the original painting probably had both).
* Her eyes are fixed on the viewer, and her gaze is very enticing.
* She bares a very very slight smile.
* This is one of the first famous *portraits* to feature a fantastical, imaginary landscape as the backdrop.
Simply put, the Mona Lisa is mysterious looking and like many great works of art, makes us wonder. But as others have noted, there is no reason to believe the Mona Lisa is the greatest painting, or even da Vinci’s greatest painting, or that it excels in any of the qualities listed above any better than other works.
As a side little interesting titbit to the Mona Lisa.
Henry VIII’s 4th wife, Anne of Cleves, was painted in the image and style of the Mona Lisa.
Henry had sent his court painter, Hans Holbein, over to Germany to paint her as he himself had not actually seen her, and he was worried the painting he had seen of her would not be an accurate representation of her. (For what it’s worth, Henry has sent her a painting of him painted 20 years previously showing him young and lean, as opposed to old, haggard and overweight)
Anyway, Hans was a big admirer of DeVinci and In particular the Mona Lisa. So when he met Anne of Cleves and she sat for his painting. It painted her in the style of Mona Lisa.
Now every English person knows the rest. It’s taught in schools.
Henry loved the girl in the painting, and agreed to marry her. She came over and upon meeting in the flesh, Henry decided she looked nothing like the painting and didn’t wish to go ahead with the marriage, but he’d made too many enemies to pull out now. So after 5 days, he went ahead with it.
However 6 months later he divorced her, saying she was too ugly to consummate the marriage with.
Charming man.
Not to mention as famous as Da Vinci is/was, there are only 8 confirmed paintings of his in the world. (There are another dozen or so that are likely his). Mona Lisa is one of the 8.
As Phantom Limb from the show *The Venture Bros.* so eloquently said while trying to sell a Rembrandt painting:
“The Mona Lisa isn’t a better paintinf, it’s just a more famous painting. And it was only *made* famous because it was stolen!”
That’s literally it. Someone once stole the Mona Lisa.
I saw it in the louve like many others. The painting it’s self is nothing special unless you care about the new techniques that came out at the time to make the painting happen and you care about art itself.
It’s famous because of what happened to the painting over time. Imagine a celebrity had a custom sneaker made they never wore and put it in a glass box. That some how got stolen multiple times over, fakes were made, etc. This happens for centuries. Then one day the real one pops up out of no where. So basically it’s just a really interesting historical story more than anything.
Not to discount the quality of work. I wouldn’t be able make that. But compared to other works of art, the Mona Lisa mid-tier for me.
There’s an excellent book that discusses this called “Everything is Obvious Once You Know the Answer.” The gist is that the Mona Lisa is the most famous painting because it’s the most Mona Lisa-like. In other words, some painting has to be the most famous painting, and there isn’t anything inherent about the Mona Lisa that would make it such, so any line of reasoning is a matter of confirmation bias.
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