Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is considered the most illustrious painting in the world. It attracts approximately 80% of the Louvre’s nine million annual visitors, relates Smithsonian Magazine, unfailingly crowding the Louvre’s largest room — Salle des États — with eager, picture-hungry visitors. The competitive, stifling atmosphere the painting’s popularity produces, however, has led to widespread dissatisfaction with both the museum experience and the painting itself, which many have deemed underwhelming and unworthy of the approbation it receives. Most people now question why the small, seemingly ordinary Renaissance masterpiece is so widely acclaimed, insisting that the work does not merit worldwide fame and devotion. I find such comments disheartening, as da Vinci’s portrait is an incredible piece of art that has inspired countless artists and stirred passionate feelings in many; it is a shame that the crowds have made truly seeing the painting nearly impossible and that its fame has led many to see it only through their phone camera. So, I would like to dedicate this article to answering the frequently propounded question of why the Mona Lisa is so famous and to hopefully help stir admiration for the great work.
However, before I begin, I would like to qualify and state that I do not believe the Mona Lisa to be the unquestionably greatest work of art ever created or even the most eminent Renaissance painting. It certainly represents the acme of artistic technique and portraiture, and it undoubtedly deserves praise, but it is not the de facto best painting in the world.
Background
Before diving into how and why the Mona Lisa has accumulated boundless heaps of fame, I feel it is first necessary to provide a brief background of the work to create a greater understanding of the painting. (And because, as my research has revealed to me, the painting has a fascinating history.)
Creating the work
Leonardo da Vinci. Portrait of Lisa Gherardini (‘Mona Lisa‘). 1503-19. Oil on poplar panel. 77 x 53 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Da Vinci created his masterpiece for Francesco del Giocondo, a wealthy Florentine cloth merchant, who commissioned the artist to paint a portrait of his wife, Lisa Gherardini. (Many wealthy merchants commissioned works of art during the Renaissance to flaunt their new status and success.) The artist did not, however, ever fulfill his commission; instead, da Vinci took the painting with him to France after King Francis I invited him to help design a new capital at Amboise in the Loire Valley. Da Vinci obsessively worked on the painting until his death in 1519, leaving the piece unfinished (Brown).
Why the work is called “Mona lisa”
Da Vinci’s painting is commonly known as “Mona Lisa,” although this is not the title the artist himself gave his work. “Mona Lisa,” which is a contraction of “Madonna Lisa,” or “Madame Lise,” was simply how many people referred to Lisa Gherardini, the painting’s subject. The painting is also widely known as “La Gioconda,” a name developed from her husband’s surname (Musée du Louvre).
Getting to the Louvre
The painting’s first owner was the aforementioned King of France, Francis I, who acquired the painting for the royal collection. The work remained a part of the royal art collection until the French Revolution, which overthrew the monarchy, transferring the ownership of the collection to the people of France. After briefly adorning Napoleon Bonaparte’s bedroom in the Tuileries Palace, the work was hung in the Grand Gallery of the then recently opened Louvre in 1804 (Zelazko).
The artistic beauty of the work
Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa has long been admired for its artistic technique, its psychological insight, and, perhaps most importantly, for the indescribably enchanting qualities of the painting’s subject. Over the centuries, the Italian master’s work has, like a whirlpool, forcefully lured many into passionate raptures, beguiling them with its unfathomable, almost maddening, charm.
Walter Pater, a Victorian-era writer and art and literary critic, famously wrote of the Mona Lisa:
“We all know the face and hands of the figure, set in its marble chair, in that circle of fantastic rocks, as in some faint light under sea. Perhaps of all ancient pictures time has chilled it least. The presence that thus rose so strangely beside the waters, is expressive of what in the ways of a thousand years men had come to desire. Hers is the head upon which all ‘the ends of the world are come,’ and the eyelids are a little weary. It is a beauty wrought out from within upon the flesh, the deposit, little cell by cell, of strange thoughts and fantastic reveries and exquisite passions. Set it for a moment beside one of those white Greek goddesses or beautiful women of antiquity, and how would they be troubled by this beauty, into which the soul with all its maladies has passed!”
Sfumato
Leonardo da Vinci is known for inventing the sfumato technique, a method of painting in which the artist creates subtle color transitions to produce a hazy, smoky texture. Da Vinci created the technique to portray the grace and holiness of the Virgin Mary in his The Virgin of the Rocks, one section of an altarpiece commissioned by the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. In this work, sfumato permits da Vinci to capture Mary’s immaculacy in a natural, rather than overtly contrived manner (Olszewski).
By the time the Italian master began work on his Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, he had perfected his technique. The Mona Lisa is the pinnacle of sfumato; in this painting, da Vinci so expertly shifts between light and shadow and shades that gradations of hues become imperceptible and seamless. In so doing, da Vinci produces a breathtaking level of texture and dimension, creating astonishingly life-like flesh and fabric (Musée du Louvre).
Leonardo da Vinci. The Virgin with the Infant Saint John the Baptist Adoring the Christ Child accompanied by an Angel (‘The Virgin of the Rocks‘). c. 1491/2-9 and 1506-8. Oil on poplar. 189.5 × 120 cm. The National Gallery, London.
Capturing the Inner world of Lisa Gherardini
Leonardo not only renders Lisa’s outer world, her facade, with extreme skill and tact, but he also exquisitely portrays her inner world, her mind and soul, achieving a level of insight revolutionary to Renaissance portraiture.
Paul Barolsky, an internationally recognized scholar of Renaissance Art, describes in his article “Mona Lisa Explained,” the effect that two of the most psychologically revealing features of the Mona Lisa — Lisa’s soft smile and her powerful glance — produce, which I will describe in further detail below.
Her Alluring Smile
Lisa Gherardini’s smile in da Vinci’s master work is perhaps the best known and most captivating feature of the Mona Lisa. For centuries, artists, art critics, poets, and spectators alike have expressed awe and wonder at Lisa’s enthralling, mysteriously alluring smile, which only gently and delicately curves the corners of her pale lips upward.
The aforementioned Barolsky writes of how Lisa Gherardini’s gentle smile reveals the “inner tranquility of her animo or soul or, as we might say, of her psyche,” showcasing a pure serenity and thereby placing “her in a position psychologically superior to our own” (15). The critic describes the profound effect of the painting’s inwardness, detailing how Lisa’s evident inward serenity and psychological purity produce a feeling of inferiority and inadequacy within the viewer, an emotion that is heightened by Lisa’s domineering place above the mountains and confident look (15).
In this work of Leonardo, there was a smile so pleasing, that it was a thing more divine than human to behold, and it was held to be something marvelous, in that it was not other than alive.
Giorgio Vasari – “Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects“
Her Powerful Glance
What is, in my opinion, the most magnetizing, almost intimidating, aspect of this painting is Lisa’s powerful gaze. Her unfailing stare forces you to look at her, binding you in a relationship with her; you cannot escape her eyes, which follow you everywhere. She locks you into a one-on-one relationship that makes you feel like there is no one else but each other.
How the work became famous world-wide
1911 Theft
The Mona Lisa is not famous worldwide solely due to its artistic innovations and beauty. It was an unexpected and shocking event that secured the Mona Lisa its great presence: on August 21, 1911, Vincenzo Perugia, an Italian handyman the Louvre once briefly employed, stole Leonardo’s great work from the Louvre. After the Louvre announced the painting’s disappearance several days later, both national and international newspapers seized upon the incident, stirring curiosity and indignation and numerous wild conspiracy theories; posters were pasted around Paris calling for the apprehension of the thieves, throngs flocked to the museum to stare incredulously at the space where the painting hung, and varieties of facetious productions were produced and staged to comedically respond to the issue. Several suspects were questioned (even Pablo Picasso), including the thief himself, whose excuses the Parisian police unscrupulously accepted.
However, it wasn’t until December 1913 that the police finally located the painting when Perugia brought the painting to Florence in an attempt to sell it to an art dealer, who contacted the authorities. The painting traveled briefly through Italy before being returned to its long-empty spot on the Louvre’s walls in January 1914, making a glorious return that thousands rushed to commemorate. By the time the work reclaimed its space, it had become a global sensation, sparking fresh enthusiasm and admiration for the painting’s beauty.
Modern Recreations
Now, da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is iconic. It is an internationally recognized symbol of art that has inspired numerous and varied iterations, including Marchel Duchamp’s irreverent L.H.O.O.Q. or La Joconde, which added to his line of “assisted readymades,” as he termed the ordinary objects he transformed into art, Andy Warhol’s Mona Lisa, created using the silkscreen technique he is known for, and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Crown Hotel (Mona Lisa Black Background), which true to the artist’s style, references and reimagines famous artwork, placing it in a modern context to produce an intriguing social commentary. And, of course, the Mona Lisa‘s image can now be found everywhere, from coffee mugs to any and every type of clothing item to umbrellas and even to LEGO sets. The work now symbolizes the pinnacle of Renaissance art, and even classical masterpieces as a whole, making it a perfect reference point for all those looking to play upon traditional notions of art.
Future Plans for the masterpiece
The Louvre, due to the crowds that flock daily to catch a glimpse at da Vinci’s masterpiece (and the discontentment that has arisen as a result), is considering moving the Mona Lisa to its own separate room to improve viewers’ experiences, writes journalist Sonja Anderson for Smithsonian Magazine. She relates that the Director of the Louvre, Laurence de Cars, has expressed the possibility of building an underground room for da Vinci’s masterpiece, bettering visitors’ experiences by providing them with an improved atmosphere to view the work while also removing the eager crowd from the Salle des États, whose great Venetian pieces often become obscured by people thronging to see and take a picture with the Mona Lisa.