Why Mona Lisa is so Famous and Significant to the Art World

Leonardo’s mother was a peasant woman named Katarina. Leonardo’s father, on contrary, was a wealthy notary and a landowner - Piero da Vinci. Early education was given to young da Vinci at home. By the standards of his time, he received a pretty good education but lacked knowledge in Greek and Latin languages.



Who could have thought that this ordinary boy would grow up to be the great polymath and the "Universal Genius" of the Renaissance epoch. Among numerous works of art made by Leonardo, Mona Lisa is probably the most popular but let’s take a closer look at its history to see why and how it has become so significant for the art world.


Sfumato (Leonardo’s smoke) – advanced painting technique by Da Vinci

Today the Mona Lisa is known for its brilliant use for sfumato and secretive smile, which leaves many people wondering, what is the story behind the artwork. But historians say that the Mona Lisa could have stayed known only to connoisseurs of fine art, if it wasn’t for one historic event, which made it internationally famous.



Francis I was the first person to acquire the artwork after the passing of #Leonardo da Vinci. Francis I got the Mona Lisa directly from Leonardo and helped it to become a part of the royal art collection (it was the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the interesting history of the painting started to unravel).

In 1793 it was moved to the Central Museum of the Arts for an exhibition. In the Louvre Museum, the Mona Lisa was treasured as leading piece of the national collection, so over the years it has been thoroughly studied by historians and reproduced by painters. After one of such art analyses, on August 21, 1911, the painting went missing.



An Italian painter, Vincenzo Peruggia, was the main suspect, because he promised to return the masterpiece to its historical homeland on numerous occasions. A great effort was made to return the painting, the police interrogated a series of suspects but the Mona Lisa was found only two years later in Italy.

After the long-lasting examination and restoration, the masterpiece was hung back in place. This time frame worked better than any modern marketing campaign, in two years the Mona Lisa was featured on the covers of hundreds of newspapers and magazines all over the world, only heating up the interest of people towards it.

Image credits:

1) www.static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2015/12/08/402790-mona-lisa.jpg
2) https://www.bluehorizonprints.com.au/uploads/products/Mona-Lisa-canvas-print-australia.jpg
3) http://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2014/12/15/20/12-MonaLisa-Reuters.jpg