It’s pretty hard to argue the Mona Lisa isn’t the most famous painting. I’m not necessarily saying the best or most technical (or whatever art terms you want to use).
My brother-in-law saw the Mona Lisa in the Lourve, noting it wasn’t much bigger than a postage stamp, behind bulletproof glass, and battling a large crowd to get to it. I retorted that I saw what I considered #2: Van Gogh’s Starry Night by walking right up to it at MOMA.
What would be #2, if not Starry Night?
Monet’s Water Lilies
Botticelli’s Birth of Venus
Seurat’s La Grande Jatte
Leonardo’s Last Supper
Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam
Rafael’s School of Athens
Donatello’s ____ (what did that turtle do?)
Granted, there are others, like American Gothic, Klimt’s Kiss, and Guernica (is that Picasso’s most famous), but I wouldn’t say they’re #2.
I would say Leonardo’s The Last Supper but it’s really a tossup with “The Sistine Chapel” (Creation of Adam). It’s hard to judge though and I wonder what the list would be if we asked the same question in China and India.
I can tell you that if you asked on Spanish streets “name me a painting”, the Mona Lisa wouldn’t be the one named most often (las Meninas get my money). Asking “what’s the most famous painting in the world” would be more likely to bring up Mona Lisa, but I don’t know if it would be the one most named.
Just how the question is framed changes the answer, and that’s before getting into language issues. Leonardo’s Vetruvius wouldn’t be considered either pintura or a cuadro in Spanish: it’s a dibujo (a drawing).
That’s the thing. None of Van Gogh’s work could possibly be in 2nd place due to people having so many varied opinions on what is his most famous work. If there was clearly one standout Van Gogh of all time, then that might be in the running.
I think da Vinci’s Last Supper is mainly known for being by that Mona Lisa guy. I.e., it’s “inherited” fame.
I think it’s probably The Last Supper, and The Scream is #3.
It’s true that The Mona Lisa is not very impressive when you see it in person. However, as someone pointed out to me, one time when it was stolen, it was cut from the frame, and lost 2-3" around the edges. So it’s smaller now than it originally was.
Another nominee for very famous painting is Raphael’s Sistine Madonna; unfortunately, not for the greatness of the painting itself, but because people have forever cribbed the two little angels at the bottom of the painting, out of context. Most people (Americans anyway) are familiar with the angels, but don’t know they are from the Sistine Madonna, or who Raphael is.
Las Meninas has a disadvantage in a way - without its full range of complex detail, the whole thing is lost. If it was a speech, there would be no “sound bite” available. At a glance, it’s a dark frame with some people - that’s it.
I’m not saying that Mona Lisa or The Scream can be fully comprehended in a flash, but what you do get at a first glance is intelligible.
Famous to art lovers as a pinnacle of achievement? Absolutely. An iconic image that everyone recognizes and reacts immediately? I don’t know.
There’s a somewhat similar (or at least analogous?) reason why Finnegans Wake is not the most famous book written in English.
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