Name: Mona Lisa.
Age: Approximately 520 years old.
Appearance: Meh.
Meh?! It’s the most renowned work of art in the history of the world! Yeah but, come on, big deal.
Big deal?! Have you ever seen it in real life? Yes, and what a nightmare that was. You queue for two hours, jammed in close with loud tourists. Then you get 30 seconds to look at the bloody thing before being shoved away.
Well that’s just your opinion. It’s not though! CouponBirds looked at more than 18,000 reviews of the world’s most famous artworks and with 37.1% negative reviews, the Mona Lisa was crowned “the world’s most disappointing masterpiece”.
What if it didn’t have to be that way? I’ve heard about this. The Louvre is planning to put the Mona Lisa in its own room to ease congestion and let some of the other artworks shine.
It will stop everyone from being disappointed. No, it won’t. It will make it slightly more comfortable to visit the Louvre but the end result is still the same.
Which is? You get to gawp at a tiny painting for less time than it takes to figure out why it is supposed to be any good.
You don’t know why the Mona Lisa is good? Listen, I’m not alone. Google “Mona Lisa” and you’ll be met with two overriding questions: “Why is the Mona Lisa so special?” and “Why is the Mona Lisa so famous?”. People are asking those questions because, to the untrained eye, the Mona Lisa can be pretty underwhelming.
But the questions it raises! Who is she? Why is she making that expression? Why does anyone go to the Louvre just to look at something they’ve already seen reproduced a billion times before?
Ah, I see. The problem you have isn’t with the quality, it’s with overfamiliarity. Well, maybe. The Mona Lisa is so well-known, so inescapable, so ubiquitous to the point of saturation that people have lost all ability to judge it on its merits. It’s a bit like …
Don’t say Taylor Swift’s new album. It’s a bit like Taylor Swift’s new album.
Thank God this is anonymous. You’re telling me.
So what do you suggest? The same thing I suggest to Swift fans. The Mona Lisa might be the most famous painting, but that doesn’t mean it is the only worthwhile painting. Go to the Louvre, sure, but spend time in some less crowded corridors. Go and look at Géricault’s The Raft of Medusa. Now that’s a painting.
Because it represents the apex of French Romanticism? No, because it’s bigger and therefore easier to take a selfie.
Do say: “The Mona Lisa is a historically significant work of art.”
Don’t say: “Yes, but have you seen its terrible Tripadvisor rating?”
