The Mona Lisa is often called the most famous painting in the world. It shows a woman with a calm, mysterious smile, and it was created around 500 years ago by the Italian genius Leonardo da Vinci. Visitors are frequently surprised by how small it is, yet every day huge crowds gather in front of it at the Louvre museum in Paris.
So why has this one portrait become so famous? Part of the answer is Leonardo's extraordinary skill. He used soft, blurred edges and gentle shading to make the woman's face and smile seem alive and slightly changeable, so that her expression appears different the longer you look.
History also played a part. In 1911 the painting was stolen from the Louvre, and for two years its location was a complete mystery. Newspapers around the world followed the story, and when the work was finally recovered, it was more famous than ever. Since then, its image has been printed, copied and joked about countless times, appearing on posters, adverts and screens everywhere. Fame, in a sense, has fed on itself: the Mona Lisa is famous partly because it is famous.
