1. Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci
This best-known work of Leonardo da Vinci lands on number one on our list of 12 famous paintings with the stories behind them, purely because it is the best known and enjoys unparalleled fame. Although we shall never be able to decipher the reason behind Mona Lisa’s cryptic smile, we know that it belongs to a rich woman named Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a wealthy merchant, who was painted to commemorate the birth of their son. The lesser-known name of the painting is La Gioconda, Italian that translates to “the jocund one”. So where does the title Mona Lisa come from? Well, Mona Lisa, or, more properly, Monna Lisa, in Italian means “my lady Lisa”, referring to the aforementioned Lisa, the subject of the painting.
