In the collection of Musée du Louvre, Paris — check current display status with the museum.
VOICES FROM HISTORY
“A smile so pleasing that it was a thing more divine than human to behold.”
— Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists, 1550
“She is older than the rocks among which she sits; like the vampire, she has been dead many times, and learned the secrets of the grave.”
— Walter Pater, The Renaissance, 1873
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Brian Kelly · Jun 2026
Unpopular opinion after seeing her in person: the crowd is the artwork. Three hundred phones in the air and she just sits there, unbothered, behind the glass.
Carmen Reyes · Jun 2026
Ha! I had the same experience. But go early on a weekday and you get ninety seconds almost alone with her. The smile really does follow you.
Kenji Nakamura · Jul 2026
Same experience, but here is the tip nobody gives you: turn around. The enormous Veronese wedding feast hangs on the opposite wall, completely ignored by three hundred people facing the other way. You get a masterpiece to yourself.
Margaux Dubois · Jul 2026
My daughter asked why she has no eyebrows and now I cannot unsee it. Apparently plucking them was the fashion — or five centuries of cleaning wore them away, nobody seems sure. Either way she has been quietly judging us all without them.
Priya Raghavan · Jul 2026
Everyone talks about the smile, but look at the landscape behind her — two horizons that do not line up. The mystery is not only in her face.
![Ginevra de' Benci [obverse]](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/8f29e3c9-a289-4d53-abf0-31a66e9e98fa/full/!500,500/0/default.jpg)
Ginevra de' Benci [obverse]
The Last Supper
Virgin and Child
The Head of the Virgin in Three-Quarter View Facing Right![Wreath of Laurel, Palm, and Juniper with a Scroll inscribed Virtutem Forma Decorat [reverse]](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/ff62e8d0-45c4-498f-ad36-6358de827e04/full/!500,500/0/default.jpg)
Wreath of Laurel, Palm, and Juniper with a Scroll inscribed 
Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci (from Characaturas by Leonardo
Allegory on the Fidelity of the Lizard (recto); Design for a
A Bear Walking
Leonardo da Vinci|Goupil et Vibert|Augustine Fauchery|F. Cha
Johannes Vermeer — Girl with a Pearl Earring
Odilon Redon — Brunnhilde (The Twilight of the Gods)
Correggio — Salvator Mundi
Vincent van Gogh — The Starry Night
Odilon Redon (French, 1840–1916) — Brünnhilde in Twilight of
Vincent van Gogh — Self-portrait
Vincent van Gogh — Self-Portrait
Ferdinand Piloty (I) — Mona Lisa
Vincent van Gogh — Self-portrait
Vincent van Gogh — Self-portrait
Vincent van Gogh — Self-Portrait