The more expectations you raise towards something (or someone), the greater the risk of seeing them unmet increases. This is also true in the world of art, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to explain why Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, perhaps the most famous painting in the world, is at the same time also the most disappointing. To detect it, based on the contents of ben 18,176 reviews of the most internationally renowned works, was an analysis carried out last month by the Californian site CouponBirds. The famous canvas in the Louvre has in fact recorded 37.1% negative opinionspreceding in this sense another masterpiece of the Parisian museum such as Freedom leading the people by Eugène Delacroix (34.5%). It is therefore not surprising that the French capital, with 27.6% of negative reviews, was the art city least appreciated by users from this point of view. They follow New York at 26.7% e Florence – further away – at 18.1% (“fault” primarily of Birth of Venus by Botticelli, the only painting in Italy to be included in the ten most unsatisfactory among the 100 examined).
Too much confusion
To be honest, it should be noted that what made the Mona Lisa reach the top of this ranking was not its pictorial execution – and God forbid – but rather its difficulty of visitors in admiring it properly due to the crowd that forms daily in the room where it is displayed. It is no coincidence – as we read – “the negative keyword”crowd” was mentioned 127 times in its reviews, while “difficult“She was the second with 50 results.” “I have never been so disappointed”, “It was torture”, read two quoted comments. «It’s really worth paying the entrance fee 22 euros – and jostling with a mass of strangers – to get just a glimpse of her?” she therefore came to ask herself the platform. Judging by what has emerged, most people, in hindsight, believe not. «Many of the greatest works of art of all time are victims of their own success, attracting disorganized crowds and expensive tickets” CouponBirds reiterates in this regard. Consequently in Paris, «rather than face the vast public of the Louvre, the data suggests taking a tour of the Orsay Museumwhere you can admire great works such as Whistler’s mother And Olympia».
– This was the situation already in 2005, in the “pre-smartphone” era (Source: LaPresse)
The most popular works
Again by monitoring the most recurring terms in reviews, the survey also discovered the most undervalued paintings: third position for Iris by Van Gogh at the Getty in Los Angeles (92% positive comments), second place Laughing knight by Frans Hals at the Wallace Collection in London (92.5%) and first for Blazing June by Sir Frederic Leighton at the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico (94%). His secret? Not just the price of admission alone 5.50 euros in a decidedly less crowded gallery than the Louvre (the most visited on the planet with over 7.7 million annual admissions), but also its golden frame, which has been described as “a work of art in itself.” Definitely not bad for a painting completely snubbed until 1963the year in which it was purchased in Amsterdam by the museum’s founder Luis Ferré for a few thousand dollars.
– Blazing June, with its splendid setting (Source: Museo de Arte de Ponce)
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