Despite being centuries old, Mona Lisa remains a modern muse. She’s managed to reinvent herself many more times than Madonna. We reimagine her magical smile and move her into situations we can relate to. A sly grin after getting away with something sneaky or a fake smile when faced with an awkward social situation. There are even websites like this one, dedicated solely to Mona Lisa memes.
As Elephant Magazine reported, “Most of these memes see the Mona Lisa reimagined as a contemporary figure: she’s posing for a selfie with duck face; she’s cuddling a Shiba; she’s having a bad hair day; and in the age of corona, she’s now even donned a face mask.”
And as the art magazine aptly states, “By making her into a meme we also make the Mona Lisa one of us. We enjoy it when celebrities are just like us, and who cares if she’s just an inanimate Renaissance painting, the fame and zeal she’s created is on a level with the instafamous stars of today."
