- Common Knowledge: The identity of the woman depicted in the painting is not one of the greatest mysteries in human history, as is often claimed. It's a painting of Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a Florentine silk merchant; that fact has been pretty well-known for centuries. The Italian (La Gioconda) and French (La Joconde) nicknames for the painting are based on her surname.
- It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: Ask an art historian what they think of Leonardo da Vinci or any other Renaissance master. Hell, just ask anyone about The Mona Lisa specifically. Common responses are "It only got really popular when it was stolen. The guards didn't even notice it was gone until the next day" and it's an over-hyped painting that takes visitors from the many other exhibits found in the museum, people only go to the Louvre to see The Mona Lisa and that's it.
- Newer Than They Think: The Mona Lisa is genuinely pretty old, but it wasn't claimed to be one of Leonardo da Vinci's all-time masterworks until the 1860s, and it wasn't until 1911, when the painting was stolen, that those claims reached the general public (mainly by way of newspapers reprinting claims by Walter Pater that lionized it).
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Didactic?: The Mona Lisa has been the center for large debates regarding the mysterious nature of both the subject and her smile. One popular theory even claims it's a self-portrait depicting what Leonardo da Vinci thought he'd look like as a woman. This despite it being definitively proven that it was a commissioned portrait of Lisa Gherardini an Italian noblewoman. Which somewhat undermines a lot of the mystery. It's also usually treated as a long-standing cultural treasure, when really it wasn't particularly respected, even in the art world, until its world-famous robbery in 1911.
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