Leonardo da Vinci - Mona Lisa (La Gioconda)

Leonardo da Vinci - Mona Lisa (1506)
France Stamp Issued 2008
Painting held at the Louvre Paris

Today is the 491st anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death.  This painting needs no introduction as it is one of the greatest works from the renaissance period.  

Some interesting observations/claims from Wikipedia:

• the painting was not named until 31 years after Leonardo da Vinci's death
• it only became very famous from the 18th Century
• the painting was commissioned for a rich Florentine merchant's family to celebrate the birth of their first child;
• six million people now view the painting, which is held behind bullet proof glass in a specifically built facility within the Louvre;
• it was one of the first portrait pictures to depict the sitter in an imaginary landscape and an aerial perspective;
• it was stolen from the Louvre in 1911 by and Italian employee, who tried to sell the painting to Uffizi Gallery in Florence, after holding it in his apartment for two years.

Leonardo da Vinci also influenced a number of artists of the renaissance period who have had their works depicted on stamps:

Albrecht Durer - Adam

Raphael - The Large Cowper Madonna

Raphael - La Belle Jardiniere