The international top 20 paintings includes: Mona Lisa, Guernica, The Last Supper, The Starry Night, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Creation of Adam, The Birth of Venus, School of Athens, Liberty Leading the People, Las Meninas, The Persistence of Memory, The Garden of Earthly Delights, Sistine Chapel ceiling, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, The Raft of the Medusa, Primavera, The Last Judgment, Lady with an Ermine, Impression, Sunrise and The Third of May 1808.
Briefly about the method
Wikipedia currently has over 53 million articles in over 300 languages. Despite the impressive number of articles, not all topics can be written in this free encyclopedia. At the same time, the community of each language version has the ability to decide which topic can be described in the encyclopedia, and which is not (for example, article must be notable). In addition, each language version can describe the same topic in its own way – it all depends on the number and experience of interested authors (Wikipedia users who edit articles).
Almost every Wikipedia article has an alignment to certain categories. Additionally, based on the content, you can specify the subject of the article – for example, using semantic relations on Wikidata or DBpedia. More details on the automatic classification process can be found in various scholarly papers (e.g. for articles or sources).
This article selected the most-developed language versions of Wikipedia with more than 1 million articles, including English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Polish and other. After the classification of articles, only those that are dedicated to individual paintings. As a result for English Wikipedia 6621 articles about paintings were found, for Italian – 5743 paintings, for French – 5498 paintings, for Spanish – 3073 paintings, for Russian – 2846 paintings, for Polish – 2426 paintings, for German – 1307 paintings, for Portuguese – 1222 paintings, for Japanese – 561 paintings, for Chinese – 417 paintings and for Arabic – 249 paintings.
As mentioned earlier, every Wikipedia article can have different language versions, so we can find out different names of the same object (painting). Using open data on Wikipedia article views we can find out how many times a given article has been viewed on specific days. After collecting data for viewing all Wikipedia articles on paintings in the appropriate language versions May 2020 ranking of the most popular was made. First, the positions of paintings in the ranking are shown, which were obtained by adding up the page views from different language versions for a given painting. Later, the most popular paintings are shown for only one language version of Wikipedia.
Recently we observed that visitors number for some articles was “overclocked” in some periods of time. Therefore, we decide to provide additional modification of the pageview statistics for such cases and change this number (usually by reduction). Fairness of statistics for each article in selected language version in selected months can be assessed using such indicators as: number of the edits and authors, page protection, the rate of citation increasing of the article, popularity statistics of related keywords (phrases) in Google Trends and others.
1st place – Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa – oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci, in May 2020 the painting was on the 1st place in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, on the 2nd place in Italian and Chinese Wikipedia.
2nd place – Guernica
Guernica – oil painting by Pablo Picasso, in May 2020 the painting was on the 1st place in Italian, on the 2nd place in Spanish, French, on the 3rd place in English, on the 4th place in Arabic, on the 5th place in Japanese, on the 6th place in Chinese, on the 9th place in German, Portuguese, on the 15th place in Polish and on the 16th place in Russian Wikipedia.
3rd place – The Last Supper
The Last Supper – mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci, in May 2020 the painting was on the 2nd place in Arabic, English, Japanese, on the 3rd place in German, Russian, on the 4th place in Italian, on the 5th place in Spanish, Chinese, on the 7th place in French, Polish and on the 8th place in Portuguese Wikipedia.
4th place – The Starry Night
The Starry Night – painting by Vincent van Gogh, in May 2020 the painting was on the 3rd place in Arabic, Italian, Portuguese, on the 4th place in English, Spanish, Chinese, on the 6th place in German, French, on the 8th place in Polish, on the 10th place in Russian and on the 14th place in Japanese Wikipedia.
5th place – Girl with a Pearl Earring
Girl with a Pearl Earring, in May 2020 the painting was on the 3rd place in Chinese, on the 4th place in French, Japanese, on the 6th place in English, on the 8th place in Arabic, on the 10th place in German, Spanish, on the 12th place in Polish, on the 14th place in Russian, on the 15th place in Portuguese and on the 29th place in Italian Wikipedia.
6th place – The Creation of Adam
The Creation of Adam – fresco painting by Michelangelo, in May 2020 the painting was on the 5th place in English, Portuguese, on the 7th place in Arabic, German, Spanish, on the 8th place in Russian, on the 10th place in French, on the 14th place in Polish, on the 15th place in Chinese, on the 19th place in Italian and on the 35th place in Japanese Wikipedia.
7th place – The Birth of Venus
The Birth of Venus – painting by Sandro Botticelli, in May 2020 the painting was on the 6th place in Spanish, Portuguese, on the 7th place in English, Japanese, on the 8th place in French, on the 11th place in German, Chinese, on the 12th place in Italian, on the 21st place in Polish, on the 25th place in Russian and on the 29th place in Arabic Wikipedia.
8th place – School of Athens
School of Athens – painting by Raphael, in May 2020 the painting was on the 4th place in Portuguese, on the 5th place in Italian, on the 6th place in Arabic, on the 7th place in Chinese, on the 8th place in German, on the 9th place in Spanish, on the 11th place in English, Japanese, on the 15th place in French, on the 31st place in Russian and on the 34th place in Polish Wikipedia.
9th place – Liberty Leading the People
Liberty Leading the People – painting by Eugène Delacroix, in May 2020 the painting was on the 3rd place in French, on the 6th place in Japanese, on the 7th place in Portuguese, on the 8th place in Italian, on the 9th place in Chinese, on the 12th place in Spanish, on the 16th place in Arabic, on the 17th place in German, on the 21st place in English, on the 32nd place in Polish and on the 33rd place in Russian Wikipedia.
10th place – Las Meninas
Las Meninas – painting by Diego Velazquez, in May 2020 the painting was on the 3rd place in Spanish, on the 12th place in French, Portuguese, on the 16th place in Japanese, on the 17th place in English, on the 29th place in Polish, Chinese, on the 30th place in German, on the 43rd place in Russian, on the 44th place in Arabic and on the 54th place in Italian Wikipedia.
11th place – The Persistence of Memory
The Persistence of Memory – painting by Salvador Dali, in May 2020 the painting was on the 5th place in Arabic, on the 9th place in English, on the 11th place in Portuguese, on the 12th place in Chinese, on the 13th place in Spanish, on the 14th place in Italian, on the 21st place in German, on the 22nd place in French, on the 33rd place in Polish, on the 34th place in Russian and on the 55th place in Japanese Wikipedia.
12th place – The Garden of Earthly Delights
The Garden of Earthly Delights – Medieval triptych by Hieronymus Bosch, in May 2020 the painting was on the 8th place in English, Spanish, on the 13th place in German, on the 18th place in Portuguese, on the 19th place in Russian, on the 26th place in French, on the 27th place in Arabic, on the 32nd place in Japanese, on the 33rd place in Chinese, on the 36th place in Polish and on the 59th place in Italian Wikipedia.
13th place – Sistine Chapel ceiling
Sistine Chapel ceiling – painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, in May 2020 the painting was on the 9th place in French, on the 10th place in Portuguese, on the 12th place in Arabic, on the 13th place in English, on the 14th place in Spanish, on the 17th place in Chinese, on the 20th place in Italian, on the 23rd place in Russian and on the 27th place in Japanese Wikipedia.
14th place – Wanderer above the Sea of Fog
Wanderer above the Sea of Fog – oil painting by Caspar David Friedrich, in May 2020 the painting was on the 4th place in German, on the 11th place in Italian, on the 14th place in French, on the 17th place in Spanish, on the 22nd place in English, on the 37th place in Polish, on the 42nd place in Arabic, Portuguese, on the 62nd place in Chinese, on the 120th place in Russian and on the 188th place in Japanese Wikipedia.
15th place – The Raft of the Medusa
The Raft of the Medusa – painting by Théodore Géricault, in May 2020 the painting was on the 5th place in French, on the 16th place in Italian, on the 20th place in Japanese, on the 22nd place in Arabic, on the 23rd place in Spanish, on the 26th place in English, on the 27th place in German, on the 30th place in Chinese, on the 32nd place in Portuguese, on the 57th place in Polish and on the 64th place in Russian Wikipedia.
16th place – Primavera
Primavera – painting by Sandro Botticelli, in May 2020 the painting was on the 10th place in Italian, on the 15th place in Japanese, on the 16th place in Spanish, on the 20th place in Portuguese, on the 23rd place in English, on the 24th place in French, on the 25th place in German, on the 38th place in Polish, on the 44th place in Russian and on the 70th place in Chinese Wikipedia.
17th place – The Last Judgment
The Last Judgment – fresco by Michelo, in May 2020 the painting was on the 6th place in Italian, on the 12th place in Japanese, on the 14th place in Chinese, on the 15th place in Arabic, on the 18th place in Spanish, on the 25th place in English, on the 27th place in Portuguese, on the 28th place in Polish, on the 32nd place in French and on the 52nd place in Russian Wikipedia.
18th place – Lady with an Ermine
Lady with an Ermine – painting by Leonardo da Vinci, in May 2020 the painting was on the 5th place in Polish, on the 15th place in Italian, on the 21st place in Chinese, on the 30th place in Spanish, French, Japanese, on the 31st place in German, on the 32nd place in English, on the 34th place in Portuguese, on the 38th place in Arabic and on the 46th place in Russian Wikipedia.
19th place – Impression, Sunrise
Impression, Sunrise – painting by Claude Monet, in May 2020 the painting was on the 18th place in Italian, on the 20th place in Spanish, Polish, Chinese, on the 23rd place in German, French, Portuguese, on the 28th place in Japanese, on the 33rd place in English and on the 57th place in Russian Wikipedia.
20th place – The Third of May 1808
The Third of May 1808 – painting by Francisco de Goya, in May 2020 the painting was on the 11th place in Spanish, French, on the 36th place in Arabic, on the 37th place in English, on the 38th place in Italian, on the 40th place in Portuguese, on the 48th place in German, on the 55th place in Chinese, on the 81st place in Polish, on the 86th place in Japanese and on the 184th place in Russian Wikipedia.
The most popular paintings in Arabic Wikipedia
- Mona Lisa – oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- The Last Supper – mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- The Starry Night – painting by Vincent van Gogh
- Guernica – oil painting by Pablo Picasso
- The Persistence of Memory – painting by Salvador Dali
- School of Athens – painting by Raphael
- The Creation of Adam – fresco painting by Michelangelo
- Girl with a Pearl Earring
- Salvator Mundi – painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- The Potato Eaters – painting by Vincent van Gogh
- The Old Guitarist – painting by Pablo Picasso
- Sistine Chapel ceiling – painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City
- The Death of Socrates – painting by Jacques-Louis David, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The Crying Boy – mass-produced print of painting by Bruno Amadio
- The Last Judgment – fresco by Michelo
- Liberty Leading the People – painting by Eugène Delacroix
- Weeping Woman – oil painting by Pablo Picasso painted 1937
- petroglyph – images carved on a rock surface as a form of rock art
- Girl before a Mirror – painting by Pablo Picasso
- Arnolfini Portrait – 1434 painting by Jan van Eyck
The most popular paintings in Chinese Wikipedia
- Along the River During the Qingming Festival – painting attributed to Zhang Zeduan
- Mona Lisa – oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- Girl with a Pearl Earring
- The Starry Night – painting by Vincent van Gogh
- The Last Supper – mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- Guernica – oil painting by Pablo Picasso
- School of Athens – painting by Raphael
- The Gleaners – painting by Jean-François Millet
- Liberty Leading the People – painting by Eugène Delacroix
- Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains – painting by Huang Gongwang
- The Birth of Venus – painting by Sandro Botticelli
- The Persistence of Memory – painting by Salvador Dali
- The Night Watch – painting by Rembrandt
- The Last Judgment – fresco by Michelo
- The Creation of Adam – fresco painting by Michelangelo
- Night Revels of Han Xizai – painting by Gu Hongzhong
- Sistine Chapel ceiling – painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City
- A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte – painting by Georges Seurat
- Les Demoiselles d’Avignon – painting by Pablo Picasso
- Impression, Sunrise – painting by Claude Monet
The most popular paintings in English Wikipedia
- Mona Lisa – oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- The Last Supper – mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- Guernica – oil painting by Pablo Picasso
- The Starry Night – painting by Vincent van Gogh
- The Creation of Adam – fresco painting by Michelangelo
- Girl with a Pearl Earring
- The Birth of Venus – painting by Sandro Botticelli
- The Garden of Earthly Delights – Medieval triptych by Hieronymus Bosch
- The Persistence of Memory – painting by Salvador Dali
- American Gothic – painting by Grant Wood
- School of Athens – painting by Raphael
- Salvator Mundi – painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- Sistine Chapel ceiling – painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City
- Saturn Devouring His Sn – painting by Goya
- The Night Watch – painting by Rembrandt
- The Son of Man – painting by René Magritte
- Las Meninas – painting by Diego Velazquez
- Nighthawks – 1942 oil on canvas painting by Edward Hopper
- The Treachery of Images – painting by René Magritte depicting a smoking pipe
- A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte – painting by Georges Seurat
The most popular paintings in French Wikipedia
- Mona Lisa – oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- Guernica – oil painting by Pablo Picasso
- Liberty Leading the People – painting by Eugène Delacroix
- Girl with a Pearl Earring
- The Raft of the Medusa – painting by Théodore Géricault
- The Starry Night – painting by Vincent van Gogh
- The Last Supper – mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- The Birth of Venus – painting by Sandro Botticelli
- Sistine Chapel ceiling – painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City
- The Creation of Adam – fresco painting by Michelangelo
- The Third of May 1808 – painting by Francisco de Goya
- Las Meninas – painting by Diego Velazquez
- The Milkmaid – 1658 painting by Johannes Vermeer
- Wanderer above the Sea of Fog – oil painting by Caspar David Friedrich
- School of Athens – painting by Raphael
- Luncheon on the Grass – painting by Édouard Manet
- Portrait of Louis XIV – painting by Hyacinthe Rigaud
- Arnolfini Portrait – 1434 painting by Jan van Eyck
- The Coronation of Napoleon – painting completed in 1807 by Jacques-Louis David
- Le Désespéré – painting by Gustave Courbet
The most popular paintings in German Wikipedia
- Mona Lisa – oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- Game Changer
- The Last Supper – mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- Wanderer above the Sea of Fog – oil painting by Caspar David Friedrich
- Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I – painting by Gustav Klimt
- The Starry Night – painting by Vincent van Gogh
- The Creation of Adam – fresco painting by Michelangelo
- School of Athens – painting by Raphael
- Guernica – oil painting by Pablo Picasso
- Girl with a Pearl Earring
- The Birth of Venus – painting by Sandro Botticelli
- Salvator Mundi – painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- The Garden of Earthly Delights – Medieval triptych by Hieronymus Bosch
- Les Demoiselles d’Avignon – painting by Pablo Picasso
- The Sea of Ice – painting by Caspar David Friedrich
- Black Square (1915) – painting by Kazimir Malevich
- Liberty Leading the People – painting by Eugène Delacroix
- Sistine Madonna – painting by Raphael
- The Kiss – painting by Gustav Klimt
- The Night Watch – painting by Rembrandt
The most popular paintings in Italian Wikipedia
- Guernica – oil painting by Pablo Picasso
- Mona Lisa – oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- The Starry Night – painting by Vincent van Gogh
- The Last Supper – mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- School of Athens – painting by Raphael
- The Last Judgment – fresco by Michelo
- The Kiss – painting by Francesco Hayez
- Liberty Leading the People – painting by Eugène Delacroix
- The Fourth Estate – picture painted by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo in 1901
- Primavera – painting by Sandro Botticelli
- Wanderer above the Sea of Fog – oil painting by Caspar David Friedrich
- The Birth of Venus – painting by Sandro Botticelli
- The Kiss – painting by Gustav Klimt
- The Persistence of Memory – painting by Salvador Dali
- Lady with an Ermine – painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- The Raft of the Medusa – painting by Théodore Géricault
- Les Demoiselles d’Avignon – painting by Pablo Picasso
- Impression, Sunrise – painting by Claude Monet
- The Creation of Adam – fresco painting by Michelangelo
- Sistine Chapel ceiling – painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City
The most popular paintings in Japanese Wikipedia
- Mona Lisa – oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- The Last Supper – mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga – emakimono
- Girl with a Pearl Earring
- Guernica – oil painting by Pablo Picasso
- Liberty Leading the People – painting by Eugène Delacroix
- The Birth of Venus – painting by Sandro Botticelli
- Ophelia – painting by John Everett Millais
- Ponchi-e – A kind of comical ukiyoe painting after Charles Wirgman’s “Japan Punch”.
- Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? – painting by Paul Gauguin
- School of Athens – painting by Raphael
- The Last Judgment – fresco by Michelo
- Saturn Devouring His Sn – painting by Goya
- The Starry Night – painting by Vincent van Gogh
- Primavera – painting by Sandro Botticelli
- Las Meninas – painting by Diego Velazquez
- Mōko Shūrai Ekotoba – Illustrated Account of the Mongol Invasion
- The Milkmaid – 1658 painting by Johannes Vermeer
- The Gleaners – painting by Jean-François Millet
- The Raft of the Medusa – painting by Théodore Géricault
The most popular paintings in Polish Wikipedia
- Mona Lisa – oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- Constitution of May 3, 1791 – painting by Jan Matejko
- Black Madonna of Częstochowa – icon of the Virgin Mary
- Battle of Grunwald – painting by Jan Matejko
- Lady with an Ermine – painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- Rejtan – painting by Jan Matejko
- The Last Supper – mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- The Starry Night – painting by Vincent van Gogh
- Racławice Panorama – monumental cycloramic painting depicting the Battle of Racławice
- Stańczyk – painting by Jan Matejko
- The Coronation of Napoleon – painting completed in 1807 by Jacques-Louis David
- Girl with a Pearl Earring
- Prussian Homage – painting by Jan Matejko
- The Creation of Adam – fresco painting by Michelangelo
- Guernica – oil painting by Pablo Picasso
- The Calling of St Matthew – painting by Caravaggio
- Landscape with the Fall of Icarus – painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder
- Jewess with Oranges – painting by Aleksander Gierymski
- history of Poland in the Early Modern era – aspect of history (1569–1795)
- Impression, Sunrise – painting by Claude Monet
The most popular paintings in Portuguese Wikipedia
- Mona Lisa – oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- Abaporu – painting by Tarsila do Amaral
- The Starry Night – painting by Vincent van Gogh
- School of Athens – painting by Raphael
- The Creation of Adam – fresco painting by Michelangelo
- The Birth of Venus – painting by Sandro Botticelli
- Liberty Leading the People – painting by Eugène Delacroix
- The Last Supper – mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- Guernica – oil painting by Pablo Picasso
- Sistine Chapel ceiling – painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City
- The Persistence of Memory – painting by Salvador Dali
- Las Meninas – painting by Diego Velazquez
- The First Mass in Brazil
- Independence or Death – painting by Pedro Américo
- Girl with a Pearl Earring
- Les Demoiselles d’Avignon – painting by Pablo Picasso
- The Death of Socrates – painting by Jacques-Louis David, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The Garden of Earthly Delights – Medieval triptych by Hieronymus Bosch
- Workers – painting by Tarsila do Amaral
- Primavera – painting by Sandro Botticelli
The most popular paintings in Russian Wikipedia
- Mona Lisa – oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- Black Square (1915) – painting by Kazimir Malevich
- The Last Supper – mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- Morning in a Pine Forest – painting by Russian artists Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky
- The Last Day of Pompeii – canvas painted by Russian artist Karl Briullov in 1830-33
- Trinity – 15th century Russian Christian icon
- Sistine Madonna – painting by Raphael
- The Creation of Adam – fresco painting by Michelangelo
- Курсистка
- The Starry Night – painting by Vincent van Gogh
- The Appearance of Christ Before the People – painting by Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov
- Boyarina Morozova – painting by Vasily Surikov
- Theotokos of Vladimir – medieval Byzantine icon
- Girl with a Pearl Earring
- Girl with peaches – painting by Valentin Serov
- Guernica – oil painting by Pablo Picasso
- Heroes – painting by Viktor Vasnetsov
- Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks – painting by Ilya Repin
- The Garden of Earthly Delights – Medieval triptych by Hieronymus Bosch
- Rooks have Returned – painting by Alexei Savrasov
The most popular paintings in Spanish Wikipedia
- Mona Lisa – oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- Guernica – oil painting by Pablo Picasso
- Las Meninas – painting by Diego Velazquez
- The Starry Night – painting by Vincent van Gogh
- The Last Supper – mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci
- The Birth of Venus – painting by Sandro Botticelli
- The Creation of Adam – fresco painting by Michelangelo
- The Garden of Earthly Delights – Medieval triptych by Hieronymus Bosch
- School of Athens – painting by Raphael
- Girl with a Pearl Earring
- The Third of May 1808 – painting by Francisco de Goya
- Liberty Leading the People – painting by Eugène Delacroix
- The Persistence of Memory – painting by Salvador Dali
- Sistine Chapel ceiling – painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City
- Saturn Devouring His Sn – painting by Goya
- Primavera – painting by Sandro Botticelli
- Wanderer above the Sea of Fog – oil painting by Caspar David Friedrich
- The Last Judgment – fresco by Michelo
- The Night Watch – painting by Rembrandt
- Impression, Sunrise – painting by Claude Monet
The most popular paintings in other months are available on https://wikirank.net/top/painting