Top 10 Most Iconic Paintings of All Time

Vincent van Gogh painted The Starry Night in June 1889 while voluntarily committed to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France. The swirling night sky and cypress tree depict the view from his asylum window, and the work now draws 1.5 million visitors annually to MoMA in New York.

Salvador Dali painted his iconic melting clocks in just two hours one afternoon in 1931, reportedly inspired by the sight of a melting Camembert cheese. The 8x11-inch painting has since become the most recognized surrealist artwork ever created, and its four draped timepieces have inspired countless interpretations about the fluidity of time.

Johannes Vermeer c.1665 masterpiece is sometimes called the Dutch Mona Lisa for its mysterious subject and luminous technique. The identity of the girl has never been established, and the painting currently attracts over 400,000 annual visitors to the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague.

Sandro Botticelli's tempera painting (c.1484-86) depicts the goddess Venus emerging from the sea fully grown, based on classical mythology and Neoplatonic philosophy. At 5.7 million visitors per year, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence attributes much of its traffic to this single work, which redefined the ideal of female beauty for 500 years.

Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper directly onto the refectory wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan between 1495-1498, using a tempera-and-oil technique that began deteriorating within 20 years. Despite centuries of damage, restoration, and wartime near-destruction, it attracts 1,500 ticketed visitors per day and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.

Michelangelo painted The Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican in 1512, as the central panel of a 520-square-meter fresco commissioned by Pope Julius II. The image of God reaching toward Adam across a spark of space has become the most reproduced religious painting in history and is visited by over 6 million people annually.

Edvard Munch created four versions of The Scream between 1893-1910, depicting a howling, skeletal figure against a tumultuous orange sky that he described as representing infinite screaming through nature. The pastel version sold at Sotheby's in May 2012 for $119.9 million, at the time the highest auction price for a work of art.

Diego Velazquez's 1656 painting of the Spanish royal court includes a mirror reflection of King Philip IV and Queen Mariana, making the viewer simultaneously an observer and the subject of royal attention. Luca Giordano called it the theology of painting, and it draws over 3 million visitors to Madrid's Prado Museum annually.

Pablo Picasso painted Guernica in 1937 as a response to the Nazi bombing of the Basque village of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The 11x25-foot monochrome oil painting on canvas became the 20th century most powerful anti-war statement and now draws 4 million annual visitors to the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.

Vincent van Gogh painted The Starry Night in June 1889 while voluntarily committed to the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France. The swirling night sky and cypress tree depict the view from his asylum window, and the work now draws 1.5 million visitors annually to MoMA in New York.

Salvador Dali painted his iconic melting clocks in just two hours one afternoon in 1931, reportedly inspired by the sight of a melting Camembert cheese. The 8x11-inch painting has since become the most recognized surrealist artwork ever created, and its four draped timepieces have inspired countless interpretations about the fluidity of time.

Johannes Vermeer c.1665 masterpiece is sometimes called the Dutch Mona Lisa for its mysterious subject and luminous technique. The identity of the girl has never been established, and the painting currently attracts over 400,000 annual visitors to the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague.

Sandro Botticelli's tempera painting (c.1484-86) depicts the goddess Venus emerging from the sea fully grown, based on classical mythology and Neoplatonic philosophy. At 5.7 million visitors per year, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence attributes much of its traffic to this single work, which redefined the ideal of female beauty for 500 years.

Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper directly onto the refectory wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan between 1495-1498, using a tempera-and-oil technique that began deteriorating within 20 years. Despite centuries of damage, restoration, and wartime near-destruction, it attracts 1,500 ticketed visitors per day and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.

Michelangelo painted The Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican in 1512, as the central panel of a 520-square-meter fresco commissioned by Pope Julius II. The image of God reaching toward Adam across a spark of space has become the most reproduced religious painting in history and is visited by over 6 million people annually.

Edvard Munch created four versions of The Scream between 1893-1910, depicting a howling, skeletal figure against a tumultuous orange sky that he described as representing infinite screaming through nature. The pastel version sold at Sotheby's in May 2012 for $119.9 million, at the time the highest auction price for a work of art.

Diego Velazquez's 1656 painting of the Spanish royal court includes a mirror reflection of King Philip IV and Queen Mariana, making the viewer simultaneously an observer and the subject of royal attention. Luca Giordano called it the theology of painting, and it draws over 3 million visitors to Madrid's Prado Museum annually.

Pablo Picasso painted Guernica in 1937 as a response to the Nazi bombing of the Basque village of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The 11x25-foot monochrome oil painting on canvas became the 20th century most powerful anti-war statement and now draws 4 million annual visitors to the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.