H. Heine's words about Mona Lisa. So, do not accuse caricaturists of having been the first to encroach on masterpieces. They followed the beaten track: M. Dushan, a surrealist, drew moustache on Jokonda's face attempting to overthrow old beauty canons; Re-Mi also described her quite unattractively. Perhaps Leonardo da Vinci would not have been indignant if he had learnt about it because he was one of the first caricaturists himself.

The usage of the famous masterpieces is one of the means of "artistic filling" of visual humour. But the caricaturists choose works of art where there are some hidden comic elements. In the times of the First World War, when the soldiers saw Venus on the English caricature they had imagined a Belgian woman who lived in the occupied country. On the Polish caricature of the 1930s, a capitalist, looking at the statue of Venus, breaks off the arms of workers.

Kukriniksi armed Mona Lisa with a pistol and Venus with a knife to fight against museum thieves ("For self-protection",1965). They also found much in common between Leonardo's self-portrait and Mona Lisa

(a series "From Renaissance to Abstractionism"). S. Dali made a set of drawers out of Venus.

According to tradition modern caricaturists are not ceremonial with either Venus, or Mona Lisa. M. Abramov restored Venus's arms and involved her into fight against German military bases in Greece. Fokhner's Mona Lisa advertises coffee; N. Kapusta's Venus is cargo above loading gauge; V. Zemtsov drew Mona Lisa's twin-sister; P. Kulinich sent her to the kitchen; V. Rozantsev dressed Mona Lisa in overalls and gave her a hammer; T. Anni presented her with a Rubik brick; L. Samoilov proved that Venus's arms were ripped off because of too heavy bag with papers and numerous food-bags. S. Dali drew his portrait on Mona Lisa; I. Igin, being more modest than great S. Dali, drew M. Svetlov like Mona Lisa;

A. Grosev changed her eyes and mouth with cars. They say Mona Lisa smiles everybody with the smile he/she deserves. We are not going to mention R. Raushenberg and F.Botero, but Z. Bazhich is worth mentioning because he drew Mona Lisa with Charlie Chaplin's face although great Charlie does not need publicity like that.