Many times, the influence of literature on painting results in great works of art, while this inspiration has also reciprocally contributed to turning famous paintings into the flesh of a literary classic.

From a young woman wearing the most famous pearl in history to Leonardo da Vinci's ubiquitous Mona Lisa, we'll travel between galleries and libraries to unravel these 4 books inspired by famous paintings.

The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown's most widely read work used Leonardo da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa as a reference point in a thriller set primarily in the renowned Louvre Museum in Paris, where the painting is illuminated by a thousand flashes of Japanese cell phones every day. The work, known for its ambiguity, contained the code that would guide Robert Langdon on his quest to discover the whereabouts of the Holy Grail. Other famous paintings from the gallery, such as The Virgin of the Rocks, also featured throughout the pages of the acclaimed thriller, published in 2003.

The girl of the pearl

The novel published by Tracy Chevalier in 1999 tells the story of the servant who inspired the famous painting by the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer , also known as "Girl with a Turban" or "The Mona Lisa of the North." Set in the town of Delft, in the Netherlands, the novel recounts the arrival at Vermeer's home of a poor young woman named Griet, who, after becoming his servant, ends up posing for his most famous painting, wearing his wife's pearl earrings.

The goldfinch

The painting The Goldfinch, completed by the Dutch painter Carel Fabritius in 1654, was used by the writer Donna Tartt as the cover, title, and narrative symbol in her eponymous novel, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2014. The painting's importance in the novel lies in the relationship between the protagonist, Theo, and his mother, a devoted admirer of this work of art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where they meet hours before a bomb explodes, shaping the course of the rest of the novel.

The Flanders table

Arturo Pérez-Reverte 's famous novel drew inspiration from the oil painting *Woman of Chancellor Rolin* by the Flemish painter Jan van Eyck to create the fictional painting *The Chess Game* by Peter Van Huys, a cornerstone of the spiral of mysteries that unfold in this novel surrounding the painting discovered by the protagonist, Julia. A work that could hold a secret that would change the course of European history.

These four books inspired by famous paintings confirm the close relationship between the visual arts and literature, a reciprocal link that has also resulted in great works that originated from a book; a review that we may bring you soon.

What other references to famous paintings have you found in a book?