“Greatness” of a work of art though have many perceptions and aspects to it. Greatness of art is a subjective matter itself and what constitutes it depends on who you ask. For example, some might venerate Mahatma Gandhi for his non-violence and at the same time some might deify Hitler for his dictatorship. Greatness as a matter of fact is an individual aspect and is a subjective matter. However, it is true that the test of the greatness of a work of art is its ability to be understood by the masses.
To achieve greatness it might take some time , may not happen at the beginning. Few works are such, that to understand it by masses it takes time. For example Dante Alighieri who was an Italian poet whose is endured for his greatest literary work Divine Comedy, which is recognized as a masterpiece of world literature. However, when the poem was published it received castigation due to the cruel evil things mentioned in it. Indeed, although it was a controversial subject and was poorly received at the beginning, is now revered by the modern novelists. It has grown in reputation as the time pass by, as people started understanding it. In fact, the work has been so influential that many novels have been written in succession to it, incorporating many of the ideas and thoughts that were perceived by Dante.
Secondly, the famous painting in the world of “Mona Lisa” made by the great Leonardo Da Vinci was not received well. In the beginning, people thought it to be a painting of a female deity or so and had no clue about the creativity hidden or concealed in it. Later, after few examinations people found that it was not any mundane painting of a women, but it was an amalgamation of both men and women. The masterpiece was made with such finesse that one required knowledge and had to closely examine it to reveal, that the painting had both the qualities of men and women. Such was the quality of the painting which received it’s true height when it got recognized by the masses. And now it is one of the best paintings in the world.
In the light of the above discussion I would conclude that greatness of a work of art requires acceptance of the masses and the acceptance would come by the understanding. Although, sometimes greatness cannot be achieved right away however, definitely after some later period of time you will get that tag.
saiun234 