If we could prove that da Vinci wasn't thinking about art when he painted the Mona Lisa, but instead just about creating something great in a medium he loved, then would we have to remove the painting from the art museum in which it resides?

My point in calling it art is that I think it's art. And that it's a kind of art that readers here are equipped to appreciate because they are steeped in the history and practice of the medium. My hope being that people will then draw the analogy between that and kinds of art they don't have the context for. E.g., cutting-edge contemporary art.