Mona Lisa's mysterious smile

[KLI]

Been interested in this for quite some time now...whats up with that ingenius painting its like ''now you see it, now you dont'' pretty much. Could anyone please explain to me the aesthatics that Leonardo Da Vinci used to create such a portrait?

(I hear the latest theory is that it is explained by neuroscience...ie the way we see things)



its all in her cheeks and the shadows created by them IMHO...what do you think ?

[Buddyryvall]

Isnt Mona Lisa apparently Da Vinci himself painted as a woman.

[Crimson Guard]

No not Da Vinci himself..but its said that Mona lisa is really a man.

[jojoscircus]

In those old paintings, it seems like mouths were always painted undersized with this insipid smile. Maybe that was considered cute back then. Now it seems like people prefer oversized mouths, lips, and big white teeth.

[Anja]

my art history teacher said that the background landscape on the right is higher than on the left, making her mouth appear to rise slightly...might be part of it...

[Anja]

check this guy out...

[Circe]

Her smile has been debated for decades, even centuries, I think...

Some art historians claim that the reason is the technique da Vinci used, called sfumato and the effect it has on the eye of the beholder.
Basically, sfumato is a way of painting without abrupt outlines by blending one thing into another. As the center of the retina is best at perceiving small, sharp detail, while the periphery is better at distinguishing large, blurry images, Leonardo deliberately painted the upturned edges of the mouth in a hazy fashion. Our center vision can’t see the fuzzy smile when we gaze at it straight on, but when we move our eyes to another part of the picture, our peripheral vision picks it up.
That explains why the smile disappears when one wants to examine it more closely.

However, some MDs believe the reason for the smile is far more prosaic. One 1989 theory suggested that the famous expression resulted from changes in facial muscles – partial degeneration followed by regeneration – that occur after Bell's palsy. But the most disappointing diagnosis of all may be that in the November 1992 issue of the Journal of Forensic Science: she is not smiling at all, rather her expression is one common to people who have lost their front teeth.


Whether you choose to believe that the smile is the result of a brilliant optical illusion or the woman simply being toothless is up to you.

[Anja]

didn't da vinci pretty much invent sfumato? that's an interesting idea, that he used it to garner that effect.

[murphee]

Perhaps before the advent of modern dentistry, people were more inclined to hide their teeth.
My guess is that her face is a depiction of his view of modest beauty, probably painted from a posed model.

[Dienekes]

Different races and nations smile in different ways. This is a matter both of culture and biology. In particular, Americans and some northern Europeans smile in a very distinctive way:



This immoderate way of smiling is quite unlike the way that Italians smile:



Northern European (English):



Southern European (Spanish):

[mike2]

So that whole "All the world smiles in the same way" diversity slogan with the Charlie Brown gang on a poster at my school is a bunch of politically correct garbage, Dienekes?

[Circe]

Dienekes said:

Different races and nations smile in different ways. This is a matter both of culture and biology.

I agree that the way of smiling may be culture-influenced: the more patriarchal societies, such as Spanish and Italian, value female modesty, so it can be the reason why the more modest smile is preferred and desirable.

But could you please clarify how it is a matter of biology.
Are you refering to more protruding teeth that some pple have, which virtually renders them unable to smile a modest smile?

[Dienekes]

I don't think it's limited to males; also, by biological I mean things like teeth size, lip size, prognathism, distance of nose to upper lip, but also potentially psychological factors which are partly innate.

[SensoUnico]

The smile I know nothing about but I always had the idea that the woman was Da Vinci's birth mother believed to be the woman acknowledged by him only by her name. He looked after that woman and paid for her funeral. He did keep the picture with him right up to his death.