Still Waters Posted April 14, 2018 #1 Share Posted April 14, 2018 Quote If Mona Lisa doesn’t look happy to you, that might be because of your own mental state, according to scientists at the University of California, San Francisco. Our emotions change our perceptions of the world around us, they say, and that includes works of art. “If you see the Mona Lisa after you have just had a screaming fight with your husband, you’re going to see [the painting] differently,” Erika Siegel, one of the researchers, told the Daily Mail. “But if you’re having the time of your life at the Louvre, you’re going to see the enigmatic smile.” https://news.artnet.com/art-world/do-you-think-mona-lisa-is-happy-1265456 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taun Posted April 14, 2018 #2 Share Posted April 14, 2018 Hmmm... I've never had a screaming fight with my husband - so I can't really say... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldrover Posted April 14, 2018 #3 Share Posted April 14, 2018 Happy! She's killing herself, thinking about this great cartoon she just saw. Apologies to Cook and Moore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiloh Posted April 14, 2018 #4 Share Posted April 14, 2018 To me it looks as if she has a very slight smile as if to be pleasant, rather than to sit for a painting expressionless. I'd say she is happy though. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlitterRose Posted April 14, 2018 #5 Share Posted April 14, 2018 How bad is it if your first thought is...she isn't anything... she's dead. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Likely Guy Posted April 14, 2018 #6 Share Posted April 14, 2018 It would be easier to tell if she was happy if she had eyebrows. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+susieice Posted April 15, 2018 #7 Share Posted April 15, 2018 She looks like she's smirking because she knows something I don't. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawken Posted April 15, 2018 #8 Share Posted April 15, 2018 She's happier then that man and woman in American Gothic... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Smoke aLot Posted April 15, 2018 #9 Share Posted April 15, 2018 She just knows something which i don't and she brags about it with that face expression hehe 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skliss Posted April 15, 2018 #10 Share Posted April 15, 2018 I always thought she looked young and a little nervous. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Podo Posted April 18, 2018 #11 Share Posted April 18, 2018 She looks like a neckbeard just asked her on a date and she is just about to politely decline for the fourth or fifth time. 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenWolf Posted April 20, 2018 #12 Share Posted April 20, 2018 I think all of Da Vinci's paintings are creepy. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blizno Posted April 20, 2018 #13 Share Posted April 20, 2018 38 minutes ago, MysticWolf said: I think all of Da Vinci's paintings are creepy. Could that be some sort of "uncanny valley"? When I look at paintings of that period by other artists I see depictions of faces. When I look at some da Vinci works I see a person looking out of the painting. The longer I stare into the eyes of the painting, the less like a painting it seems and the more like an actual human. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orphalesion Posted April 20, 2018 #14 Share Posted April 20, 2018 I never felt very enchanted by the Mona Lisa, not even when I saw it Person in the Louvre, and I had a good time there. I mean I understand it's a well-done painting (minus the missing eyebrows) and I wish I could paint half as well, but I never saw any "enigmatic smile" in that painting at best she's what we Germans call "schmunzeln" a "not quite smile". And in danger of sounding a bit mean, I find that "research" pretty useless. Everybody with common sense can tell that the appeal and meaning of paintings, songs etc can be subjective and that your emotional state can influence how you see them. Even an episode of "Boy Meets World" pointed that out... And yeah, seeing the Mona Lisa's smile isn't a foolproof meter for happiness. I for example like @Podo 's interpretation, because that's exactly my kinda humor and it makes me happy I also like to imagine her thinking "Well, so this is my life now..." or "I wish Mr. Da Viinci would put his clothes back on..." 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoldenWolf Posted April 20, 2018 #15 Share Posted April 20, 2018 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skulduggery Posted April 23, 2018 #16 Share Posted April 23, 2018 (edited) People always talk about the Mona Lisa smile, but it isn't anything special in and of itself while remaining significant. The way people perceive emotion is indicative of their mental state, true.... but the smile on the Mona Lisa totally is the smile someone shoots someone during a scandalous type of hyper-sexual affair. My opinion entirely! Edited April 23, 2018 by Skulduggery 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissJatti Posted April 24, 2018 #17 Share Posted April 24, 2018 To me it looks like she always has doubts about something, And puts on a fake smile. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.O'N Posted May 17, 2018 #18 Share Posted May 17, 2018 Her smile looks like the smiles I did when ever I had my photo done at school. I always found it awkward when someone tells me to smile for a pic, so I would end up with that forced awkward smile. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Narcisse Posted May 17, 2018 #19 Share Posted May 17, 2018 She looks lonely and depressed to me. Near suicide almost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StarMountainKid Posted May 17, 2018 #20 Share Posted May 17, 2018 I wonder what she's looking at? I think this is the key to her expression. Seems to me she's looking disapprovingly at something. What did Leo have to do or say to get that expression from her? Maybe he's painting her in his underwear or something. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khol Posted May 17, 2018 #21 Share Posted May 17, 2018 Podos post is close I think...Shes looking at someone thinking " you can't be serious " Came across a modern version 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Narcisse Posted May 17, 2018 #22 Share Posted May 17, 2018 1 hour ago, khol said: Podos post is close I think...Shes looking at someone thinking " you can't be serious " Came across a modern version Pretty hot if you ask me. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+susieice Posted May 18, 2018 #23 Share Posted May 18, 2018 As I recall, DaVinci carried this painting around with him. Yep. From the link: http://decodedarts.com/leonardo-da-vincis-mona-lisa-paintings-artistic-merit-and-mystery-woman/921 Was the Mona Lisa one of da Vinci’s greatest works of art? Apparently, Leonardo carried the Mona Lisa painting with him for the remainder of his life and he travelled extensively after the painting’s completion. So, either this painting was of value to the artist, or the woman in the painting was someone very special in the artist’s life. Or, the conspiracy theories have some merit and there was a hidden message in the painting. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos Allende Posted May 18, 2018 #24 Share Posted May 18, 2018 Yeah. In one of me previous lives in 1500, we dated for a while. So fickle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wistman Posted May 18, 2018 #25 Share Posted May 18, 2018 13 hours ago, susieice said: As I recall, DaVinci carried this painting around with him. Yep. From the link: http://decodedarts.com/leonardo-da-vincis-mona-lisa-paintings-artistic-merit-and-mystery-woman/921 Was the Mona Lisa one of da Vinci’s greatest works of art? Apparently, Leonardo carried the Mona Lisa painting with him for the remainder of his life and he travelled extensively after the painting’s completion. So, either this painting was of value to the artist, or the woman in the painting was someone very special in the artist’s life. Or, the conspiracy theories have some merit and there was a hidden message in the painting. Putting aside the ambiguous expression on the face for a moment, the technical excellence of the picture is what Leonardo and others since have admired. The hands, for instance, are more famous among art connoisseurs than the 'popular' fascination with the smile. As far as reading into the expression, and how it needs be dependent upon the emotional perspective of the viewer, I can tell you as a corollary that when Greta Garbo began filming the final scene in her 1933 film Queen Christina, in which the queen boldly sails away from her life and the drama of the 'story', director Rouben Mamoulian told her to simply 'think of nothing', knowing that the blank face of Garbo could be filled with whatever emotion the viewer held at the finale: 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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