Mona Lisa's smile is fake, say scientists

[Eldorado]

"Mona Lisa's famous smile might not have been genuine when she was painted by Leonardo da Vinci more than 500 years ago.

"Scientists wanted to investigate Lisa Gherardini's facial expression and apply the principles of neuroscience to the world-famous Italian Renaissance painting, which is seen by millions of visitors every year in Paris' Louvre Museum.

"Using a so-called "chimeric face" technique, whereby the woman's mouth is cut in half and placed alongside its mirror image, the researchers asked a group of subjects to judge the perceived expression.

"They concluded that the Mona Lisa is smiling asymmetrically."

Full report at Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/science/mona-lisas-smile-not-genuine-leonardo-da-vinci-painted-her

 

"Using chimeric -- or mirror -- images, researchers have determined that one half of Mona Lisa's smile displays happiness while the other half is neutral, reflecting a non-genuine emotion."

Full monty at Science Daily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190605121652.htm

[Wistman]

Nobody's face is symmetrical, and Leonardo would have known that from his intense and brilliant scrutiny.  Perhaps the lady only smiled from the corner of her mouth.  Then again, even if she did smile 'normally', the reasons for his choices as to the design and placement of the smile to gain a certain effect may perhaps be lost on the neuroscientists.  After all, we're still talking about how curiously that 'smile' makes us feel.  If it was just another regular smile, who would care.  And yes, Leonardo did design the figures in his drawings and paintings; he wasn't describing only exactly what he saw as he saw it.  Nobody would confuse a Leonardo painting with a photograph.

I doubt the scientists in this story..

 

Edited June 7, 2019 by The Wistman

[+OverSword]

It's a painting.  With hours of posing of course the smile is fake.

[Wistman]

6 minutes ago, OverSword said:

It's a painting.  With hours of posing of course the smile is fake.

  John Singer Sargent - one of the truly greatest portrait painters - famously said:  "A portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth."

Mouths are notoriously hard to get 'right' in any portrait painting.

Just to add:  Leonardo kept working on the Mona Lisa for the rest of his life.  IOW, he kept painting her when she was no longer posing for him, long after her beauty had faded and changed.  He never delivered the work to her husband, he kept it, kept reworking it until it was 'just right', according to his notions of Renaissance poetic naturalism.