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Thu 15 Dec, 2005 11:24 pm
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - The mysterious half-smile that has intrigued viewers of the Mona Lisa for centuries isn't really that difficult to interpret, Dutch researchers said Thursday.
She was smiling because she was happy - 83 per cent happy, to be exact, according to scientists from the University of Amsterdam. In what they viewed as a fun demonstration of technology rather than a serious experiment, the researchers scanned a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece and subjected it to cutting-edge "emotion recognition" software, developed in collaboration with the University of Illinois.........
Scientists uncover reason for Mona Lisa's smile: she was happy
Are you sure someone didn't just goose her?
I always thought it was because she was predicting the future and how people would debate about her smile for decades, unaware that she was suffering from gas bubbles and had just let one go...
I think she was verging on insanity and was just smiling when she enumerated the ways in which she will torture and kill da Vinci, who painted her portrait over 1000 times, destroying it each time for not being 'perfect'. the one that we know was saved only by accident when a friend stopped him from tearing it up and snatched it away from him.... or so i heard the story.
Thank heavens, Dag's reply has saved the day! :wink:
Like most people of her time she probably had bad teeth. It was also considered lewd for a woman to smile with her mouth
open . Think of the portraits of the time, no one had a big grin - except when portraying someone of the lower classes.
Green Witch - Very true. Many of the old portraits of the day show women with their lips closed. But there is usually no trace of a smile. The unique thing about the Mona Lisa, is that her smile is indicating that there is something "major" going on in her mind.
I think the clue to her smiles rests on what her hands are up to.
I think she just graduated with a degree from Scientology and Tom Cruise just did her.
lol. Why does she not have eyebrows?
Eyebrows? Lana Turner also did not have eyebrows.
(Well, Tom Cruise does have eyebrows but I think we have determined that doesn't denote brains).
Mona Lisa's Smile
Mona Lisa wasn't the only lady that da Vinci painted that had that particular smile...almost every other lady he painted posted the same smile on her puss.i.e. See Leda. A buddy of his Bernardino Luini also painted women posting the same damned grin.
I think they were just smitten with that type of image...call it pre mannerism.
Ray wrote:lol. Why does she not have eyebrows?
It was the fashion of the times for a lady to pluck her eyebrows and front hairline. A tall brow/forehead was considered elegant.
howd they get rid of her moustache?
They found out Man Ray had used water soluble paint?
There was another thing a while ago about how something about the shading makes our brain process the corners of her mouth as smiling more deeply than they really are/ than they appear when you look straight at them. So it's elusive because the smile is mostly just outside your field of vision -- now you see it (when you're not looking right at it), now you don't (when you are).
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