Mona Lisa And Her Expressions

The much talked about,  Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by Leonardo Da Vinci. It had been believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506; however, Leonardo may have continued working on it as late as 1517.  It is on permanent display at the Louvre, Paris. 

A study suggests that Italian polymath, Leonardo da Vinci deliberately portrayed her with a fake smile. He deliberately raised her left lip, as if to paint a smirk. He would have known that curving the lip on both sides and adding folds around the eyes would have shown a genuine smile and he had this knowledge hundreds of years before Duchenne's work in the 1800s. 

The University of London, in the UK investigated the mechanism of the expression, and used a 'chimeric face' technique; cutting the mouth in half and placing each half alongside its mirror image. The two chimeric images were judged by 42 subjects, and rated according to the expression perceived. Interestingly, the subjects agreed that the left image showed happiness, while the right side image was less expressive, being perceived as neutral or even sad. The research published concluded that the Mona Lisa is smiling asymmetrically. Asymmetric smiles can be a sign of insincerity or of a lie. "According to the most accredited neuropsychological theories, if a smile is asymmetric it is usually non-genuine," said Lucia Ricciardi at St George's, University of London. Posing for a picture for many hours will result in a forced expression. But we also know that Leonardo was a master of 'sfumato', the technique of shading which is used to demonstrate expression. 

What have been your personal observations about this famous painting? Check Pranjal Arts  art collection on this  website to browse through the different expressions across paintings.