7 ms·

Mona Lisa's smile a mystery no more

27 points by dimas 17y ago

ilitirit 17y ago
I'm interested in seeing if there's a physio/psycho/neurological differences between people who find her smile mysterious and people who don't, because to me, the only mysterious thing about her smile is that the media makes such a big deal of it.
- jerf 17y ago
  I didn't get it either. Finally, this article at least explains the mystery, and now that I'm looking for it, I see the point. I still process it as a "small smile", though, where the ambiguity is moved into the representation of the emotion and not the visual processing. "Smile" is not an atomic face state, there are many gradations within it. I suspect the people finding it "mysterious" are suffering from an aliasing error, basically, binning a complicated thing (the human face) into far too few bins.
  - dstorrs 17y ago
    >"Smile" is not an atomic face state, there are many > gradations within it. You're not kidding! http://face.paulekman.com/default.aspx http://face.paulekman.com/default.aspx Personally, I've never seen the Mona Lisa's smile as that complicated. Her mouth is smiling, her eyes are not. When you look at the bottom half of her face, you see a smile. When you look at the top half, you don't.
dan_sim 17y ago
I always wondered if DaVinci wanted that effect or it just "happened".
- oneplusone 17y ago
  From the article: So did Leonardo intend to sow so much confusion in the brains of viewers, not to mention scientists? Absolutely, Otero Martinez contends. "He wrote in one of his notebooks that he was trying to paint dynamic expressions because that's what he saw in the street."
- JoeAltmaier 17y ago
  Leonardo absolutely nailed his subjects. So give a little credit to Lisa del Giocondo. Maybe she had just sat still for too long.
GavinB 17y ago
When we fake a smile, we smile with our lips but not our eyes. The Mona Lisa is doing the reverse: her eyes are smiling but her mouth is actually quite neutral. There are also lines in her cheeks that make it look like her mouth curving upwards, but the lips are actually quite flat. Try looking directly at her eyes, then down at her mouth. Her expression seems to morph.
jcl 17y ago
Reminds me a little of the SIGGRAPH paper on hybrid images, where the distance at which you view an image determines, for example, whether you see a smiling or frowning person: http://cvcl.mit.edu/hybridimage.htm http://cvcl.mit.edu/hybridimage.htm
- pbhjpbhj 17y ago
  I have to stand back and squint to see the other image, kinda. Interesting though.
RiderOfGiraffes 17y ago
So they're claiming it's something like this? http://www.grand-illusions.com/opticalillusions/angry_and_calm/ http://www.grand-illusions.com/opticalillusions/angry_and_ca...
pwmanagerdied 17y ago
This article is about a story from a few years ago. The way they talk about it as though it's something new is very misleading.
petesalty 17y ago
If I unfocus my eyes and stare at her long enough I can see a horse.
- gcb 17y ago
  still no sailboat

27 points by dimas 17y ago

I'm interested in seeing if there's a physio/psycho/neurological differences between people who find her smile mysterious and people who don't, because to me, the only mysterious thing about her smile is that the media makes such a big deal of it.

jerf 17y ago
I didn't get it either. Finally, this article at least explains the mystery, and now that I'm looking for it, I see the point. I still process it as a "small smile", though, where the ambiguity is moved into the representation of the emotion and not the visual processing. "Smile" is not an atomic face state, there are many gradations within it. I suspect the people finding it "mysterious" are suffering from an aliasing error, basically, binning a complicated thing (the human face) into far too few bins.
- dstorrs 17y ago
  >"Smile" is not an atomic face state, there are many > gradations within it. You're not kidding! http://face.paulekman.com/default.aspx http://face.paulekman.com/default.aspx Personally, I've never seen the Mona Lisa's smile as that complicated. Her mouth is smiling, her eyes are not. When you look at the bottom half of her face, you see a smile. When you look at the top half, you don't.

dan_sim 17y ago

I always wondered if DaVinci wanted that effect or it just "happened".

oneplusone 17y ago
From the article: So did Leonardo intend to sow so much confusion in the brains of viewers, not to mention scientists? Absolutely, Otero Martinez contends. "He wrote in one of his notebooks that he was trying to paint dynamic expressions because that's what he saw in the street."
JoeAltmaier 17y ago
Leonardo absolutely nailed his subjects. So give a little credit to Lisa del Giocondo. Maybe she had just sat still for too long.

GavinB 17y ago

When we fake a smile, we smile with our lips but not our eyes. The Mona Lisa is doing the reverse: her eyes are smiling but her mouth is actually quite neutral. There are also lines in her cheeks that make it look like her mouth curving upwards, but the lips are actually quite flat. Try looking directly at her eyes, then down at her mouth. Her expression seems to morph.

jcl 17y ago

Reminds me a little of the SIGGRAPH paper on hybrid images, where the distance at which you view an image determines, for example, whether you see a smiling or frowning person: http://cvcl.mit.edu/hybridimage.htm http://cvcl.mit.edu/hybridimage.htm

pbhjpbhj 17y ago
I have to stand back and squint to see the other image, kinda. Interesting though.

RiderOfGiraffes 17y ago

So they're claiming it's something like this? http://www.grand-illusions.com/opticalillusions/angry_and_calm/ http://www.grand-illusions.com/opticalillusions/angry_and_ca...

pwmanagerdied 17y ago

This article is about a story from a few years ago. The way they talk about it as though it's something new is very misleading.

petesalty 17y ago

If I unfocus my eyes and stare at her long enough I can see a horse.

gcb 17y ago
still no sailboat