The Enigmatic Smile of Mona Lisa
The Grave Digger
A mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a Chinese box? Hardly. Scientists are applying their knowledge to art with surprising results. The Mona Lisa is only smiling when you aren't looking, according to Harvard professor Margaret Livingstone.
Apparently scientists get a kick out of analyzing what makes these paintings tick. Now, I just want an answer to two questions.
The theory has been presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's (AAAS) annual meeting in Denver, Colorado, this week.The smile disappeared when it was looked at because of the way the human eye processes visual information, said Prof Livingstone.
The eye uses two types of vision, foveal - direct vision - and peripheral. Foveal detects detail, but is less useful for detecting shadows.
Link (via Newsvine). Livingstone states that you can only really "see" the smile if you are looking directly at her eyes or another part of her face."The elusive quality of the Mona Lisa's smile can be explained by the fact that her smile is almost entirely in low spatial frequencies, and so is seen best by your peripheral vision," Prof Livingstone said.
Apparently scientists get a kick out of analyzing what makes these paintings tick. Now, I just want an answer to two questions.
- Does this prove that Vince Vaughn, in one of the final scenes of Swingers, merely misinterpreted that woman's smile due to looking straight into her face?
- Can I get one of these so-called scientists get a better look at this picture? I don't care what she thinks - if she sees more than a man, she's the liar.
posted at 2:47 PM
3 Comments:
Reminds me of the Super Mario Boo Buddies, who would always come after you when you were facing away but then stop when you looked at them. I wonder if these researchers were just picking up the 9 percent disgust.
am I supposed to see something more in the black and white picture?
Tilt your head sideways and imagine it's less a picture than handwriting. And did you see that terrible officiating?
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