The secret behind Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile

[Justan]

Foreword: The science of analyzing how perception works is catching up with L dV




By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 1:41PM GMT 28 Oct 2009

The secret behind Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile has been explained by scientists who believe it changes depending on which part of the eye sees it first.

One of the charms of the world's most famous painting is that she appears radiant one moment and then serious and sardonic the next.

Now scientists claim to have come up with an answer to her changing moods - our eyes are sending mixed signals to the brain.

They believe Mona Lisa's smile depends on what cells in the retina pick up the image and what channel the image is transmitted through in the brain.

Sometimes one channel wins over the other, and you see the smile, sometimes others take over and you do not see the smile.

Different cells in the eye are designed to pick up different colours, contrasts, backgrounds and foregrounds. Some deal with central vision while others with peripheral.

Depending on what cells picks up the image first depends on what channel they are sent to the brian for interpreting.

These channels encode data about an object's size, clarity, brightness and location in the visual field.

"Sometimes one channel wins over the other, and you see the smile, sometimes others take over and you don't see the smile," said Dr Luis Martinez Otero, a neuroscientist at Institute of Neuroscience in Alicante, Spain, who conducted the study, told New Scientist.

To get a fuller picture of the reasons behind Mona Lisa's vanishing smile, Dr Martinez Otero varied different aspects of the Mona Lisa that are processed by different visual channels, and then asked volunteers whether they saw a smile or not.

The rest is here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science...atic-smile.html

[Rob C]

I think it has something to do with the seat of the pants.

Rob C

[bill t.]

I think she's just trying really hard not to laugh at that guy.  However there's some good rap there for my artist's statement.  "Visual channels" is so totally hot.

Smiling only takes you so far.  Mona like you always wanted to see her...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/12/n...t_n_214964.html

[Justan]

I thought that work was attributed to Leo's assistant Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno aka Salai or Il Salaino or "The Little Unclean One"

[bill t.]

I thought that work was attributed to Leo's assistant Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno aka Salai or Il Salaino or "The Little Unclean One"

There ya go with the yeast again!    

A pedantic reliance on mere scholarly research and hard facts is so often counterproductive to the higher goals of Art History. OK it's the worst piece of anatomically challenged schlock ever to come down to us from the Renaissance.  But that doesn't PROVE Leonardo didn't do it.  It would be so cool if he did, why is that so hard to understand?

And let's not say too much about that Salai guy, especially in Maine.  BTW Salai and the nekkid Mona both have very similar faces.  Which lends support to the "Mona = Leonardo-in-drag" theory, which Salai presumably knew about and parroted.

[Justan]

> There ya go with the yeast again!  

Did not! I didn’t mention studies of meat even one time. Oh, wait! Maybe I did?!?

> A pedantic reliance on mere scholarly research and hard facts is so often counterproductive to the higher goals of Art History.

That was funny!

> But that doesn't PROVE Leonardo didn't do it. It would be so cool if he did, why is that so hard to understand?

I don’t have any problem with that. LdV did a lot of anatomical studies. But he’d be more likely to uh, do boys. It would probably be pretty easy to lift finger prints off this work. Perhaps there’s a little DNA captured in the paint, like a fly in amber...

> And let's not say too much about that Salai guy, especially in Maine. BTW Salai and the nekkid Mona both have very similar faces. Which lends support to the "Mona = Leonardo-in-drag" theory, which Salai presumably knew about and parroted.

But Mona was from the Gherardini family. Her panting is probably the highest expression of mannerism because of it’s subtlety. The unclean one spent most of his life in Leo’s uh, studio…

[David Sutton]

Her panting is probably the highest expression of mannerism because of it’s subtlety.

Not sure how I'd feel about a chubby Italian woman panting at my place.

[bill t.]

Not sure how I'd feel about a chubby Italian woman panting at my place.

But it's very subtle panting, and I think Justan said she's well mannered.  I'd decide on a case by case basis.

[Justan]

…and as another ship sales into the abyss let us all pause and wonder: Do we want yeast in our paint or some old chubby Italian lady whom we can’t decide if she’s pissed or smiling.

Maybe both…and maybe neither….

[usathyan]

Depending on what cells picks up the image first depends on what channel they are sent to the brian for interpreting.

I guess this brian guy is pretty good at doing this...

or did you mean - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain ?

[Rob C]

I guess this brian guy is pretty good at doing this...

or did you mean - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain ?

Intersting quotation from the above link:

"However, sophisticated control of behavior on the basis of complex sensory input requires the information-integrating capabilities of a centralized brain."

I now inderstand why some people get beer-bellies: it depends where their brains are located.

At just under 70 kilos I have to assume I simply don't have one.

;-(

Rob C

[bill t.]

...brain...  At just under 70 kilos I have to assume I simply don't have one.

Count yourself among the fortunate.  Those brain things just fill you up with words which when vented in public cause embarrassment.

[Justan]

I guess this brian guy is pretty good at doing this...

or did you mean - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain ?

You'd have to get back to Richard Alleyne or his copy editor for that one. Perhaps he was caught up in a moment of projecting or just sleeping at the wheel?

[Justan]

Intersting quotation from the above link:

"However, sophisticated control of behavior on the basis of complex sensory input requires the information-integrating capabilities of a centralized brain."

I now inderstand why some people get beer-bellies: it depends where their brains are located.

At just under 70 kilos I have to assume I simply don't have one.

;-(

Rob C

Just a fancy way of saying go by the seat of your knickers

[David Sutton]

You'd have to get back to Richard Alleyne or his copy editor for that one. Perhaps he was caught up in a moment of projecting or just sleeping at the wheel?

Maybe some old chubby, smiling, pissed Italian lady was there panting with her friend Brian at the time.

[Rob C]

Why are Italian ladies of a certain style suddenly getting a bad press? As in printing, I mean, though you can never tell what the rest of mankind might be up to.

Rob C

[Justan]

Maybe some old chubby, smiling, pissed Italian lady was there panting with her friend Brian at the time.

Now that's the spirit!

[Justan]

Why are Italian ladies of a certain style suddenly getting a bad press? As in printing, I mean, though you can never tell what the rest of mankind might be up to.

Rob C

Suddenly?

[bill t.]

All you Italian woman bashers need to bite your tongues.

How 'bout THIS Italian woman?

[Rob C]

All you Italian woman bashers need to bite your tongues.

How 'bout THIS Italian woman?

So how do you get to marry a Neapolitan millionairess?

Rob C