Mona Lisa and the Mystery of “the Eternal Smile”

【Abstract】“Mona Lisa” is Leonardo Da Vincis one of the famous oil paintings， which now stored in the Musee du Louvre. And since “Mona Lisa” is a famous portrait which it stands for Da Vincis highest value of masterpiece， and it also successfully became a lady image of the Florentine fashion at that period. It develops artists peculiar technique of writing smoking “Perspective Art”. Mona Lisas smile has some kind of mysterious eternal marvel. Many historians call her charming smile “The mysterious smile”.

【Key words】Leonardo Da Vinci; Mona Lisa; eternal smile; Perspective Art

【作者簡介】吴飔雪，成都大学中国东盟艺术学院。

1. Leonardo Da Vinci and Mona Lisa

Leonardo Da Vinci spent four years painting “Mona Lisa”. It not merely opens a new painting style of humanism portraiture during Renaissance period; also attract many visitors to investigate for several centuries. During Middle Ages， when the society was ruled by asceticism religion， portraiture was usually painted stiffly， without any facial expression. Under this influence， Da Vinci worked hardly to express humans feeling. Mona Lisa was the wife of a fur merchant in Florence. She was 24 years old at that time. She lost her daughter and that made her sad and depress. In order to make her smile again， Da Vinci did a lot of things such as playing music， singing or telling jokes to dive her into a happy emotion. So that she could show her smile lips again.

2. The different viewpoints on Mona Lisas mystery smile

Indeed， people got different feelings while they were appreciating the masterpiece from different angles or in different visions. The mysterious smile reflected the unpredictable activities of the characters minds. The smile sometimes was gentle and cultivated， sometimes was serene and rigid， sometimes was somewhat sad， while sometimes was irony; the mysterious and unfathomable smile shows the same internal activities. For several hundred years， the new meanings of “smile” emerged endlessly. Such as although being elegant and beautiful but without neat teeth is the reason why she smiles without exposing her teeth; the original shape cannot hide her sadness for her daughters death; whats more， some pushed her off throne of lady and demote Mona Lisa as a prostitute so that she smiles with irony.

It was the “three great discoveries” that reveal to people greatly surprised in this century during the research of “smile”. First is alleged by physic experts that Mona Lisas smile was in a sick state because that the facial muscles could not be moved by smile was the symptom of paralysis. Second， Lily Shuwatts who worked in Bel lab proved a view that “Mona Lisa” was the self-portrait of Da Vinci himself by overlapping Mona Lisas portraiture with Da Vincis on computer， finding that both of the eyes， the lines of hairs， the breads and mustaches and the noses were accord with each other. No wonder the modern painters added handlebar to Mona Lisa.

3. The smile of Mona Lisa comes from the eye dislocation

People are often puzzled by the smile showing in “Mona Lisa”. At the first sight of Mona Lisa， people may appreciate a peaceful smile; and then watching carefully， people feel its fading off; but looking it up and down， the smile comes back and disappears ultimately. Why does the painting produce such a mysterious phenomenon？ Margaret Livingstone is professor in the neurobiologist of Harvard Medicine School. She gave the mystery an interpretation. She said： “It would say the mysterious smile of Mona Lisa has something to do with the painting skills adopted by the artist rather than say a connection with the eye dislocation.” Margaret Livingstone has been interested in studying the eye and brain system. She used many different ways to contrast the two systems. The smile came and gone depends on where your eyes focused on. Livingstone explained the two regions of human eyes that affect the vision. The central area of eye is fovea. People cannot see colors without this， and also it most important to see clearly and constitute the image. The surrounding part of fovea is the peripheral area of eye. It used to see black and white. It picks up shadows and the movement images， but it cannot see details. Those two parts of human eye are making the complete world. Just because of those two regions of eye， viewers made the illusions when they saw the blurry Mona Lisas smile.

Anyhow， mystery can always be a mystery. The portrait of Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings in the world. The great value of this painting that comes from the mysterious smile of Mona Lisa， and it also comes from peoples imagination. Indeed， everyone has his or her own point of view focusing on this painting， and also comes out different stories about Mona Lisa and Leonardo Da Vinci. The mysterious smile is the eternal smile.

References：

[1]Carol S. The Annotated Mona Lisa[M]. Andrews McMeel Pub，2018.