Art is supposed to be a extremely subjective experience , controvert scientific discipline ’s focus on objective conclusions . But a team of neuroscientistsbelievethey’ve arrived at a classic rendering aboutLeonardo da Vinci ’s famousMona Lisa . According to their research , the subject in the picture is putting on a force smile .
In a paperpublishedin the journalCortex , investigator from the U.S. and Europe set out to examine the smirk of the house painting ’s field of study , believedto be a woman named Lisa Gherardini , whose husband commissioned the painting as a endowment . First , they create chimeric images of theMona Lisa ’s look by bisecting her face and mirror - imaging the left or right sides to create full smiles . Then , they asked 42 study participants to describe the image from a list of six different emotions . Thirty - nine sound out the left side was evince happiness . No one in the grouping label the right side as come along happy . Most pronounce it was neutral , while five said it was actually displaying disgust .
Conclusion ? The happiness of the smile appeared only on the left , and was therefore asymmetrical and " non - actual . "
Coupled with their reflection that the face of theMona Lisaappears expressionless around the cheek and eyes , the researcher surmised that the adult female in the painting was seem to be insincere . They debate that Leonardo belike took his model ’s vacuous expression andaddeda little smirk on the left over side : perhaps Gherardini simply could n’t maintain a pleased saying while sit for the continuance of the work . They also speculate that Leonardo may have known an crooked smile was intend to be non - real and purposely draw it to draw more reaction out of the painting ’s viewer .
It ’s also possible that none of these theory is right . Like any majuscule work of art , its import could remain oracular for another five century at least .
[ h / tGeek.com ]
