The uncatchable smile in Leonardo da Vinci's La Bella Principessa Portrait

A portrait of uncertain origin recently came to light which, after extensive research and examination, was shown to be that rarest of things: a newly discovered Leonardo da Vinci painting entitled La Bella Principessa. This research presents a new illusion which is similar to that identified in the Mona Lisa; La Bella Principessa’s mouth appears to change slant depending on both the viewing distance and the level of blur applied to a digital version of the portrait. Through a series of psychophysics experiments, it was found that a perceived change in the slant of the La Bella Principessa's mouth influences her expression of contentment thus generating an illusion that we have coined the “uncatchable smile". The elusive quality of the Mona Lisa’s smile has been previously reported (Livingstone, 2000) and so the existence of a similar illusion in a portrait painted prior to the Mona Lisa becomes more interesting. The question remains whether Leonardo da Vinci intended this illusion. In any case, it can be argued that the ambiguity created adds to the portrait's allure

X-ray and Infrared Microanalyses of <i>Mona Lisa</i>'s Ground Layer and Significance Regarding Leonardo da Vinci's Palette

An exceptional microsample from the ground layer of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was analyzed by high-angular resolution synchrotron X-ray diffraction and micro Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, revealing a singular mixture of strongly saponified oil with high lead content and a cerussite (PbCO3)-depleted lead white pigment. The most remarkable signature in the sample is the presence of plumbonacrite (Pb5(CO3)3O(OH)2), a rare compound that is stable only in an alkaline environment. Leonardo probably endeavored to prepare a thick paint suitable for covering the wooden panel of the Mona Lisa by treating the oil with a high load of lead II oxide, PbO. The review of Leonardo's manuscripts (original and latter translation) to track the mention of PbO gives ambiguous information. Conversely, the analysis of fragments from the Last Supper confirms that not only PbO was part of Leonardo's palette, through the detection of both litharge (α-PbO) and massicot (β-PbO) but also plumbonacrite and shannonite (Pb2OCO3), the latter phase being detected for the first time in a historical painting.</p

Investigating the 'Uncatchable Smile' in Leonardo da Vinci’s La Bella Principessa: A Comparison with the Mona Lisa and Pollaiuolo’s Portrait of a Girl

This paper discusses how the 'Uncatchable Smile' illusion in Leonardo da Vinci's La Bella Principessa portrait was discovered. Kemp and Cotte1 described the expression of the Princess as ambiguous and "subtle to an inexpressible degree". A combination of three methods was used (inter-observation, structured interviews, and psychophysical experiments) to identify what may underlie this 'ambiguity'. The inter-observation and the structured interview methods were firstly applied to generate experimental hypotheses that were successively tested by a series of psychophysical experiments. The combination of these research methods minimizes the impact of the researcher’s beliefs and biases in the development of the research design. It emerged that the ambiguity in La Bella Principessa is triggered by a change in the perceived level of contentment in her facial expression and that this perceptual change is attributable to a visual illusion relating to her mouth. Moreover, it was found that a similar effect can be observed in the Mona Lisa. As the smile in La Bella Principessa disappears as soon as the viewer tries to ‘catch it’, we named this visual illusion the 'Uncatchable Smile'. The elusive quality of the Mona Lisa’s smile2 is probably why the portrait is so famous, and so the existence of a similar ambiguity in a portrait painted by Leonardo prior to the Mona Lisa is even more interesting

The Canon, [1977-78]: Volume 8, Number 1

The Golden Age by Dan Van Heyst Anonymous by Cal Meuzelaar Florescence by Merle Meeter A Watched Bean Doesn\u27t Hatch... by Neil Culbertson The Man Who Drew the Plans by Keith Voss Resthome by Pat Leegwater Truly a Lesson in Flight by Dan Van Heyst Upon Looking at a Frontier Man\u27s Grave (Prior 1890) by Bonnie Kuipers A toilet paper square... by Pat Leegwater [photo of cat] by Dave Groenenboom Tailgate Graffiti by Dave Groenenboomhttps://digitalcollections.dordt.edu/dordt_canon/1069/thumbnail.jp

Lesson 18: On the Dada of Art versus the Dada of War

This lesson covers Dada with a focus on artists Hugo Ball, Marcel Duchamp, Hannah Höch and surrealism with a focus on artists Meret Oppenheim, Man Ray, Salvador Dali

Art and Medicine: from anatomic studies to Visual Thinking Strategies

Over the centuries the collaboration between artists and doctors and the relationship between art and medicine disciplines have been documented. Since the '60s the discipline of medical humanities has been developed in order to enrich the studies in medical sciences with the humanities. In the belief that medicine is more than just a set of knowledge and technical skills, medical educators have considered important to include the humanities as art, literature, philosophy, ethics, history, in the curriculum of training a good doctor. Despite there are examples of previous use of art as part of the curricula of medicine as a tool to develop the cognitive skills of observation and description, there is a general consensus that the semiotic competence starts from a correct and deep observation, "clinical eye", using senses to diagnose disease. It can talk about "Visual Thinking Strategy" (VTS) in this context. The VTS provides a way to enable the observation of the work of art, the process of analysis, comparison and discussion with others that allows the medical student to acquire a method to be applied also in clinical activity, improving skills in patient examination, by implementing the problem solving and critical thinking, getting used to teamwork, stimulating empathy toward patient and respect for others (whether patient or colleague). The observation practice should be key thing for medical training and this theory can be an aid to improve clinical skills. A trial of VTS for medicine students connected to Semiotic Course in collaboration with the Galleria Borghese in Rome during last academic year was carried out at The Degree Course in Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine and Psychology of Sapienza University.Keywords:Medical humanities, art, Visual Thinking StrategiesIntroductionArt understood as 'Tèchne' could be described as the application of rules set and experiences elaborated by man, therefore the knowledge, in order to make objects or to depict images taken from reality or fantasy world. Medical Science is a discipline defined as Art in so far as it able to apply the knowledge, therefore the Science of the disease cure. Over the centuries these disciplines have developed many relationships, in fact, we have document of the cooperation between artists and doctors. Let’s think , in Classical Antiquity, when artists could learn anatomical features only through the observation of athletes in gymnasium. Anatomical features, still unknown to the doctors, who could not use, for example, the dissection of corpse because this practice was prohibited for religious reasons. They were able to “admire” the representation of muscles stretching through sculpture, an example is Myron's Discobolus.In Medicine field only Herophilus of Chalcedon and Erasistratus, in the third century B.C. carried out dissections of "live" human bodies (1) until 1241 when Federico II promulgated the edict that authorized and stimulated the use of cadavers by doctors. In 1316 Mondino de Liuzzi wrote "Anothomia" founding the first School of Human Anatomy in Europe. It will have to wait the Renaissance, with the birth of the "modern" medicine, to discover that also the artists were able to use the human bodies for their anatomical studies. The first known example was Il Pollaiolo www.sensesandsciences.co

Mona Lisa's smiles in Leonardo's drawings

‘Mona Lisa’ (1503-05) is the most-visited, written about and parodied work of ‎art in the world. However, the ambiguous allure it features is not unique. Soranzo & Newberry (‎‎2015) found a similar display of ambiguity in the lesser-known painting ‘La Bella Principessa’. They suggested that most of the ambiguity of both portraits can be explained in terms of a spatial frequency contingent illusion concerning the direction of the mouth. When viewed closely, the slant of the ‎mouth appears to turn downwards, but when viewed from afar, or when the image is blurred, the edges ‎of the mouth appear to take an upward turn. This apparent modification in mouth slant results in a change of facial expression. The ambiguity may therefore be explained by the perceptual instability of the mouth slant. We have now extended this line of research and discovered that a similar illusion of direction is also present in two Leonardo's drawings: La Scapigliata (1508) and another Female Head (1470-76). This discovery supports the suggestive hypothesis that Leonardo studied the generation of ambiguity in the expression of portrayed subjects as matter to ‘moti mentali’, i.e. what we may now identify as micro expressions

How did Leonardo perceive himself? Metric iconography of da Vinci's self-portraits

Some eighteen portraits are now recognized of Leonardo in old age, consolidating the impression from his bestestablished self-portrait of an old man with long white hair and beard. However, his appearance when younger is generally regarded as unknown, although he was described as very beautiful as a youth. Application of the principles of metric iconography, the study of the quantitative analysis of the painted images, provides an avenue for the identification of other portraits that may be proposed as valid portraits of Leonardo during various stages of his life, by himself and by his contemporaries. Overall, this approach identifies portraits of Leonardo by Verrocchio, Raphael, Botticelli, and others. Beyond this physiognomic analysis, Leonardo's first known drawing provides further insight into his core motivations. Topographic considerations make clear that the drawing is of the hills behind Vinci with a view overlooking the rocky promontory of the town and the plain stretching out before it. The outcroppings in the foreground bear a striking resemblance to those of his unique composition, 'The Virgin of the Rocks', suggesting a deep childhood appreciation of this wild terrain. and an identification with that religious man of the mountains, John the Baptist, who was also the topic of Leonardo's last known painting. Following this trail leads to a line of possible selfportraits continuing the age-regression concept back to a self view at about two years of age

"Geistige Dinge, die nicht durch die Sinne gelaufen sind, sind vergeblich ..." : objektive und subjektive Eigenschaften von Leonardos Werk im Zeitalter der Hirnforschung

Warum die von Leonardo da Vinci gemalte »Mona Lisa« so viele Betrachter fasziniert, hat als eines der größten Rätsel der Kunst jahrzehntelang die Phantasie von Wissenschaftlern, Schriftstellern und Kunstliebhabern beflügelt. In der jüngeren Kunstgeschichte war eine solche Frage allerdings kaum von Interesse. Heute nun beanspruchen Vertreter anderer Disziplinen, die Wirkung solcher Meisterwerke objektiv erklären zu können ..