Under the influence of humanism, Leonardo da Vinci focused on expressing people's feelings. In terms of composition, Leonardo da Vinci changed the habit of using a side bust or chest when painting portraits in the past and replaced it with a front bust. The perspective point rises slightly, making the composition pyramid-shaped, and the Mona Lisa looks more dignified and steady. In addition, Mona Lisa's hand, delicate, precise and plump, shows her tenderness, status and class status, and shows Leonardo's exquisite painting skills and his keen observation of nature.
For 500 years, people have been unable to agree on the mysterious smile of Mona Lisa. Different audiences or at different times look and feel different. I think she sometimes smiles comfortably and gently, sometimes looks serious, sometimes looks slightly sad, and sometimes even reveals ridicule and ridicule. In a painting, the change of light can't be as different as in sculpture. However, on Mona Lisa's face, dim shadows appear and disappear, covering her eyes and lips with a veil. However, people's smiles are mainly reflected in the corners of their eyes and corners of their mouths. But Leonardo da Vinci's descriptions of these parts are faint and have no clear boundaries, which is why there is such an elusive "mysterious smile". A university in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, used "emotion recognition software" to analyze the content and proportion of Mona Lisa's smile: happiness 83/ 100, disgust 9/ 100, fear 6/ 100 and anger 2/ 100.
Dr. Livingstone, a neuroscientist at Harvard University, said that Mona Lisa's smile is flickering, which is related to the human visual system, not because the expression of the people in the painting is mysterious. Dr. Livingstone is an authority on visual nerve activity, mainly studying the response of eyes and brain to different contrast and light and shade. Livingstone said: "The smile is flashing because the viewer has changed the position of his eyes." He said that the human eye has two different parts to receive images. The central part (that is, the shallow fossa on the retina) is responsible for distinguishing colors and marking them carefully. Pay attention to the black and white, movements and shadows around the shallow pit. According to Livingstone, when people look at a face, most of their eyes are fixed on the other person's eyes. If people's central vision is placed in Mona Lisa's eyes, then less accurate peripheral vision will fall on her mouth. Because peripheral vision does not pay attention to nuances, it invisibly highlights the shadow of cheekbones. In this way, the radian of the smile is even greater. However, when the eyes look directly at Mona Lisa's mouth, the central vision will not see the shadow. Livingstone said, "If you look at her mouth, you will never catch her smile." Mona Lisa's smile is looming because people's eyes are constantly shifting. Livingstone pointed out that if you want to copy the Mona Lisa, you should look away when describing your mouth.
1993, Susan Gill, a Canadian art historian, published a shocking research result. She said that Mona Lisa's lips, which attracted countless audiences, were men's bare backs. This argument is novel and absurd, but it is powerful. Leonardo da Vinci, a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer and scientist, was a "geek". He likes to wear a pink coat, paint his beard with colorful colors without scruple, and often claims that he has dissected more than 30 bodies. He is still left-handed and used to write backwards from right to left. Others must use the mirror to read what he wrote. Therefore, using the mirror is also a way for the audience to read pictures. After rotating 90 degrees, Mona Lisa's lips in the mirror are just the back of a strong man with clear lines, as well as his left arm and elbow angle; Besides, expressing the beauty of human body and calling for the awakening of human nature is not only the master's philosophy of life, but also his artistic view.
Indeed, people will get different feelings when they appreciate this painting from different angles and under different light. That smile is sometimes gentle, sometimes serene and serious, sometimes slightly sad, and sometimes somewhat ironic and ridiculous. The mysterious smile reveals the mysterious spiritual activities of the characters.
For hundreds of years, new explanations of "smile" have emerged one after another. For example, smiling without showing white teeth is because the prototype is elegant and beautiful but not good at words; The prototype is depressed and unhappy because of the death of his beloved daughter, and it is difficult to hide his sadness. What's more, Mona Lisa was pushed off the throne of a lady, and the prototype was demoted to a prostitute, so she smiled with ridicule and ridicule.
Dr Joseph Baukowski of Maryland, USA, said: "The Mona Lisa didn't laugh at all. Her facial expression typically shows that she wants to hide that she has no front teeth."
Dr Jean Jacques Kondert, a brain surgeon in Lyon, France, thinks that Mona Lisa has just suffered a stroke. Look, half of her face is flabby and her face is crooked, so she looks smiling.
Dr Kenneth gay friends, a British doctor, thinks the Mona Lisa is pregnant. His basis is that her face is satisfied, her skin is fresh and tender, and her hands are crossed on her abdomen. Sexologists speculate that Mona Lisa has just experienced an orgasm, so she showed a smile that fascinated the world.
There is also an almost nonsense statement: her expression looks like she ate phenylalanine, a pleasure hormone produced in her body after eating chocolate. Few people believe this statement because there was no chocolate at that time.
Sinker Kenriel, a professor of anthropology at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, believes that Mona Lisa has such a smile because she is full, because the radian of her mouth and the gesture of putting her hand gently on her abdomen are exactly the same as the expression of human beings after a full meal.
In the painting, the horizon on the left is lower than the right, and the left side of Mona Lisa looks bigger than the right side. Historically, the left side represents women, which shows Leonardo's worship of women. In fact, there are many similarities between Mona Lisa and Leonardo da Vinci's self-portraits. In Egyptian legend, the god in charge of male genitalia is called Amon, and the god in charge of female genitalia is called Isis-pronounced L'ISA in ancient Chinese, so Mona Lisa implies that Mona Lisa is neither male nor female, but a fusion of the two sexes.
Mona Lisa's smile is actually a painting of doomsday judgment. We can copy a picture, then flip it horizontally so that the edges of the picture are aligned, and we can see the approval and the throne of angels.
Mona Lisa, this is an endless question. It has been nearly 500 years since it came out, and later generations have many comments and speculations, leaving more and more puzzles. At present, there are hundreds of monographs on Mona Lisa in the world, and nearly 100 scholars regard this painting as a lifelong topic. The passage of time will not solve the puzzle, but will only leave more doubts for future generations with the deepening of research.
People love her excessively. Endlessly explore her imperceptible, fleeting but eternal smile, her all-seeing and all-inclusive eyes, her dignified and calm posture, her noble and simple costume, and her impeccable perfect composition. People marvel: Leonardo, only with the wisdom of Leonardo and God, can we collect so many beautiful elements and combine many beautiful things into a perfect whole. Therefore, beauty, wisdom, eternity, trinity, ultimate collocation, there is no possibility of transcendence. In this way, "Mona Lisa" brings people infinite beautiful reverie, but also gives people infinite heavy pressure. People are willing to live in her shade and absorb nourishing nutrition; I long to get out of her shadow and breathe the free air. For many years, countless people who are obsessed with painting things have been troubled by this contradiction.
This is a myth, which has nothing to do with Leonardo da Vinci, and is completely fabricated by later generations. Myth is like a snowball, which keeps rolling and expanding with the passage of time, and finally even the maker of myth is swallowed up. Today, the Mona Lisa sits in a prominent position in the Louvre, welcoming thousands of tourists through thick bulletproof glass and with a mysterious and eternal smile that we are familiar with every day. These pilgrimage-like audiences are full of all kinds of questions. They are eager to read the answer through this gentle and quiet face, but when they leave, they take away more questions. There are many problems, many of which have nothing to do with the Mona Lisa. Some people may ask: Is Mona Lisa the name of the person in the painting or another name for the smile? Is the person in the picture the wife of banker Joe Gondo or Princess Isabel? Does this painting have a real model, or is it drawn by imagination? The characters in this painting have no eyebrows. Is this the aesthetic fashion of Florence in those days, or is it the pregnancy reaction that some people say? Did the person in the painting just experience the pain of miscarriage and put on mourning? Is Mona Lisa's puzzled expression really a smile? Isn't it caused by facial paralysis? Is the Mona Lisa a man or a woman? Is the prototype Leonardo himself? The more bizarre the problem is, the farther away it is from the painting itself, which not only does not help to interpret the painting, but leads people astray.
In fact, some questions have constituted blasphemy against the Mona Lisa, but the questioner has not yet noticed it. Is the Mona Lisa a man or a woman? Is it necessary to ask? No one with gender awareness should question this, but some people still insist on asking such absurd questions. Some people say that Mona Lisa gives people a neutral feeling, at least she won't give people a sexual temptation. Excuse me, can only sex appeal constitute female beauty? So, what's the difference between portraits and pornographic photos? There is no doubt that Mona Lisa is beautiful, and her beauty is fully reflected in the beauty of human nature, not limited to female characteristics; In other words, her beauty has surpassed the gender barrier, but this does not mean that she can't distinguish between the sexes. If there is no ulterior motive, it is very boring to ask absurd questions about obvious facts. It's outrageous to say facial paralysis in the face of a pleasing portrait. Is Mona Lisa's expression stiff? It's ridiculous to say that a moment's expression is frozen and stiff. The smile is indescribable. Unconscious smile, friendly smile, gratified smile or slightly sarcastic smile in concentration are all the feelings of everyone under different emotions, but there is no doubt about the smile. As for some people who think that Mona Lisa's smile is beyond the reach of ordinary people, there is absolutely no need to conclude that this painting is not based on a real person, but is entirely based on imagination. People are amazed at Leonardo da Vinci's superb painting skills: the people in the painting, from the five senses to the hands, to other parts of the body, including clothes, are so real and tangible, almost within reach, beyond imagination. If there were no real people for reference, even if he had great talent, Leonardo could not have painted so vividly and delicately. Someone wants to ask, the eyes of the person in the painting are so far away from her smile, so don't argue deeply. Is that unique to him? Why can't modern people imitate it? In fact, such a question is easy to answer. Anyone who knows painting knows that portrait painting is different from character prototype. A good portrait should first reflect the interactive relationship between the author and the object of performance; The painter melts his wisdom, emotion, philosophy of life, spiritual desire and so on into the characters in the painting, and the audience will certainly read more from the picture than the real characters. After we learned about leonardo da vinci's life and his extraordinary achievements in many fields, the above problems were solved. In this case, it doesn't matter who the wife and name of the person in the painting are. She is the collection of all leonardo da vinci's artistic talents and the concentrated expression of his ideal personality. In this sense, she is not anyone's wife, she is a perfect human nature beyond the limits of convention. We can understand that Mona Lisa is a spiritual portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, but it is too vulgar to say that she is a model. Someone compared Leonardo da Vinci's self-portrait with Mona Lisa through computer technology, and found that the basic structure of the two was strikingly similar, so he concluded that the painting was based on himself. In fact, this is nitpicking. Similarity does not mean coincidence, of course, complete coincidence is impossible, just like the person in the painting is not completely the same as the real person; But different people always have similarities, similarity is the main thing, but the difference is very small; What's more, every painter always unconsciously brings his own image into the picture when describing others, because the painter is most familiar with himself; I think Leonardo da Vinci will be no exception. Having said that, there is no need to explain the remaining questions. If we look at more paintings and get in touch with painters, then irrelevant questions will not be raised.
The Mona Lisa we are seeing now is tan with a slight turquoise tone. The color is plain and quiet, simple and dignified. We thought painting had always been like this, but it wasn't. According to the description of Leonardo da Vinci's contemporaries, the paintings at that time were bright in color and bright in tone. When did it become like this? At that time, the French king got the Mona Lisa, and in order to better protect it, he painted too much varnish on the surface; Hundreds of years later, the varnish turned dark brown, just like the color we see at present; The surface of this painting has cracked, forming a fine texture like a spider's web. Unfortunately, the preservation conditions are not good; However, we would rather recognize the Mona Lisa today. The simple and vigorous tone complements the quiet and introverted spiritual temperament of the characters; Dark clothes and foggy background set off the characters' faces and hands loud and moving; The even cracks add mystery to the character, which makes us more respectful and yearning for her. Some people want to remove surface grease and restore the original bright color through modern scientific and technological means; I'm just worried that the technology is not enough and I'm afraid of damaging the picture. In fact, if it is really repaired, we will find it strange and unacceptable.
First of all, we will be impressed by the wonderful light and shadow effects. The layering of blooming shows rich space and realistic texture, and the borderless morphological transition and color change are centuries ahead of our contemporaries. The real magic is not skill, but the mysterious smile that appears and disappears in that moment is fascinating. That smile is too shallow, no matter how close you are, you can't see it clearly; However, as long as you see the painting, no matter how far away, you can feel the smile. Smiling is not only reflected in the upturned corners of the mouth, but also in every part of the face and even every corner of the picture, so that viewers can enjoy the Mona Lisa while smiling. The feeling of facing the original is irreplaceable elsewhere, and the Mona Lisa in the Louvre is destined to be preserved forever.
There is another legend about the Mona Lisa. In 8 17 BC, there was a female sacrifice named Hagbusu in ancient Egypt, which was very beautiful and could predict the future. In order to pray for the Pharaoh and obtain eternal life, she made a mummy voluntarily and buried it in the sarcophagus of pyramid of khufu. In 2003, the archaeological team opened her sarcophagus, and there was nothing inside! They also found that the ancient writing on the tomb wall was a prophecy left by the priestess: she would be resurrected in 300 years, and then Leonardo, a painter from Finch, would draw her smile. Is this the Mona Lisa in Leonardo's painting? ! This statement is very bizarre, and I hope that in the near future, the truth will make us let go.