Why Does Monalisa's Smile Change?

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	Why Does Monalisa's Smile Change?

serene_ore

12-4-2006 9:15 AM

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da vinci

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/2c368d75-7528-4ee6-923e-46a1f03de403/2F2313FC-0B39-4AEA-A82E-3DB2FFFB609C/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/060918_mona_lisa.html" href="http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/060918_mona_lisa.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.livescience.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/060918_mona_lisa.html"><P class="style2">Strolling through the Louvre, you stop at Leonard da Vinci's <A href="http://www.livescience.com/history/060516_mona_lisa.html">Mona Lisa</A>. Initially, she appears to be smiling; but as you move your gaze, the expression changes—not so happy anymore. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/060918_mona_lisa.html"><P class="style2">Among the top questions baffling art enthusiasts is the elusive grin. Did <A href="http://www.livescience.com/history/davinci_bestideas_top10.html">da Vinci</A> intentionally create the ambiguous appearance?</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/060918_mona_lisa.html"><P class="style2">Here's her secret: Your first stare at the legendary canvas will most likely be directly at the sitter's eyes. At this point, the part of <A href="http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/051128_eye_works.html">your eye</A> called the fovea that picks up fine details such as color will process the image of the eyes, while your imprecise peripheral vision will pick up the image of the lips. Because peripheral vision can't distinguish fine details, it mistakes the shadows from the sitter's cheekbones as a smile. When you return your gaze to the lips, your fovea sees the fine details of the lips. Voila! A smile turned upside down. </P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/2F2313FC-0B39-4AEA-A82E-3DB2FFFB609C/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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