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'Mona Lisa Effect' Is Real But Doesn't Apply To Leonardo's Painting (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: There have long been anecdotal reports that the eyes of the Mona Lisa -- Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting -- sometimes seem to follow viewers as they move around the artwork. The phenomenon is even called the "Mona Lisa effect" because of it. But a new study published in the journal i-Perception found that she's really "looking" to the right-hand side of her audience. "There is no doubt about the existence of the Mona Lisa effect," the authors wrote. "It just does not occur with the Mona Lisa herself."
This was a small study, with just 24 subjects. All were asked to look at a high-resolution recreation of the Mona Lisa on a computer monitor, with a folding ruler placed between them and the screen to track viewing distance. Subjects would signal where they perceived Mona Lisa's gaze met the ruler. The researchers sampled 15 sections of the famous portrait, ranging from the Mona Lisa's full head to just her eyes and nose, and they showed subjects each image three times in random order. They also changed the ruler's distance from the monitor halfway through the sessions. Based on the more than 2,000 individual assessments, they found no evidence of the Mona Lisa effect with Leonardo's masterpiece. "We demonstrated that Mona Lisa gazes to her left-hand side [the viewer's right] from about 35.5 cm inside pictorial space, and 14.4 degrees to the viewer's right-hand side in real space," the authors wrote. "Thus, Mona Lisa does not fulfill the premise of the Mona Lisa effect. She does not gaze at the viewer."
This was a small study, with just 24 subjects. All were asked to look at a high-resolution recreation of the Mona Lisa on a computer monitor, with a folding ruler placed between them and the screen to track viewing distance. Subjects would signal where they perceived Mona Lisa's gaze met the ruler. The researchers sampled 15 sections of the famous portrait, ranging from the Mona Lisa's full head to just her eyes and nose, and they showed subjects each image three times in random order. They also changed the ruler's distance from the monitor halfway through the sessions. Based on the more than 2,000 individual assessments, they found no evidence of the Mona Lisa effect with Leonardo's masterpiece. "We demonstrated that Mona Lisa gazes to her left-hand side [the viewer's right] from about 35.5 cm inside pictorial space, and 14.4 degrees to the viewer's right-hand side in real space," the authors wrote. "Thus, Mona Lisa does not fulfill the premise of the Mona Lisa effect. She does not gaze at the viewer."
..and we just never heard about them until this internet thing happened, or is such a 'study' now a requirement for graduation somewhere - and a lot of stuff like this is the result? I ask because these smaller type studies seem to be posted a lot lately, and sometimes they are interesting. Maybe someone should do a study.
I thought the Mona Lisa effect was, that you perceive that the painting's gaze is following you... which the Mona Lisa probably does fulfill.
If many people take the test and find that the perception of the gaze is always about the same relative to the viewer then it would seem that the gaze does follow the viewer... even if it is not directed directly at the viewer, it would give the viewer the feeling of being watched but not stared at.
Never heard of it called the "Mona Lisa" effect. The effect is well know however, in particular from the WW1 "Your country needs you" recruiting poster which has Lord Kitchener both looking and pointing at "YOU". This picture still has the power to haunt :-
https://www.submerged.co.uk/gf...
"It was cool that the whole team got to go into the Oval Office. Last time,
only about 10 or 15 guys - the team captains, three or four other players, and
the coaches got to go," Renfrow said. "This time Trump brought all of the
players in, and it was cool seeing that. The whole front lawn of the White
House was covered in snow, and there was one 30x30 patch of grass and Trump
actually landed right in front of the White House on that green part at 5:40.
We were all huddled up around the windows taking videos, so it was pretty
cool."
Due to the government shutdown, the President bought fast food for the team,
something that Renfrow also embraced.
"I get to tell my kids that I ate a Big Mac in the White House that Donald
Trump personally bought," Renfrow said. "I guess with the government shut down
they're short on stuff. He said he personally bought all the food."
The team learned about the buffet during the trip to Washington.
"A lot of us were on the bus on the way to Greenville, and we saw where Trump
was saying we were going to have McDonalds and Dominos and Burger King, so we
were all getting excited about that because we get to tell our kids that we ate
a Big Mac and a Whopper in the White House and that's something you can tell
everyone forever," he said.
"I loved it. I think it was just like Coach Swinney because he would do
something like that. I feel like Coach Swinney talked all year long about we're
just raggedy old Tigers so we got some raggedy old food. I don't think anybody
was talking about the food two years ago when we went. I can't remember what we
had. It's a unique story and something we were a part of, and I think the team
enjoyed it."
Like his time on the field, Renfrow enjoyed and savored his time in the Oval
Office.
"I think last night on the plane I could sense the excitement of everyone. Like
I said before, because everyone got to go in the Oval Office, I think it meant
a lot to people because some of the most important decisions in the world are
made in that office," he said. "To have Trump to be that hospitable. I was
talking to the girl who was kind of in charge and I asked her if this happened
often and she was like, 'No, we're completely winging it right now. He doesn't
ever do this.' I think he just appreciated what we did and he appreciates Coach
Swinney and President Clements as leaders to be able to do that."
https://www.tigernet.com/story...
Take a portrait photo and black out the little white reflection in the pupil. Voila. The eyes will appear to follow you.