The smile of Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa mystery
How Does She Smile?
The enigmatic smile of the woman in the painting has been
the source of inspiration for many and a cause for
desperation in others. In 1852, Luc Maspero, a French artist,
jumped four floors to his death from a hotel room in Paris.
His suicide note explained that he preferred death after
years of struggling to understand the mystery behind the
woman's smile.
When discussing the mystery behind the smile, art experts
often refer to a painting technique called sfumato, which
was developed by Da Vinci. In Italian, sfumato means
"vanished" or "smoky," implying that the portrait is
ambiguous and blurry, leaving its interpretation to the
viewer's imagination. This technique uses a subtle blend of
tones and colors to produce the illusion of form, depth and
volume.
The human eye consists of two regions: the fovea, or central
area, and the surrounding peripheral area. The fovea
recognizes details and colors and reads fine print, and the
peripheral area identifies motion, shadows and black and
white. When a person looks at the painting, the fovea focuses
on her eyes, leaving the peripheral area on her mouth.
Peripheral vision is less accurate and does not pick up
details, so the shadows in her cheekbones augment the
curvature of her smile.
When the viewer looks directly at the woman's mouth,
however, the fovea does not pick up the shadows, and the
portrait no longer appears to be smiling. Therefore, the
appearance and disappearance of her smile really is an
attribute of viewers' vision. This is one of the reasons why
the painting has remained an enigma to art enthusiasts and
perhaps the most famous painting in the world.