Mona Lisa Gaze Principle

Abraham Tamir*

• Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel

Received: April 24, 2017   Published: May 25, 2017

Corresponding author: Abraham Tamir, Emeritus Professor of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2017.01.000112

People looking at Mona Lisa, the famous artwork of Leonardo Da Vinci, believe that she looks at them from every direction they look at her. However in a survey the author has conducted, that has never been done before, 500 people were asked to look at her from right, front and left sides. The results were surprising and negate the well-known myth that Mona Lisa looks at the observer from all directions viewed. Only 65% confirmed that Mona Lisa gave back a look to them. In addition 93% confirmed that Mona Lisa was looking at them while observing at her from the right, 72% from the front and 78% from the left

People looking at Mona Lisa, the famous artwork of Leonardo Da Vinci, believe that she looks at them from every direction they look at her. However in a survey the author has conducted, that has never been done before, 500 people were asked to look at her from right, front and left sides. The results were surprising and negate the well-known myth that Mona Lisa looks at the observer from all directions viewed. Only 65% confirmed that Mona Lisa gave back a look to them. In addition 93% confirmed that Mona Lisa was looking at them while observing at her from the right, 72% from the front and 78% from the left. What they see from all directions is demonstrated at the top of the figure. An additional study of the above results leads to the conclusion that each portrait in a twodimensional picture will observe at you from each direction, and this is if you indeed felt that the portrait was looking at you from a certain direction. And indeed also Einstein, as observed from the pictures photographed from all directions – center, left and front – is always looking at the observer.

A thorough analysis of the subject brought to extend and formulate a principle that is named “Mona Lisa’s gaze principle” which fits each element in a picture – portrait, wall in a construction, details in a landscape and the like. According to this principle: “if you look at any detail in a picture and this detail turns to you, it will turn from each direction you view it: from right, from front, from left, from above and from below. However, if from your looking direction the element does not turn to you, it will never turn to you.” Hence, we suggest to an observer of every picture the following: move parallel to the picture from right to left and the opposite, and to your surprise you will start to feel that the elements that turned to you from a certain direction will start to “ move” in your brain to every direction from which you view them. The artwork of the Holland’s artist Meindert Hobbema indeed testifies that the lane and the woods avenue turn to the observer from each direction. However, The Gate Mercy in the painting of the artist Nofer Keydar never turns to the observer (Figure 1). Twenty-five people who were asked to observe 16 details in the 9 paintings from three directions in which also that at the bottom confirmed the principle in 90% of the details and the directions of observation. And finally it should be noted that we don’t talk here about a scientific principle that exists in all cases, but in a generalization that depends on the perception process that is different from one to the other.

Figure 1: The Gate Mercy in the painting of the artist Nofer Keydar never turns to the observer.