British researchers from the universities of Sheffield and Sunderland have studied early picture of the "Beautiful Princess" by Leonardo da Vinci. It depicts a girl who smiles almost as mysterious as the Mona Lisa. The author used for the writing technique of sfumato, deftly mixing colors and using peripheral vision observers.

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British researchers from the universities of Sheffield and Sunderland have studied early picture of the "Beautiful Princess" by Leonardo da Vinci. It depicts a girl who smiles almost as mysterious as the Mona Lisa. The author used for the writing technique of sfumato, deftly mixing colors and using peripheral vision observers.

the shape of the mouth changes depending on what angle you look at the picture, say researchers. If you look directly at the person in the picture, then tilt the mouth seems neutral, but it is only the viewer's eye to move to other parts of the canvas, as the corners of the mouth begin to rise up, creating the effect of a smile. the "the Smile disappears as soon as the observer tries to "catch". We call this visual effect "a vague smile,"", — the scientists explain.

the Researchers used a series of experiments in which they showed people a picture from a distance or blurred version near. From afar and in the blur "Beautiful Princess" and "Mona Lisa" seemed to be smiling more than a woman on another painting, typical of the time. Thus it was possible to confirm earlier assumptions about the influence of peripheral vision on the perception of the smile of the "Mona Lisa".