“Mona Lisa effect“ is real, but doesn’t apply to Leonardo’s painting

Enlarge / Researchers at Bielefeld University in Germany used folding rulers for measurement to test the effect. Study participants indicated the number they thought Mona Lisa‘s gaze was directed at. (credit: CITEC/ Bielefeld University) 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 […]