Another Ambiguous Expression by Leonardo da Vinci
The Mona Lisa (1503–6) is probably the most celebrated example of ambiguous expression in art. Soranzo and Newberry (2015) demonstrated that a similar ambiguity can be perceived also in La Bella Principessa (1495–6), another portrait credited to Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) by many. The paper aims...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Sciendo
2022-08-01
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| Series: | Gestalt Theory |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.2478/gth-2022-0001 |
| _version_ | 1811319827972751360 |
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| author | Soranzo Alessandro |
| author_facet | Soranzo Alessandro |
| author_sort | Soranzo Alessandro |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The Mona Lisa (1503–6) is probably the most celebrated example of ambiguous expression in art. Soranzo and Newberry (2015) demonstrated that a similar ambiguity can be perceived also in La Bella Principessa (1495–6), another portrait credited to Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) by many. The paper aims to show that an ambiguous expression can be perceived in a further painting attributed (although not unanimously) to Leonardo: The Lady with Dishevelled Hair, or La Scapigliata. An experiment was conducted whereby participants rated on a 7-point Likert scale the perceived level of contentment of La Scapigliata and that of a comparable painting created by Andrea di Cione, alias Il Verrocchio. The two artworks were presented in random order to two groups of participants. One group could see the artworks from Close (0.6m) whilst the other group from Far (6m) from a Close (0.6 m) or Far (6 m) condition. Results show that the change of distance affected the perceived level of contentment of Leonardo’s figure but not that of Verrocchio’s. Specifically, whilst both artworks received similar ratings of contentment from the close-up condition, La Scapigliata was perceived to be more content from afar. It is concluded that La Scapigliata exhibits an ambiguous expression, and that this ambiguity is similar to the one observed in the Mona Lisa and La Bella Principessa. This result can be only partially interpreted within the spatial frequency hypothesis advanced by Livingstone (2000) and shows that a phenomenological account of Leonardo’s work might be more suited to capture the full extent of the phenomenon. Specifically, it is suggested that the principles of perceptual belongingness (Wertheimer, 1923) may need to be considered to fully capture the extent of the ambiguity depicted by Leonardo. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T12:50:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-72441e1b4f6542e4a379c044408a86aa |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2519-5808 |
| language | deu |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T12:50:16Z |
| publishDate | 2022-08-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Gestalt Theory |
| spelling | doaj.art-72441e1b4f6542e4a379c044408a86aa2022-12-22T02:46:15ZdeuSciendoGestalt Theory2519-58082022-08-01441-2416010.2478/gth-2022-0001Another Ambiguous Expression by Leonardo da VinciSoranzo Alessandro0Sheffield Hallam UniversitySheffield| S10 2BP, Tel. +44 (0) 114 225 6532, Fax +44 (0) 114 225 2430The Mona Lisa (1503–6) is probably the most celebrated example of ambiguous expression in art. Soranzo and Newberry (2015) demonstrated that a similar ambiguity can be perceived also in La Bella Principessa (1495–6), another portrait credited to Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) by many. The paper aims to show that an ambiguous expression can be perceived in a further painting attributed (although not unanimously) to Leonardo: The Lady with Dishevelled Hair, or La Scapigliata. An experiment was conducted whereby participants rated on a 7-point Likert scale the perceived level of contentment of La Scapigliata and that of a comparable painting created by Andrea di Cione, alias Il Verrocchio. The two artworks were presented in random order to two groups of participants. One group could see the artworks from Close (0.6m) whilst the other group from Far (6m) from a Close (0.6 m) or Far (6 m) condition. Results show that the change of distance affected the perceived level of contentment of Leonardo’s figure but not that of Verrocchio’s. Specifically, whilst both artworks received similar ratings of contentment from the close-up condition, La Scapigliata was perceived to be more content from afar. It is concluded that La Scapigliata exhibits an ambiguous expression, and that this ambiguity is similar to the one observed in the Mona Lisa and La Bella Principessa. This result can be only partially interpreted within the spatial frequency hypothesis advanced by Livingstone (2000) and shows that a phenomenological account of Leonardo’s work might be more suited to capture the full extent of the phenomenon. Specifically, it is suggested that the principles of perceptual belongingness (Wertheimer, 1923) may need to be considered to fully capture the extent of the ambiguity depicted by Leonardo.https://doi.org/10.2478/gth-2022-0001leonardoperceptual belongingness principlesambiguous expressionsaesthetics |
| spellingShingle | Soranzo Alessandro Another Ambiguous Expression by Leonardo da Vinci Gestalt Theory leonardo perceptual belongingness principles ambiguous expressions aesthetics |
| title | Another Ambiguous Expression by Leonardo da Vinci |
| title_full | Another Ambiguous Expression by Leonardo da Vinci |
| title_fullStr | Another Ambiguous Expression by Leonardo da Vinci |
| title_full_unstemmed | Another Ambiguous Expression by Leonardo da Vinci |
| title_short | Another Ambiguous Expression by Leonardo da Vinci |
| title_sort | another ambiguous expression by leonardo da vinci |
| topic | leonardo perceptual belongingness principles ambiguous expressions aesthetics |
| url | https://doi.org/10.2478/gth-2022-0001 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT soranzoalessandro anotherambiguousexpressionbyleonardodavinci |