The Study on Leonardo da Vinci's eye-level and his distance from Mona Lisa Shunya Susuki 2007.1.20 |
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| In comparisons between the Mona Lisa sculpture which I produced and the Mona Lisa painting, I judged from the outline of her eyelids and her chin that the eye-level of Leonardo da Vinci to be the chest of Mona Lisa (the pedestal side of the sculpture). | |
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This assumption on the level of the painting's viewpoint was not determined by the usual way of finding
the intersection of the extended outline of the building in
the background of the painting, but from the work process of producing the Mona Lisa sculpture. When I supposed the center of her face in the painting to be the level of the viewpoint and produced the sculpture according to the outlines of her upper eyelid and her chin, the face of the sculpture became squarish and the eyes looked popped. |
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However, when I looked at, from a low level, the sculpture which I made based on the CG (cf. left) taken from a different angle, I noticed that the outline of the chin in the sculpture resembled that in the painting. |
| I supposed that the painting had been drawn on orthodox perspective to make the center of the painting a viewpoint. | |
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In addition, I realized that the outline of her eyes in the sculpture
looked the same as that in the painting when the sculpture was looked at
from below and when I made her eyes downcast slightly in the sculpture.
Therefore I thought the height of da Vinci’s eyes was not the center of
his model’s face but her chest. It is exactly the center of the painting. |
| The method to calculate the distance between the painter and the model | |
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After the height of his viewpoint was fixed, I began to calculate the distance between the painter and the model as follows. I focused on the fact that the hands of Mona Lisa are said to be large.(cf. left : Mona Lisa’s hand placed on her face by PC) In other words the reason why I focused on her hand is that I thought I could calculate the distance between the model and the painter by using perspective if I could know the real size of her hand on the face. "The size of her hand is the key" |
| My point of view on the size of her hand on the face | |
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The right hand of Mona Lisa is placed on her left hand, and the fingers are bent. In addition, because she was drawn diagonally from above, we must consider that her hand should be larger than that in this painting if watching the hand from the front and the fingers stretched. Therefore I simulated a case where I put a picture of my own right hand keeping in the same shape like the painting at the position of the left CG. The right hand covers the nose, and the bottom of the palm touches the chin. I assumed that this was the proper size of the right hand. This is 80% of the size of the big glove-like hand shown in the original painting. On the contrary, the big hand becomes 1.25 times longer than this proper size of the right hand. |
| When I calculate the distance between Mona Lisa and da Vinci by the following ways with focusing my attention on Mona Lisa's hands looking larger than normal ones, it becomes one meter. | |
If the hand (at point B) which is 20cm from Mona Lisa’s face (point A) looks 1.25 times as large as the actual size, the distance X between point A and viewpoint C becomes as follows. Ｌ : （Ｘ−20）＝1.25Ｌ : Ｘ Ｌ*Ｘ＝1.25Ｌ（Ｘ−20） 0.25Ｘ＝25 （cf.）When the distance between A and B is 15cm Ｘ＝100cm Ｘ＝75cm |
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| When I produced the sculpture of Mona Lisa according to the painting, I
couldn't find out contradiction between the sculpture and the painting.
So I think the painting is real almost as same as a photograph. Therefore,
I conclude the model of Mona Lisa exists. |
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