Another Ambiguous Expression by Leonardo da Vinci

The Mona Lisa (1503-6) is probably the most celebrated example of ambiguous expression in art. Soranzo & 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 aim of this paper is 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 variable viewing distance was also included in the experimental design as a between participants variable. Both artworks, presented to each participant in random order, could have been seen either from close-up (0.6 m) or from far away (6 m). Results show that the change of distance affected the perceived level of contentment of Leonardo’s figure but not that one of Verrocchio’s. Specifically, whilst both artworks received similar ratings of contentment from close-up, 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 that one observed in the Mona Lisa and La Bella Principessa. This phenomenon is interpreted in agreement to the spatial frequency hypothesis (Livingston, 2000), but the limits of this neurophysiological reduction of the phenomenon are outlined, advancing that a phenomenological account of Leonardo’s work is needed 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.