The Mona Lisa: Emotional Manipulation through Geometry

What is it about the Mona Lisa? Why do people find such a plain, small painting almost irresistible? Women nearing the end of their lives implore their daughters to view the painting in person. Activists attempt to deface the painting even though it hangs behind bulletproof glass in a climate-controlled enclosure. Each day, thousands upon thousands of visitors stand in line for hours to view this simple image of a historically unknown woman for mere minutes. Why is this painting so alluring?

Triangles! Geometric shapes with their hard lines and acute angles aren’t characteristics normally associated with movement and beauty. Geometry is the primary technique Leonardo employs to pull the viewer into the painting. The Mona Lisa is alluring because the embedded, contrasting triangles trap the eye movements in an endless loop.

In order to direct the eyes to the figure of Lisa Gherardini, Leonardo employs a number of different techniques, the first of which is sfumato. Sfumato is a way of softening colors and contours of a painting that creates the hazy, gauzy background. This effect creates the sense of distance in a painting because as objects retreat further away from the viewer, details become more obscure and less fine-grained. A two-dimensional painting appears three-dimensional when there is difference in detail. Paintings from earlier periods in history display the same level of detail for all objects, which flatten the painting; the painter is unable to guide the eyes when objects do not have visual hierarchy. Leonardo pushes Gherardini forward with sfumato obscuring the details of the background and including more detail of her.

In addition to sfumato, Leonardo utilizes landscape elements to direct the eyes. The winding road on the left side of the painting directs the eyes to the body of Gherardini, while the bridge on the right side accomplishes the same effect. Another element is the unnatural angle of the water horizon at the top of the painting. Water lines viewed from a beach shore are perfectly horizontal. Leonardo violates this natural rule by angling the bodies of water ever so slightly, which directs eye movements toward the head. Each of Leonardo’s decisions focuses the viewer’s eyes to Gherardini and the embedded triangles of the painting.

The triangle shape created with the subject’s body—the forearms constructing the base, rising along the contours of her upper arms, culminating at the apex of her head—traps the eyes. The details of her sleeves, with their highlighted bronze color, contrast with the muted hues of the bottom of the painting. From there, the viewer’s eyes follow naturally up the body to the buttercream color of Gherardini’s skin, by far the lightest portion of the painting, rising to her face. Gherardini has a high forehead, flat cheeks, and a small but pronounced chin. The plain contours of the face enclose the small inverted triangle, which contain the details of eyes and mouth. A prominent brow ridge that casts shadows in her slightly deep-set eyes forms the inverted base. The vertices are each canthi (the corners of her eyes) where the shadows are the darkest. Here there is a very subtle downward angle of the shadows that direct the eyes down to the mouth. The triangle’s apex stops at Gherardini’s mouth. The expression conveyed by the way her mouth is painted is ambiguous; it isn’t an obvious smile, nor is it expressionless. Since the expression isn’t directly evident, the viewer’s eyes move back to the larger details of the entire face, traveling back along the path to the body. The viewer is searching for further details to understand what the expression means, traversing around the two triangles that trap the gaze, searching for an answer that Leonardo does not provide.

Triangles are evident in many of the great works of art. The artists direct the viewer to specific elements of their piece to elicit certain emotions or feelings. Bernini did this with the Ecstasy of St. Theresa. That sculpture depicts the sun at the apex, the literal golden rays directing movement to the two vertices. The left vertex is an angel holding an arrow, aimed at St. Theresa, who makes up the other vertex. Her face is in a state of rapture, almost orgasmic in its depiction. The viewer moves between each element, trapped by the directional flow of the triangle.

Leonardo’s The Last Supper is another example of triangles guiding the viewer’s eyes. The overall structure of the painting is a triangle with the table the base and Jesus’s head as the apex. Leonardo creates additional smaller triangles between groups of people, as well as the triangles found in the negative space. The contrast between positive and negative triangles create movement, directing the viewer to facial expressions that showcase the shock and horror when Jesus declares one of his apostles will betray Him.

Even Michelangelo’s Pietà, the sculpture of Mary holding her dead son Jesus the moment after he was taken down from the cross, contains a triangle. Mary’s head is at the apex while Jesus’s limp body creates the base. The eyes follow the contours of his shape, his head one vertex and his knees and Mary’s outstretched hand combining to create the other vertex. Traversing around the triangle, the eyes land on Mary’s eyes. Though the eyes are closed, the viewer is still directed back down to the body of Jesus and the loop begins again.

The magnetism of the Mona Lisa is not due to the subject. Rather, it is the two triangles which engender the dynamic composition that traps the viewer’s eyes. It is self-evident once the technique is revealed. Triangles guide and direct the eyes in an endless loop that makes the viewer part of the scene depicted. Embedded triangles manipulate emotion because the artist forces the eyes to specific areas, with or without the consent of the viewer. Works of art convey what the artist intends and even if the colors fade or details are lost, the triangle shape remains. The Mona Lisa endures because of the conflicting triangles. The colors have faded over centuries, details lost to varnish and age. Still, mothers fulfill their bucket list items to see the painting, activists face fines and jail time, and throngs of museum visitors stand in line for hours to catch a glimpse of the enigmatic painting for mere minutes.

Works Cited

Bernini, Gian Lorenzo. Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. 1647–1652, marble, stucco, and gilt bronze. Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome.

Da Vinci, Leonardo. The Last Supper. c. 1495–1498, tempera on gesso, pitch, and mastic. Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.

———. Mona Lisa. 1503–1519, oil on wood (poplar). Louvre, Paris.

Michelangelo. Pietà. 1498–1499, marble. Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City.