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British researchers believe they have unlocked the mystery of the Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile — by analysing another, recently discovered masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci.

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By looking at La Bella Principessa, the portrait of a Milanese nobleman’s daughter, researchers found intriguing clues as to how the Renaissance artist painted the Mona Lisa in such a way that her coy smile appears most pronounced when viewed from an angle and less so when looked at directly.

The researchers, from Sheffield Hallam University, believe that in the case of both portraits, the same effect was created by a painting technique known as “sfumato”, meaning soft or pale in Italian, in which subtle colours and shades around the mouths of the subjects create a clever optical illusion.

If one focuses on the eyes of the subject, the lips appear to slant delicately upwards in a tentative smile, but if one looks at the mouth directly, they appear flatter.

In both paintings, Leonardo exploited differences between our peripheral vision and direct sight.

The researchers have described Mona Lisa’s smile as “uncatchable” because it seems to disappear as soon as the viewer looks at it directly.

The researchers, Michelle Newberry and Alessandro Soranzo, organised a number of experiments in which viewers were asked to look at the Mona Lisa and La Bella Principessa from different distances and angles.