Mona Lisa was happy, disgusted, afraid and angry

Emotion-recognition software unravels the mystery of her enigmatic smile once and for all.

Published December 16, 2005 7:29PM (EST)

This just in from the New Scientist: Mona Lisa was complex.

A researcher in Amsterdam ran the image of Leonardo da Vinci's famously enigmatic subject through emotion-recognition software, and found definitively that Mona Lisa was: 83 percent happy, 9 percent disgusted, 6 percent fearful and 2 percent angry.

Color us 73 percent amused.


By Katharine Mieszkowski

Katharine Mieszkowski is a senior writer for Salon.

MORE FROM Katharine Mieszkowski


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Broadsheet Love And Sex