The controversies around her smile and eyes have generated almost as much research and debate as the painting itself. Anyone who has seen Leonardo's Mona Lisa had the illusion that the Gioconda was staring at them irrespective of their angle. There have been numerous scientists who have attempted to deconstruct this particular aspect, and explain how human sight responds to Mona Lisa's eyes. For instance, Margaret Livingstone, a professor at Harvard University, has argued that the painting is most effective when viewed peripherally, and that Gioconda's smile is most striking when looking directly at her eyes.

Contemporary response was not necessarily favorable to the painting as Leonardo's contemporaries did not consider the Mona Lisa Leonardo's most important work. Several accounts of Italian painting written during the artist's life or a little later, fail even to mention it. For instance, Paolo Giovio, writing shortly after Leonardo's death in 1519, simply states...
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