DaVinci's Mona Lisa

Does anyone else remember
1. A more 'mature' woman's face?
2. A generally 'fuller' face?
3. A higher, more 'roman nosebridge?
4. A more 'serious' countenance?
5. A stronger chin (even for a woman!)?

I am at wits end trying to digest what in the world I am now looking at.



Am having great dificulty locating the original Mona Lisa I once knew.

The stern face. The full bodied, thick-boned appearance. The aristocratic nose. The serious, provocative stare. The strong chin, that demanded attention.

All gone. Her face was never so gaunt! Eyes were never so sunken in like as if she's now hapa or something. Seriously I am at a loss for sufficient words to describe me dismay at how differently Mona Lisa now looks.

If anything, if I could draw a parallel, I'd say the moon. Likewise, the 'man' on the moon used to have a much, much more serious face and prominent nose. Now there is no nose, just a big happy face wearing shades and smiling, like today's Mona.



What happened?!

Perhaps time has altered your perceptions?

I recently visited a home where I lived through high school. It seemed so much smaller, and, even though it had been extensively remodeled/repainted/carpeted since then, It seemed so much smaller, and much older feeling then I remember. It happens to things that are iconic to us; we tend to remember the beauty or good points of something, and minimize the bad.

EX: That old farmhouse didnt have a/c. W/ it now having central air, it felt more secluded, where we always had the windows open.

Mandela Effect = Excuse to cover-up a poor memory, or a incorrect impression of the past.

The Mona Lisa has not changed, even if there are myriad good/bad versions to fool a memory.

Ah, sweet Schrodinger's nostalia. Alas no, not in this instance.. there was practically a HUMP on the original's high, romanesque nosebridge.

Now suddenly in recent years we have organizations and media, like the one out of Zurich i don't remember the name, going out of their way to announce that only 'the Mona Lisa painting in which she appears younger, slimmer and happier' is authentic.

Kind of like how Hollywood omitted planting a US flag on the moon in First Man in order to curb critics away from criticising it being based on a faked story instead.

No.

a reply to: watersabove

Would not surprise me too much if we someday learn Mona Lisa was stolen and replaced with a forgery - maybe more than once.

originally posted by: toms54
a reply to: watersabove

Would not surprise me too much if we someday learn Mona Lisa was stolen and replaced with a forgery - maybe more than once.

That would be correct. The one on display is a fake, and the original's where about are unknown. Here's the funny thing to think about; Da Vinci carried around another painting that looked like the Mona Lisa for years after the first contract was completed. The one that was taken from the museum was only one of three paintings that were contracted for. So where is the one that Da Vinci carried with him for all those years afterwards?


Interesting mythos; There are supposedly three paid for paintings; one with Mona Lisa as a teenager, one with Mona Lisa as a young adult (the popular one that's been seen and taken from the museum, and then faked), and one final one that was Mona Lisa as a slightly aged adult.

If this myth is true, then we are currently missing the teenaged Mona Lisa, the slight aged Mona Lisa, and the Mona Lisa that Da Vinci carried around with him. Though I guess the real Mona Lisa as a young adult is also missing, but at least we know what that one looks like. That's why I'm not listing that one.

I, too, was surprised to see the new Mona Lisa with the more obvious smile... I attributed it to the cleaning she received, though.

If so, too bad the the painting has lost the enigmatic subtly it was famous for... and now that I think about it, curious that I can't find an old photo of it from before the restoration with the expression I think I remember... hmmm, or any articles online about the loss of the smile due to cleaning!

I suppose it could be (in fact, almost has to be) faulty memory, but that bare hint of a smile was a cultural icon... odd.

Then again, a bare couple of these MEs are concretely weird, like, for me, the spelling of dilemna.

Perhaps we are all experiencing Alzhaimers (sp on purpose).

I just did a google image search and I agree that the Mona Lisa that I remember fits your description . It is a rather big difference.

a reply to: bluemooone2

We might be the last generation in history to have any memory of what the unforgettable, real painting looked like. But at least we have that.

a reply to: toms54

I thought that it had been stolen?
Maybe a hundred years ago. Maybe that was a myth?

originally posted by: TNMockingbird
a reply to: toms54

I thought that it had been stolen?
Maybe a hundred years ago. Maybe that was a myth?

Maybe what I think I remember was a fake but it was a better fake than what we have today.

I saw her in March and she looked just as I imagined. It was super busy around the Mona Lisa. It was crazy!

Mona Lisa had eyebrows as digital restoration reveals. So, there should be no doubt that many other attributes would have been revealed after it was cleaned.

medium.com...@voshart/mona-lisa-had-eyebrows-381ddcfad342

originally posted by: paraphi
Mandela Effect = Excuse to cover-up a poor memory, or a incorrect impression of the past.

The Mona Lisa has not changed, even if there are myriad good/bad versions to fool a memory.

Pump the people up with Aspartame, Fluoride and Electromagnetic Noise and when the age for getting Alzheimer's begins to decrease rapidly, make up a fictional "Effect" people can use to explain their eroding memory.

a reply to: Guyfriday

History according to Dan Brown? Really?

a reply to: watersabove

Hello, nice post (snf) - glad to see other folks posting!

You aren't the only one that remembers the Mona Lisa that way - many do.. ..In fact I believe the painting was used in "art school" as a wonderful example of subtlety (probably not anymore).

It bothered a particular Reddit user too - who happens to be a Graphics Designer. He recreated it from memory....

Here is the Mona Lisa as she appears today:
Here is the recreation - is this what you remember:
Here they are side-by-side:

Here is the text he wrote in the Reddit post:

Posted byu/Olieng 2 months ago

How I remembered the Mona Lisa.

Hi I'm a professional graphic designer and I stumbled on the Mandela effect and thought it was interesting. While I attributed most of them with false memory, I came across the Mona Lisa where someone claimed "Mona Lisa never had a smile or smirk", I thought to myself, that's right she never did.

So I went straight to Google images and searched "The Mona Lisa" the first picture showed up which was it's Wikipedia, I clicked on it to get a full-sized view and the hairs on my arm stood up. It seriously looked like someone went into Photoshop and liquidfy her face to make her smile/smirk. It just doesn't look like how I remembered it, also I never even seen her with a veil on, The Mona Lisa really fascinated me before and I would watch lots of Documentaries on it.

She was always depicted as a mysterious person to the point they wonder if it was a self-portrait of Leonardo Di Vinci himself. To me she always had a blank, unexpressive and enigmatic face. No smile! In fact the one I see smirking now, gives me the creeps! Haha.

So I downloaded the photo and got to work to try and depict how I remembered her.

First off I never remember her wearing a veil so I Photoshoped it off.

Then I had to get rid of her smirk, I had to first adjust it just enough to were she's no longer smirking, then get rid of the indentations on the side of her lips cause by her smirk.

What's weird is that the area around her mouth is very smooth almost as if it was airbrushed compared to the rest of her face which depicts artwork aging. It looks very strange so I added the same old texture that's on her forehead to her mouth region.

And on the below link is what I came up with. On the left side is The real Mona Lisa, on the right side is my rendition. This maybe is just all of us having some false memory but I cannot get this one out of my head, especially for someone who studied the Mona Lisa and loves art.

i.imgur.com...

Your thoughts? Please keep the conversation civil.

Reddit Post Link
Full sized side-by-side


To me, his recreation is very similar to what I remember.. As you look at the painting over a minute or two, she starts to seem like she has the slightest smile, and a slight knowing look in her eyes - that's exactly what I remember, and why I remember the painting was so renowned.

Her smile isn't subtle anymore..

The veil is the big difference to me. Growing up that veil was NOT there, now it is. I guess multiple copies of the same painting is the answer.

a reply to: watersabove

Hi Watersabove,

I sympathize with your reaction. As a boy I spent quite a few half hour sessions in the room with the Joconde as the French call her. It wasn’t a dedicated room like today, she was hung among other paintings on exhibit. At times I was all alone in the room at length without a single visitor, those days are long gone.

Later, upon revisiting the Louvre several decades later I noticed in shock that she wasn’t at all the same. This upset me because I had grown attached to this work and seeing the replacement was nothing like the experience you get seeing the original. After all, this painting didn’t get famous for visual aesthetic reasons but for the effect it has on the viewer.

Then I learned that the Louvre has no less than 6 official copies of the Mona Lisa and I concluded that perhaps the French President nearby possibly had secretly taken the original to the Elysées Palace and got the Louvre curators to hang a copy in public view.

That was merely a silly assumption, a wild guess, but I found no other way to explain where the painting I knew intimately had vanished to. The one shown was only like it in appearance but lacked its aura and substance. Ask any art expert trained in detecting fakes and this is widely held to be the best criterion for authentication: intimate knowledge of the artist and their work, personally knowing them as you would recognize the voice of a friend.

Then, a South Korean benefactor (if I recall right) paid a small fortune to have her placed in a new dedicated high security room. I was visiting the Louvre to see other works and decided to glance to see the new installation, assuming it was all for show. To my amazement the painting I had not seen for ages was back! Yes, the original I can swear. I was so enthralled I wanted to celebrate.

Today I’m not sure what painting is on exhibit, the original or a copy. Possibly it was fir security reasons, who knows? But inthese mad times when most museums have remained closed long periods of time, entire collection could have been swapped out. There is a reason that copyists in museums aren’t allowed to copy works in their original size. Only the museums can do this for themselves.

Hopefully when the Louvre reopens all the paintings there won’t have met the same fate lol. So possibly there is some manipulation of this image you have reacted to that isn’t 100% on purpose, or maybe there is indeed a conspiracy, as there are so many who conspire to do so much, to manipulate our minds using this iconic image for nefarious purposes.

Cheers,

Getsmart

a reply to: paraphi

Nope. Your post is an excuse to not realize that something like Mandela Effect can actually happen for real.

No one uses the effect for an excuse. I don't think there's even ONE Mandela Effect-sufferer that WANTS to experience the effect. It's INVOLUNTARY.

No one decides to have Mandela Effect. It's not like a cup of coffee.. "What should I do today? I know, I'll get Mandela Effect!"

Your post is incredibly demeaning and hostile, and I wish people would learn to be more open-minded than that.

Look, I know where you are coming from, I used to have a bit of 'snickering' attitude about Mandela Effect, and think the people can't be serious, or it's some kind of joke, or they are a bit crazy or simply blow some 'wrong memory' out of proportion just because they're getting old and start mis-remembering things.

It's only when it hit me when I was shocked throughout, and realized it's no joke.

So I kinda understand the scepticism towards if, if you have not suffered from it yourself. But consider yourself LUCKY, and be more humble about it instead of being so hostile and toxic without even understanding what you're talking about. I kinda hate when people think they have ready explanations for everything, and then they present it as something as no one has ever heard before, when it's OF COURSE the first thing EVERY SINGLE ME-sufferer thinks about.

I would even be happy to just discard the whole thing as 'some kind of false memory' for the most part, but there are a couple of things that I just KNOW can't be like that. It's 100% as big a deal as if you were told that the sky is green and grass is blue, and it has ALWAYS been like that. Then you research it and find out it indeed has always been like that.

It's exactly as jarring, and the memory is just as solid and crisp, and ME-sufferer is just as sure as you would be in that scenario that grass is actually green and sky is blue, and it's just as impossible for a ME-sufferer to discard these strong, sure memories as 'false' as it would be for you to start thinking the sky is green and grass is blue from now on. You couldn't do it, so why do you demand others will?

Have some compassion and humility, it's not easy suffering from ME, no one asked to suffer from it.

It's also NOT a theory or a claim, it's just PAIN. And posts like yours do NOT help!

There's no way human anatomy, skeleton or Dolly's teeth were like that. I know in this 'timeline' or whatever it is, they always were, but not for me, they weren't. This is literally like living in some Twilight Zone-episode, where most people don't see anything wrong with the sky being suddenly green and grass blue.

But ME is painful as it is, you don't have to insult, mock and be hostile on top of it already being a psychologically devastating effect, with your oh-so-clever 'it's just a memory problem'-explanation. We have heard it all before.

Dolly had braces, that's 100% fact. I can't prove why she doesn't suddenly have them anymore, but that's exactly what made so much sense about their romance, and was so funny and cute. Nothing makes sense now..