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Hello everyone. This evening, I would like to talk
about how much we miss through not knowing how to look.
We miss very interesting things,
we also miss people who walk by,
we ignore them,
if we took notice, we'd discover how amazing they are.
We miss opportunities;
because we don't know how to look. Why?
Our actions are based on beliefs that aren't always true.
Like: "four eyes see more than two."
Which isn't so. Not always, at least.
It isn't, how many eyes,
but how they're used.
To demonstrate, the world's most famous painting:
the Mona Lisa.
Why this painting?
Because it's the most viewed work of art
yet it isn't seen as it really is,
as the author would have liked, Leonardo Da Vinci.
In the Louvre, hundreds of people
crowd in every day to stand before the painting.
Curious, given that the model is hardly renowned for her beauty.
There are however, close to the painting,
in halls nearby, other paintings by Da Vinci
which are beautiful, divine,
which rarely have
more than four or five people admiring them.
Why then, do people pile up before the Mona Lisa?
Why? Because they can sense it's different.
They feel it's special.
They want to discover why they are so attracted towards it.
But they fail.
Do you know why? They don't know how to look at it.
Seeing isn't merely looking:
using the sense of sight isn't enough.
The sense of curiosity needs to take a role as well.
Observing as children observe.
Being amazed at day-to-day things.
Finding simple things marvellous.
Searching with eagerness, being eager to discover.
Leonardo is the master of curiosity.
Without curiosity, life is flat.
Flat like the surface of a painting.
That very barrier that Leonardo wished to overcome with his painting.
What Leonardo really wanted to acheive
was an image, a painting, which could be seen in relief.
As stated in his manuscripts
what he is looking for is the same effect
as when we look in a mirror, that effect of depth.
But, did he really acheive his aim with the Mona Lisa?
What he did, was study the workings of the human eye.
He discovered interesting things;
such as, what we see is the sum of what both eyes see.
In addition, they tell us whether what we see is flat or has volume.
But above all:
the image is produced in the brain.
In conclusion, he thought:
"if I want my pictures to be seen in relief,
I will have to trick the brain."
What method does Leonardo propose in his manuscripts?
Firstly, prepare the painting in such a way, with tricks,
the tricks he developed during his career as a painter.
And then, prepare the viewer for viewing
telling them what they have to do.
Which is, look with only one eye.
All this was written in his manuscripts
collated by his last disciple: Francesco Melzi, fortunately,
in what we know today as Treatise on Painting.
But Leonardo was afraid we might not read it,
so he left clues in the painting itself.
Two letters are in the lady's eyes:
a letter L and a letter S.
It's no mysterious or esoteric message.
They are the initials of the Italian expression lasciare sinistro:
take to the left, to the left eye,
look with the left eye.
And a third clue:
under the arch of the bridge.
Number "72."
This is no mysterious number either.
It's an indication of the ideal distance at which to stand
to enjoy this relief effect.
What would you have done if you had found
these instructions remaining unknown for 500 years?
The same as me:
catch a plane, go to the Louvre, stand before the Mona Lisa
and check to see if it was true.
That's what I did;
I covered my right eye and soon
the changes came into effect.
The black outlines of the figure become much more intense,
the lady's face and bust become raised,
her smile becomes alive, it's as though she's smiling at us
and most surprising of all, what Leonardo was looking for:
the lady seems to come away from the canvas
producing that effect of depth and relief
he so desperately wanted.
It's a shame...
that thousands of people who visit the Mona Lisa
can't enjoy such amazing effects.
Through ignorance.
They haven't looked as a child would have,
asking: "How did you paint it, Leonardo?"
They would have found the answers
in his Treatise on Painting.
From now on, I hope you enjoy that effect,
seeing differently,
and above all else, that you see life in relief.
Thank you for your attention.