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September 30, 2005
That eyebrow thing
As I have mentioned on these pages, the Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. Which could have been fashion or just a personal thing, for either La Giaconda or indeed Leonardo hisself. But now I look closely at Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, and find she too has no eyebrows.
The Mona Lisa was painted between 1503 and 1507, and the Girl with a Pearl Earring was painted over a hundred years later, between 1665 and 1667. So I guess we can rule out the fashion theory.
Now eyelashes I can understand, omitting eyelashes is a sensible move, tricky things eyelashes. Put them in so you can see them and the whole thing looks like a garish image that might be used to promote Barbie, so I tend to just darken the line of the eye and thicken it slightly,
as indeed it would appear Vermeer has done.
But eyebrows, hummm, I shall have to try that one…
Posted by john at September 30, 2005 06:25 PM