The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows — and historians still debate why
Examination of the Mona Lisa with multi-spectral imaging confirms she has no eyebrows (and no eyelashes). In high-resolution scans, French engineer Pascal Cotte claimed to have found traces of a left eyebrow that was later removed, suggesting they may have been painted and then lost to overzealous cleaning or paint degradation over 500 years. Others suggest Leonardo da Vinci deliberately omitted them — high-shaved eyebrows were fashionable in Renaissance Florence. The ambiguity is part of why the face is simultaneously expressive and unreadable.
The Mona Lisa is the most written-about, analysed, and replicated artwork in history. That something as obvious as the absence of eyebrows remains debated — and was barely remarked upon for centuries — suggests we often fail to notice the most visible features of the things we think we know best.
“The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. Whether Leonardo deliberately left them out or they were removed by cleaning over 500 years is still debated. We've been looking at it for 500 years without noticing. 🖼️ #OddlyHuman”