Smiling Mona Lisa now 'speaks'
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-05-31 16:05
TOKYO - The Mona Lisa's smile may always remain a mystery, but it is now
possible to hear what her voice would have sounded like, thanks to a Japanese
acoustics expert.
Dr Matsumi Suzuki, who generally uses his skills to
help with criminal investigations, measured the face and hands of Leonardo da
Vinci's famous 16th century portrait to estimate her height at 168 cm and create
a model of her skull.
Mona
Lisa | "Once we have that, we can create a voice very
similar to that of the person concerned," Suzuki told Reuters in an interview at
his Tokyo office last week. "We have recreated the voices of a lot of famous
people that were very close to the real thing and have been used in film
dubbing."
The chart of any individual's voice, known as a voice print,
is unique to that person and Suzuki says he believes he has achieved 90 percent
accuracy in recreating the quality of the enigmatic woman's speaking tone.
"I am the Mona Lisa. My true identity is shrouded in mystery," the
portrait proclaims on a Web site at http://promotion.msn.co.jp/davinci/voice.htm
"In Mona Lisa's case, the lower part of her face is quite wide and her
chin is pointed," Suzuki explained. "The extra volume means a relatively low
voice, while the pointed chin adds mid-pitch tones," he added.
The
scientists brought in an Italian woman to add the necessary intonation to the
voice.
"We then had to think about what to have her say," Suzuki said.
"We tried having her speak Japanese, but it didn't suit her image."
Experts disagree over who was represented in the portrait, with some
saying the smiling woman is Leonardo himself, or his mother.
The team
also attempted to recreate Leonardo's own voice in a project timed to coincide
with the release of the film "The Da Vinci Code." Suzuki said he was less
confident about its accuracy because he had to work from self-portraits where
the artist wore a beard, concealing the shape of his face.
Suzuki's work
has made contributions to criminal investigations -- in one case after he
successfully aged a person's voice by a decade. A recording of the voice was
broadcast on television, leading to the apprehension of a
suspect.
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