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The Ryerson & Burnham Libraries collection contains a wide variety of resources that can be used to locate information on artists and their works. Our open shelf collection in the reading room contains reference sources, such as dictionaries, directories, encyclopedias, and indexes. We have strong collections of artist files, auction catalogs, books, exhibition catalogs, journals, and newspapers in the library collection, and the Ryerson and Burnham Archives collections also contain papers for individual artists and arts organizations, as well as a collection of artists’ oral histories.

This research guide provides recommendations for research sources and strategies to locate information on both prominent and obscure artists and their works. Prior to beginning your research, we recommend that you compile as much information about the artist or artwork of interest to you as possible. Do you know the artist’s name, the artwork’s title, the approximate dates the artist worked or the piece was created, or the geographic area where the artist lived or the object was created? If you are working on an artwork in your collection, have you examined it to see whether it contains any signatures or marks, labels, or annotations (you may wish to remove the frame to fully examine the object)? Recording this information and bringing an outline of keywords or research objectives as well as clear, closeup images of any signatures or markings to the library with you will provide you with a strong starting point for your research.

Getting Started

The Ryerson and Burnham Libraries’ catalog will lead you to articles, artist files, books, and exhibition catalogues for an artist. For best results, use the Library Catalog search scope, and enter the artist’s name, last name, first name (example: Monet, Claude). The following resources will also be helpful in learning more about specific artists and their artworks.

Catalogues Raisonnés

Look for a piece in the most comprehensive catalogue of the artist’s known works. Please note these are not available for all artists. The International Foundation for Art Research maintains a free database of published and forthcoming catalogues raisonnés.

In the library catalog, search the Library Catalog scope for: [Artist’s name; Last Name, First Name] – Catalogues raisonnés (example: Hopper, Edward – Catalogues raisonnés).

Artist Files

The Ryerson & Burnham Libraries have over 35,000 artist files, which contain small exhibition catalogs, checklists, clippings, images, and fliers for artists, galleries, museums, and art schools. These are described in the catalog: the location and material type is Pamphlets. See also the New York Public Library’s artists file on microfiche (call number 1990 3).

Biographical Reference Resources

• Who’s Who in American Art This subscription resource is also available digitally in the reading room.
• Who Was Who in American Art, 1564-1975
• Dictionary of Artists (Bénézit) This subscription resource is also available digitally in the reading room.
• Allgemeines Kunstler-Lexikon This subscription resource is also available digitally in the reading room.
• Contemporary Artists

Ryerson Index

Look for articles on an artist, particularly if the artist was in the Chicago area and was active in the early to mid-20th century. This includes references to the Art Institute of Chicago Scrapbooks .

Full Title :   I ndex to Art Periodicals (1962)

Signature Directories

If you do not have the name of the work you are researching, but it has a signature, try resources such as these.

•      American Artists: Signatures & Monograms, 1800-1989
•      Marks & Monograms: The Decorative Arts, 1880-1960
•      The Visual Index of Artists’ Signatures & Monograms
•      Artists’ Monograms & Indiscernible Signatures: An International Directory, 1800-1991

Reproduction Indices

Track down works that reproduce a painting, such as World Painting Index or Art Reproductions .

Art Dictionaries

Art dictionaries are useful for biographies, introductions to periods of art, and the bibliographies that accompany entries; the Grove Dictionary of Art and Oxford Art Online (this subscription resource is available in the reading room) are good examples. Works such as the Dictionary of Art Terms can also be useful for definitions and explanations of terms and periods of art, as well as illustrations and diagrams for entries.

Articles on Art, Artists, and Related Topics

These subscription resources provide citations and some full-text articles on art, artists, and related topics. Unless otherwise noted, they are available onsite at the Art Institute of Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago campus. Faculty, students, and staff at the Art Institute of Chicago and School of the Art Institute of Chicago can also access most of these resources from other locations with an ARTIC username and password via the Art, Architecture, and Design Resources Page .

Newspaper Databases

The Libraries subscribe to online regional and national newspaper databases, which can be used to locate biographical or exhibition information.

These resources are accessible in the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries via the Newspapers Resources Page .

Auction Databases

The Libraries subscribe to a number of auction databases, most of which cover auctions from the last 20 years. 

These resources are accessible in the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries via the Auction Resources Page.

Researching Artworks in a Museum Collection

Objects currently on display in the Art Institute galleries can usually be found in Collections Online . The record may include an image, information from the wall label, and occasionally an exhibition history and bibliography of titles that mention the artwork. CITI is the museum’s internal collection database, which includes information on all artworks in the Art Institute’s collection. If an item is not on display in the galleries, this may be the best starting point. Please ask at the reference desk for CITI access.

For objects that are on display in other museums and institutions, the subscription ARTstor database, available in the reading room, contains a growing survey of major works of art, as well as specialized image collections.

Search by museum collection, artist, or keyword. ARTstor is available from the Image Databases page .

Catalog of Museum or Department

Consult the catalogs of a museum’s collection or a museum department’s collection. For example: American Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago . You can find these by searching the library catalog for the museum and department name and the term catalogs (for example, Art Institute of Chicago. Department of Textiles — Catalogs).

Beyond the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries

Area Libraries

Check libraries and/or historical societies in the area that the artist was from or was most active for information including newspaper articles and pamphlet files. Try “Find a library near you,” available here: https://www.worldcat.org/libraries .

Chicago Artists’ Archive at Chicago Public Library

This archival collection is available at the Harold Washington Branch of Chicago Public Library (8th floor). Files may contain: resumes, newspaper articles, artists’ books, gallery flyers, videos, press clippings, letters, photographs, some original artwork, and CDs. To find out if a particular artist is included in the collection you can call (312) 747-4300 or consult the list available here: http://www.chipublib.org/fa-chicago-artists-archive/ .

Collections that Have Works by the Artist

Once you discover which museum collections hold pieces by an artist, check with these institutions for information. 

Union Catalogs

The Chicago Collections Consortium contains digitized items from the archives and special collections of various Chicago-area institutions, including scrapbooks, photographs, and other printed material for local art-related topics. Access the free online portal here: http://explore.chicagocollections.org .

WorldCat is a catalog of library catalogs worldwide that contains records for libraries’ holdings of books, journals, manuscript collections, newspapers, and digital and audiovisual resources. It is available thorough subscription in the reading room, or in a free version .

Archival Collections

Look for collections of an artist’s papers in library collections around the world search WorldCat or ArchiveGrid .

For American artists, try the Archives of American Art: http://www.aaa.si.edu/ .

Art Information on the Internet

Conduct broad searches for anything on an artist’s name. Using quotation marks around the artist’s name can help limit, as can adding keywords outside the quotation marks.

“Claude Monet”

“Claude Monet” watercolor

“Claude Monet” artist

Searching Google Images, Google Books, and Google Scholar can also be very useful.

The entries in this free online encyclopedia often include bibliographies, references, and links to related entries.

Biographical Information

Consult sites created by museums, libraries, archives, galleries, and others that provide information on artists.

Art in Context

Artcyclopedia

 For artists about whom little professional literature is available, try genealogical resources such as census documents, city directories, county histories, and local newspaper collections. Many of these resources are freely accessible online.

ChicagoAncestors

Chronicling America

FamilySearch

Internet Archive

  Image Searching

If you have a digital image of the item you are trying to identify, run it through a reverse image search to locate images of similar items on the Internet.

Google Images

Art-Related Services

Appraisal and Conservation

Staff at the Art Institute of Chicago cannot provide authentication or appraisal services, and our conservation staff are not able to accept inquiries on works of art in personal collections. You can locate advice on these topics in our research guide on Appraisal and Conservation Resources for Art .

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• Published: 23 June 2022

The role of expertise and culture in visual art appreciation

• Kohinoor M. Darda 1 , 2 , 3 &
• Emily S. Cross 1 , 2 , 4  

Scientific Reports volume  12 , Article number:  10666 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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• Human behaviour

Is art appreciation universal? Previous evidence suggests a general preference for representational art over abstract art, and a tendency to like art originating from one’s own culture more than another culture (an ingroup bias), modulated by art expertise. However, claims about universality are difficult given that most research has focused on Western populations. Across two pre-registered and statistically powered experiments, we explore the role of culture and art expertise in the aesthetic evaluation of Indian and Western paintings and dance depicting both abstract and representational content, by inviting expert and art-naïve Indian and Western participants to rate stimuli on beauty and liking. Results suggest an ingroup bias (for dance) and a preference for representational art (for paintings) exists, both modulated by art expertise. As predicted, the ingroup bias was present only in art-naïve participants, and the preference for representational art was lower in art experts, but this modulation was present only in Western participants. The current findings have two main implications: (1) they inform and constrain understanding of universality of aesthetic appreciation, cautioning against generalising models of empirical aesthetics to non-western populations and across art forms, (2) they highlight the importance of art experience as a medium to counter prejudices.

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Introduction.

Across millennia, humans have expressed themselves through the medium of art. Art is often considered to be a society’s collective memory, preserving what fact-based historical records may not be able to—how it felt to exist in a particular time and in a particular space. More recently, the function of art to communicate and soothe, and to bring people together has been emphatically highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether it is people singing to each other from their balconies 1 , musicians performing orchestral works over Zoom 2 , or artists tapping into their creativity to explain public health guidelines 3 , art has given hope and provided much-needed human connection, across geographic, racial, and cultural boundaries. In a world facing increasing societal stresses due to racism, political polarisation, xenophobia, and other geostrategic fractures, art proves its ability to bring people together.

In the words of Danish-Icelandic contemporary artist Olafur Eliasson, art “… helps us identify with one another and expands our notion of we—from the local to the global” 4 . Engagement with art is not always a solitary event. Instead, it represents one of the few areas in society where people can come together to share experiences even when they have radically different beliefs or worldviews. But to what extent can art really bind us together, and can it transcend boundaries of culture or country? Do we share much more than what divides us? Or do our in-group biases and preferences persist when watching dance performances or viewing paintings?

The degree to which aesthetic preferences are universal or shared across cultures, as opposed to being highly individual in nature and moderated by our in-group biases is an important question in empirical aesthetics. To date, however, little insight has been gained into the universality of psychological underpinnings of aesthetic appreciation, as most research has exclusively examined perceptions and preferences among Western European and North American populations 5 . Moreover, influence of the visual properties of the artwork (such as its content), as well as observers’ attributes (such as their culture or art expertise) on aesthetic preferences have been extensively studied for the fine arts (including paintings, drawings and sculpture), while our knowledge of such attributes for other artforms remains limited (e.g., 6 , 7 , 8 ). This is somewhat surprising, given the ubiquity and importance of a range of artforms beyond the fine arts, including music, theatre, poetry, and dance, across many cultures. The current work attempts to begin to bridge several of these considerable gaps in knowledge regarding the human aesthetic experience by one, evaluating whether universal primitives underpin people’s appreciation in fine and performing arts; and two, examining the extent to which cultural background shapes these preferences. To accomplish this, we have combined paintings and dance choreography under a common analytical framework, with exemplars from “western” (Anglo-European) and “eastern” (Indian) artistic practices. Addressing the universality of aesthetic preference, and its modulation by expertise and culture in paintings and dance should lead to a better understanding and a fresh and culturally inclusive reconceptualization of long-debated issues in empirical aesthetics such as the nature of aesthetic judgements and evaluations, and how a beholder’s attributes shape their aesthetic experience.

Theoretical accounts of aesthetic processing have proposed the influence of cultural contexts, as well as the differing meaning of beauty across cultures (e.g., 9 ). There is also some evidence to suggest cross-species universal aesthetic appreciation and perception of visual patterns such as symmetry 10 , and the universality of musical aesthetic processing (e.g., 11 ). However, our focus in the current empirical work is on cross-cultural differences (or similarities) in the visual (fine and performing) arts, specifically paintings and dance, and therefore we focus the following review of extant literature primarily on empirical cross-cultural investigations of paintings and dance.

The universality of the preference for representational art and its modulation by expertise

The creation and appreciation of art finds a place in all cultures, serving different social, religious, economic, and political functions 12 , 13 . If engagement with art is indeed universal, as has been argued, then it seems plausible that the processes underpinning aesthetic appreciation are also shared across cultures. Indeed, evidence suggests that people from different cultures base their aesthetic appreciation on a common set of features such as symmetry, contrast, colour, brightness, complexity, and proportion (for a review, see 5 ). Nevertheless, on face value, nothing seems more subjective than the human appreciation of art. People differ in their aesthetic preferences—some may like contemporary art, while others have intense negative feelings toward it 14 . Previous work also demonstrates how individual differences such as art expertise, understanding, and knowledge, as well as personality traits influence aesthetic evaluations 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 .

Aesthetic judgements and ratings of visual art have also been found to be highly idiosyncratic depending on the content depicted in the art 6 , 19 , or the contextual framing with which artworks are introduced 20 . Across a range of studies, a number of research teams report that paintings and images with representational content, i.e. those depicting landscapes, people, still life scenes, and so on, are preferred and assigned higher ratings of aesthetic qualities such as beauty and liking, compared to paintings or images with abstract content that do not represent anything concrete or figurative 6 , 8 , 17 , 21 , 22 , 23 . Preferences for representational content are also more reliable and consistent compared to abstract content. For example, Schepman and colleagues show greater agreement across people for representational compared to abstract paintings and images, and the semantic associations generated by viewers for these artworks are also more convergent across individuals for representational art compared to abstract art 6 , 23 . One proposed explanation for this preference and agreement across viewers for representational content focuses on the meaningfulness of the depiction: people may prefer art that they find meaningful, and semantic associations may be better shared for meaningful stimuli compared to abstract ones 21 .

The meaning drawn from the content of an artwork also depends on the observer’s experience, expertise, and knowledge of the artworks. Indeed, previous evidence has shown increased aesthetic ratings for abstract artworks among those with expertise and knowledge of art 24 , 25 , 26 . Therefore, although a general preference for representational artworks compared to abstract artworks seems to exist, evidence also suggests that art expertise modulates this preference such that the preference for representational (compared to abstract) artworks among art experts is more attenuated than that reported among art-naïve participants. However, the universality of this preference for visual art can be contested on the grounds that all previous research in this domain has focused exclusively on static paintings or images, and the evaluations of participants from western cultures (primarily Western Europe and North America).

It is important to note that representational and abstract artworks are not restricted to the fine arts. Dance forms across many cultures also have both representational and abstract content, such as dance that involves movements, tropes, or symbols to depict certain social or cultural themes and characters (representational dance), and dance that is purely for an aesthetic but non-symbolic, non-representative purpose (abstract dance; 27 , 28 , 29 ). Characteristics of a dance piece, such as its complexity, acceleration, predictability, uniformity, difficulty or reproducibility, movement amplitude, and evocativeness have been evidenced to predict the aesthetic ratings of dance 30 , 31 , 32 . A growing body of research has focused on the characteristics of the observer or spectator such as their visual and motor expertise with dance, and familiarity and competency with the dance movement vocabulary and how this affects aesthetic ratings 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 . Similar to paintings, the aesthetic ratings for dance are also higher for dance experts, and are modulated by similar features such as evocativeness, familiarity, and complexity. Yet, the representativeness of the content of dance and its modulation by dance expertise has to date received little attention in dance, even though, like paintings, dance can be representative or abstract 30 .

Therefore, in the current study, to address our first research question, we use mixed effects models to test whether preferences for representational art shows evidence for cultural as well as artform universality, and is modulated in a similar manner by expertise across participants from Indian and Western cultures across the domains of paintings and dance. If a universal preference for representational visual art generalises across art forms (paintings and dance), we would expect to find a preference for representational paintings and dance over abstract paintings and dance, modulated by art/dance expertise such that this preference is attenuated among painting/dance experts compared to painting/dance naïve participants. In addition, a universal preference for representational art should also emerge across cultures, and be modulated by expertise in a similar way across participants belonging to different cultures.

It is possible that a preference for representational art may be because of the familiarity or complexity of a representational artwork compared with an abstract artwork, as opposed to the abstractness of the content itself. To isolate the abstractness of the content of the paintings, we also investigated whether the universal preference for representational art and its modulation by expertise would further persist above and beyond subjective ratings of complexity, familiarity, evocativeness, reproducibility, and technical competency that have been demonstrated to influence aesthetic ratings and preferences for paintings and dance.

The universality of the ingroup bias for visual arts and its modulation by expertise

Art across the world can differ in its subject matter, production methods, the role(s) played by the artist and the spectator, and its categorisation into different art forms and styles. Cultural differences can perhaps also explain why some artworks are thought to be beautiful to some spectators and not to others. Artists from diverse cultures often report distinct aesthetic experiences when looking at the same visual art displays, and use varied geometric and metaphorical perspectives to represent the visual world in their artworks, employing specific ways to depict spatial and temporal information 7 , 38 , 39 . For instance, Western representational paintings can be very precise reproductions of the world at that time point, whereas in Indian and Chinese paintings, several periods of time can appear on the artwork at the same time 7 . Similarly, popular forms of Indian classical dance feature religious symbolism and depictions with a strong spiritual connection, whereas well-known western classical dance forms, such as ballet, do not 40 .

Previous studies investigating cultural differences in aesthetic appreciation of visual art have mainly focused on the visual processing of scenes and objects, and cultural similarities and differences in the processing of formal features such as colour perception and curvature 39 , 41 , 42 , 43 . In the domain of dance, research on cultural differences in dance appreciation is extremely sparse. One study to date has reported that Indian participants who had more visual experience or visual familiarity with Indian dance (Bharatanatyam) showed enhanced cortico-spinal excitability when viewing Bharatanatyam videos compared to Western dance (ballet) videos, whereas Western participants who have more visual experience with ballet showed higher cortico-spinal excitability when viewing ballet videos, suggesting enhanced motor resonance when watching a movement style that is more familiar 44 . However, the extent to which and how aesthetic preferences for dance might differ across cultures remains unstudied.

The few studies that have looked at the influence of cultural differences on aesthetic evaluations of artwork suggest that individuals show a preference for artworks that belong to their own culture, or correspond to their cultural traditions, compared to artworks that belong to another culture 7 , 43 . Specifically, Yang et al. 43 found that Western participants showed higher valence values when viewing Western paintings, but Chinese participants did not show this effect. Bao et al. 7 showed a double dissociation such that Chinese participants rated Chinese paintings higher on beauty compared to Western paintings, and Western participants rated Western paintings higher on beauty ratings compared to Chinese paintings. One explanation put forth for this double dissociation is a simple in-group bias 45 . Group biases (typically in-group favouritism and out-group dislike) are prevalent in day-to-day interactions wherein individuals show in-group favouritism for members of their own race, culture, ethnicity, and sex (e.g., 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ). In a similar manner, individuals looking at artworks from their own culture may feel a sense of cultural identity and belongingness, and therefore rate it higher on aesthetic ratings compared to artworks from other cultures 7 . This preference can be implicit, i.e., when individuals are not explicitly aware that the painting belongs to their own cultural background. In contrast, the preference may only exist or be heightened when individuals have explicit knowledge of cultural closeness and can identify the painting as belonging to their own cultures.

The feeling of cultural identity, however, may not be uniform across participants with different levels of art experience, sensitivity, expertise, or knowledge. While previous research has not directly investigated the modulation of ingroup bias by the expertise of the spectator, some evidence suggests that people who are interested in art agree on their aesthetic judgements irrespective of their individual cultural backgrounds 51 , 52 . These studies, however, systematically manipulate only either the cultural background of the participants or artworks belonging to different cultures, but not both in the same experiment. Therefore, an intriguing open question remains whether a sense of cultural identity is higher in art naïve participants who may show a higher ingroup bias compared to experts who may show an attenuated ingroup bias compared to non-experts.

Therefore, to address our second research question, we use mixed effects models to test the extent to which an ingroup bias exists for both cultures such that Western participants prefer Western paintings and dance, and Indian participants prefer Indian paintings and Indian dance, compared to paintings and dance belonging to the other culture. We predict that art/dance expertise should modulate this ingroup bias similarly for both Indian and Western participants, such that experts should show no (or a reduced) preference compared to non-experts for paintings or dance belonging to their own culture compared to another culture. This ingroup bias and its modulation by expertise should further persist above and beyond the subjective ratings of complexity, familiarity, evocativeness, reproducibility, and technical competency that have been known to have an influence on aesthetic ratings and preferences of paintings and dance.

Open science statement

Across all experiments, we report how the sample size was determined, all data exclusions, and all measures used in the study 53 , 54 . For both experiments, data pre-processing, statistical analyses, and data visualisations were performed using R (R Core Team, 2018), unless otherwise specified. Following open science initiatives 55 , all raw data are available online for other researchers to pursue alternative questions of interest, along with analysis scripts and stimuli used ( https://osf.io/vtw54/ ). Data analyses for both experiments were preregistered on AsPredicted.org (Experiment 1: https://aspredicted.org/65Y_W6X , Experiment 2: https://aspredicted.org/VBB_T2F ). The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available in the Open Science Framework (OSF) repository [ https://osf.io/vtw54/ ].

For both Experiments 1 and 2, mixed effects model analyses were executed using the ordinal package (v.2019.12–10) in R v.1.3.1093. (R Core Team). Post-hoc tests were executed using the emmeans package (v.1.5.1). We used an alpha of 0.05 to make inferences, and controlled for multiple comparisons using Tukey-HSD in post-hoc tests. Model fit was compared using the anova() function (Chi-square test).

Experiment 1—Paintings

Sample size justification.

We determined the sample size based on a simulation-based power analysis approach using the simr R package 56 . First, we used pilot data (N = 22, 14 females, 10 art experts, Mean age  = 29.71, SD age  = 9.86) for beta weight estimation for the following linear mixed effects model: beauty ~ category*expertise + (1|subject) + (1|item). Second, we simulated data by extending along the sample size, i.e., as a function of different sample sizes. Our main focus was the interaction between the category of the painting and the art expertise of participants, and the power analysis suggested that we required a sample size of 50 participants (25 experts and 25 non-experts) with 35 items to have > 80% power to detect a significant category*expertise interaction (more details on the power analyses and the code can be found on OSF and in the supplementary material, see Figure S1 ). We therefore aimed to stop data collection when over 100 participants finished the entire survey, with an aim to recruit approximately 50 Indian participants and 50 Western participants with 25 experts and 25 non-experts within each culture.

Participants

Participants were recruited using the online data collection tool PsyToolkit 57 , 58 . Participants were primarily recruited from India and UK/Europe and classified into either Indian or Western culture participants (see Supplementary Table 2 for a geographic distribution of the sample) by advertisement on social media. All participants provided informed consent, and had normal or corrected-to-normal vision. Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Glasgow ethics review board (300190209), and all experiments were performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Participants were reimbursed with an Amazon gift card of either 6 GBP or Rs. 550 INR.

A total of 145 participants started the online experiment, with 113 participants completing the full experiment. Participants were excluded if they did not pass our attention check questions (see section “ Tasks and Procedures ”; N = 19), or did not provide required demographic information (age, gender, and culture; N = 2). The final sample consisted of 92 participants (17 males, 75 females; Mean age  = 25.52, SD age  = 3.96) which included 45 Indian participants (21 experts, 24 non-experts) and 47 Western participants (21 experts, 26 non-experts). All participants provided informed consent, and had normal or corrected-to-normal vision (a geographic distribution of the participant sample is provided in Table S2 ). 

An independent sample of art naïve participants (N = 21, 13 females, Mean age  = 29.14, SD age  = 6.73) rated the first pool of images for abstract and representational paintings on familiarity, complexity, and evocativeness, and categorized them into ‘abstract’ or ‘representational’. A total of 120 paintings were selected and resized to 500 × 500 pixels: 60 by Indian painters, 60 by Western painters, out of which 30 each were abstract and representational paintings. Paintings were categorized by the experimenters as either ‘abstract’ or ‘representational’ depending on the content of the painting. That is, paintings depicting representational or figurative content (such as still life or landscapes) were categorized as ‘representational’ and paintings depicting content that was abstract (or not representative of anything concrete or figurative) were classified as ‘abstract.’ Participants also categorized the paintings into whether they thought the painting was abstract or representational. The final stimulus set consisted of paintings with ratings most similar to each other on the three variables of familiarity, complexity, and evocativeness. These paintings were also accurately classified as either ‘abstract’ or ‘representational’ i.e. the categorization by the participants matched the categorization made by the experimenters (more details along with the analysis code can be found here: https://osf.io/vtw54/ ). The final stimulus set consisted of 35 paintings—10 Indian abstract, 8 Western abstract, 8 Indian representational, and 9 Western representational paintings (see Fig.  1 ; note that the number of stimuli is unbalanced across categories because of the type of analysis we used to balance paintings on the variables of familiarity, complexity, and evocativeness. See the Supplementary material for more information). The paintings were resized to 500 × 500 pixels, and matched for mean luminance using the SHINE toolbox in MATLAB 59 . Therefore, the final stimulus set was closely matched across all four categories of paintings (Indian Abstract, Indian Representational, Western Abstract, Western Representational) on variables of luminance, familiarity, complexity, and evocativeness (for mean ratings for each painting category, please refer to Table S1 ).

Categories of paintings and dance (abstract/representational) across different sources of painting or dance style (Indian/Western). Note: All images used in Figs.  1 and 2 are in the public domain, and/or we have informed consent from individuals for publication of their image in an online open access publication. Images used to depict abstract and representational paintings and dance in Figure 1 are not images of the actual stimuli used. Stimuli used in the current study are available online on the OSF.

Tasks and procedure

Participants completed two tasks—a rating task and a categorization task (see Fig.  2 ). In the rating task, participants saw a painting on the screen, and were asked to rate it on a 5-point likert scale from low (1) to high (5) with ‘1’ corresponding to ‘not at all’, ‘2’ corresponding to ‘slightly’, ‘3’ corresponding to ‘moderately’, ‘4’ corresponding to ‘very’, and ‘5’ corresponding to ‘extremely’ on the following variables:

Familiarity (how familiar is the painting?)

Complexity (how complex is the painting?)

Evocativeness (how evocative or emotional is the painting?)

Abstractness (how abstract is the painting?)

Technical competency (how technically competent is the painting or the painter who made the painting?)

Beauty (how beautiful do you find the painting?)

Liking (how much do you like the painting?)

Graphical representation of the rating task and categorisation task for Experiments 1 and 2.

The order in which these questions were presented was randomized for each item, and the order in which the items (35 paintings) were presented was also randomized across participants. Two additional questions appeared randomly during the rating task which served as attention check questions: “how attentive are you while doing this experiment?” and “how honest are you while doing this experiment?” The 5-point likert scale remained the same as for the other variables. Participants who responded < 4 on the 5-point likert scale were excluded from the analyses.

In the categorisation task, participants categorized the same 35 paintings they saw during the rating task into either ‘Indian’ or ‘Western’ depending on whether they thought the painting was produced by a painter of Indian origin or a painter of Western origin. The order of the items (35 paintings) was randomized across participants. Participants also completed two questionnaires—the Art Experience Questionnaire 60 to gauge their art expertise, and (unrelated to the current study) the Vienna Art Interest and Art Knowledge (VAIAK) questionnaire 61 . They were also asked if they were art professionals or not—participants were categorized as ‘non-experts’ if they were art naïve or had no experience or qualifications related to the arts, and participants were categorized as art ‘experts’ if they worked as art professionals or had completed their Masters in an arts-related field (fine arts, or arts history; detailed data of arts expertise in participants based on academic and professional qualifications, as well as their scores on the Art Experience Questionnaire, can be found on OSF). The experiment started with some demographic questions, the Art Experience Questionnaire, and then participants completed the rating task, the categorisation task, and the VAIAK questionnaire. The order of tasks and questionnaires remained constant across participants, and the tasks were self-paced. The entire experiment did not last for more than 60 min for most participants (Mean timetaken  = 50.86 min, SD timetaken  = 39.25). The script used for online experiment presentation in Psytoolkit is provided on the OSF.

Data analysis

We recorded ratings for each item for each participant on all variables for the rating task. For the categorisation task, we recorded which items were classified as either Indian or Western by participants (source of painting as rated by participants). We also calculated accuracy by calculating the percentage of items that were correctly categorized as Indian or Western i.e. when the actual source of the painting matched the participant’s response.

RQ1: Do expertise and culture influence aesthetic judgements of representational and abstract art (preregistered and confirmatory)?

Beauty and liking ratings were analysed separately. The current analyses differ from our pre-registered analyses in three ways:

Our study was powered to detect a category*expertise interaction with N = 50. We aimed to collect N = 50 for both cultures, and include the category*expertise*culture interaction as a fixed effect in the current model. We were able to collect N = 45 Indian and N = 47 Western participants i.e. a total N of 92 participants. Therefore, while we are powered to detect the category*expertise interaction in the total sample, we are not sufficiently powered to detect the three-way interaction of culture*expertise*category. Therefore, any findings we report are suggestive and exploratory, and not confirmatory.

We pre-registered a linear mixed effects analysis using the ‘lme4’ package in R 62 . However, because the data were ordinal in nature, we decided to analyse the ordinal data using cumulative link mixed models by using the ‘ordinal’ package in R 63 . Analysing the data using ‘lme4’ yielded similar results.

In the preregistered analyses, we included category (abstract, representational) and art expertise (expert, nonexpert) as categorical fixed effects of interest, and the by-subject and by-item intercept as a random factor for the model. However, given recommendations for the “keep it maximal” approach to multilevel modeling 64 , we further included the maximal number of random effects that the design permitted.

The categorical variables were coded using a deviation coding style where factors sum to zero and the intercept can then be interpreted as the grand mean and the main effects can be interpreted similarly to a conventional ANOVA 65 . As such, the categorical variables of category, expertise, culture, and source of painting were coded as 0.5 (representational/expert/Indian/Indian) and − 0.5 (abstract/nonexpert/Western/Western). An ordinal logistic regression was employed in the form of a cumulative-link mixed model (ordinal package, “clmm” function; 63) using logit (log-odds) as link, and flexible thresholds between the ordinal scores. We chose this approach because the dependent or outcome variables ‘beauty’ and ‘liking’ ratings were ordinal in nature (ratings on a Likert scale 1–5). The model thus measures the probability of specific ratings being above certain thresholds without the assumption that the thresholds are symmetric or equidistant from each other. In order to address our first question of interest i.e. whether representational and abstract art judgements are modulated by art expertise, and whether this is similar for both cultures, we included the three way interaction of category (abstract, representational), expertise (expert, nonexpert), and culture (Indian, Western) as a fixed effect in the model. For random effects, we included the maximal number of random effects that the design permitted. The complexity of the random structure was reduced if the results showed failure in model convergence or a singular fit. The final model used was –

To test whether category, expertise, and culture modulated beauty and liking ratings above and beyond the subjective factors that participants rated the paintings on (familiarity, complexity, evocativeness, technical competency), we further added the subjective variables as fixed effects to the model.

RQ2: Does expertise shape the ingroup bias for aesthetic judgements (preregistered but exploratory)?

We preregistered the hypotheses for our second research question, but we note that the present study was not powered to detect a three-way interaction of culture, source of painting, and expertise. Therefore, any conclusions we draw from these analyses are exploratory and suggestive, and not confirmatory.

In order to investigate the ingroup bias in aesthetic judgements, we tested for an interaction between culture of participants and the source of painting, and how this was modulated by expertise. Beauty and liking ratings were analysed separately. The categorical variables were coded using a deviation coding style. As such, expertise, culture, and source of painting were coded as 0.5 (Indian/expert/Indian) and − 0.5 (Western/nonexpert/Western). In order to address our second question of interest i.e. whether the ingroup bias exists, and is modulated by art expertise, we included the three way interaction of source of painting (Indian, Western), expertise (expert, nonexpert), and culture (Indian, Western) as a fixed effect in the model. For random effects, we included the maximal number of random effects that the design permitted. The complexity of the random structure was reduced if the results showed failure in model convergence or a singular fit. The final model used was –

To test whether source of painting, expertise, and culture modulated beauty and liking ratings above and beyond the subjective factors that participants rated the paintings on (familiarity, complexity, evocativeness, technical competency), we further added the subjective variables as fixed effects to the model.

In the analyses above, the factor ‘source of painting’ was coded according to whether a painting was actually painted by an ‘Indian’ artist or a ‘Western’ artist. However, participants were not explicitly made aware while doing the rating task that the paintings were Indian or Western. If an ingroup bias does exist in this case, the preference for paintings from their own cultural background might be reported irrespective of whether participants can accurately identify the painting as Indian or Western in an explicit sense. In contrast, preferences for artworks from one’s own culture may only arise or may be heightened when participants themselves classify the painting as ‘Indian’ or ‘Western’ and have an explicit knowledge of cultural closeness, irrespective of whether or not the paintings were actually made by an ‘Indian’ painter or ‘Western’ painter. In order to test this, we repeated the mixed effects model analyses with the factor ‘source of painting—ppt’ coded as ‘Indian’ or ‘Western’ as categorized by the participants in the categorisation task.

Experiment 2—Dance

We determined the sample size based on a simulation-based power analysis approach using the simr R package 56 . First, we used pilot data (N = 21, 17 females, 12 dance experts, Mean age  = 29.71, SD age  = 9.86) for beta weight estimation for the following model: beauty ~ category*expertise + (1|subject) + (1|item). Second, we simulated data by extending along the sample size and plotted statistical power as a function of different sample sizes (see Figure S9 ; more details on the power analyses and the code can be found here: https://osf.io/vtw54/ ). Our main focus was the interaction between the category of the dance and the dance expertise of participants, and the power analysis suggested that we required a sample size of 50 participants (25 experts and 25 non-experts) with 38 items to have 80% power to detect a significant category*expertise interaction. We therefore aimed to recruit 50 Indian participants and 50 Western participants with approximately 25 experts and 25 non-experts in each culture.

Participants completed the experiment on Qualtrics. Participants were primarily recruited from India and UK/Europe and classified as either from Indian or Western culture (see the supplementary table S10 for a geographic distribution of the sample). All participants provided informed consent, and had normal or corrected-to-normal vision. Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Glasgow ethics review board (300190209), and all experiments were performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Participants were reimbursed with an Amazon gift card of either 6 GBP or Rs. 550 INR.

A total of 161 participants started the online experiment, with 110 participants completing the full experiment. Participants were excluded if they did not pass our attention check questions (see “section  Tasks and procedure ”; N = 16), and did not provide required demographic information (age, gender, and culture; N = 2). Two participants were further excluded as they did not fit in either the ‘Indian’ or ‘Western’ culture group of participants (a geographic description of our participant sample is provided in the Table S10 ). The final sample consisted of 90 participants (79 females, 8 males, 3 non-binary; Mean age  = 25.94, SD age  = 7.51) which included 48 Indian participants (23 experts, 25 non-experts) and 42 Western participants (22 experts, 20 non-experts). All participants provided informed consent, and had normal or corrected-to-normal vision.

We invited a professional dancer trained in classical ballet and Bharatanatyam, Sophia Salingaros 66 , to record Bharatanatyam and ballet dance videos. We recorded both ballet and Bharatanatyam dance videos featuring movement sequences that either were intended to represent something in the external world (e.g. humans, animals, birds, nature, etc.) or not represent anything in particular (pure dance, referred to as nrtta  in Bharatanatyam, or non-representational abstract dance). The videos were edited in iMovie into 10–12 s clips, and the first 0.5 s of the video faded in, and the last 0.5 s faded out to a black screen. An independent sample of participants (all non-dancers, N = 13, 8 females, Mean age  = 28.85, SD age  = 8.93) rated the first pool of stimuli of abstract and representational dance videos on familiarity, complexity, and evocativeness. Out of a total of 91 videos (46 Bharatanatyam/Indian dance videos, out of which 18 were abstract, and 45 ballet/Western dance videos, out of which 25 were abstract), the final stimulus set was selected by selecting dance videos with ratings most similar to each other on the three variables of familiarity, complexity, and evocativeness (more details along with the analysis code can be found on the OSF). The final stimuli consisted of 38 dance videos—11 Indian abstract, 8 Western abstract, 11 Indian representational, and 8 Western representational dances, matched on the variables of familiarity, complexity, and evocativeness (see Supplementary Material for more details). Mean ratings for each video as rated in the pilot study are reported in Table S9 , and all videos are available on the OSF.

Participants completed two tasks—a Rating task and a Categorization task (see Fig.  2 ). In the rating task, participants saw a dance video on the screen, and were asked to rate it on a 5 point likert scale similar to Experiment 1 from low (1) to high (5) on the following variables:

Familiarity (how familiar is the dance?)

Complexity (how complex is the dance?)

Evocativeness (how evocative or emotional is the dance?)

Abstractness (how abstract is the dance?)

Technical competency (how technically competent is the dance?)

Reproducibility (how reproducible is the dance?)

Beauty (how beautiful do you find the dance?)

Liking (how much do you like the dance?)

Enjoyability (how much did you enjoy the dance?)

The order in which these questions were presented was randomized for each item, and the order in which the items (38 dance videos) were presented was also randomized across participants. Two additional attention check questions were also presented randomly during the task (same as Experiment 1) and participants who responded < 4 on the likert scale on these questions were excluded from the analyses.

In the categorisation task, participants categorized the same 38 dance videos they saw during the rating task into either ‘Bharatanatyam’ or ‘Ballet’ depending on whether they thought the dance was of Indian origin or Western origin (the instructions given to the participants were whether they thought the dance was ballet i.e., western classical dance/ of Western origin, or Bharatanatyam i.e., Indian classical dance/ of Indian origin). The order of the items (38 dance videos) was randomized across participants. Participants also completed a dance experience questionnaire similar to the Art Experience Questionnaire ( 60 , see the supplementary material for the exact set of questions used to measure dance experience). Participants were asked if they were dance professionals or not—participants were categorized as ‘non-experts’ if they were dance naïve or had no experience with or qualifications related to dance, and participants were categorized as dance ‘experts’ if they worked as dance professionals or had more than 8 years of training in either ballet or Bharatanatyam (a detailed distribution of dance expertise in participants and their scores on the dance experience questionnaire can be found in the supplementary material). The experiment started with some demographic questions, followed by the rating task and the categorisation task. The tasks and questionnaires were self-paced, and the order remained constant across participants. The experiment was self-paced but lasted ~ 120 min for most participants (Mean time  = 120.19 min, SD time  = 242.40). Results were similar when participants who were 3SD away from the mean time taken by participants to finish the experiment were excluded from the analyses.

The data analysis pipeline was the same as Experiment 1 with the following changes: 1) instead of categorizing paintings as Indian and Western, participants categorized dance as either Ballet or Bharatanatyam (labelled as ‘dance style’ instead of ‘source of painting’; 2) we added two additional variables: enjoyability as a dependent variable, and reproducibility as a subjective variable. Therefore, the model with subjective variables for Experiment 2 includes reproducibility along with other variables (the same as Experiment 1), and analyses are performed separately for beauty, liking, and enjoyability dependent/outcome variables.

Rating task

Mean ratings for familiarity, complexity, evocativeness, technical competency, beauty, liking, and abstractness across abstract and representational art for experts and non-experts of Indian and Western cultures and Indian and Western art are provided in Table S3 and in Figures S2 - S8 . To check whether participants perceived abstract and representational paintings as more abstract and less abstract respectively, participants were also asked to rate paintings on abstractness. Overall, a paired samples t-test suggested that participants rated abstract paintings (Mean = 4.08, SD = 0.52) higher on abstractness compared to representational paintings (mean = 1.94; SD = 0.55; t(91)  = 29.44, p  < 0.001, 95% CI [2.01, ∞]; see Fig.  3 ).

Abstractness ratings (on a 5-point likert scale where 1 = not at all abstract, and 5 = extremely abstract) for abstract and representational paintings (A; Experiment 1) and abstract and representational dance (B; Experiment 2).

Categorisation task

Accuracy on the categorisation task across category, source of painting, expertise, and culture are provided in Table S17 . One sample t-tests suggested that for both Indian and Western paintings, participants could accurately categorise paintings as “Indian” or “Western” greater than chance (Indian paintings: Mean = 0.55, SD = 0.20, t(91) = 4.18, p  < 0.001, 95% CI [0.53, ∞]; Western paintings: Mean = 0.70, SD = 0.24, t(91) = 14.06, p  < 0.001, 95% CI [0.68, ∞]; see Fig.  4 A). Accuracy for Western paintings was higher than Indian paintings (t (91) = 7.35, p  < 0.001, 95% CI [0.19, 0.11]).

Proportion of accurate responses for Experiment 1 ( A ) and Experiment 2 ( B ) of all participants for Indian and Western paintings and dance styles. Dashed line represents 50% accuracy (or chance).

RQ1: Do expertise and culture shape aesthetic judgements of representational and abstract art (preregistered and confirmatory)?

The results of a cumulative link mixed effects model for beauty and liking ratings showed that category (beauty: β = 1.32, p  < 0.001; liking: β = 1.01, p  < 0.001), culture (beauty: β = 1.09, p  < 0.001; liking: β = 0.91, p  < 0.001) the interaction between category and expertise (beauty: β = 1.12, p  < 0.001; liking: β = 1.14, p  < 0.001), the interaction between culture and category (liking: β = 0.60, p  = 0.04) and the three-way interaction between category, expertise, and culture (beauty: β = 1.41, p  < 0.001; liking: β = 1.26, p  = 0.04) had an effect on the ratings of beauty and liking (Table S4 ). Post-hoc tests revealed that all participants (except Western experts) showed higher ratings of beauty and liking for representational paintings compared with abstract paintings, and overall ratings by Indian participants were higher than Western participants (see Table S8 ). Specifically, to test our hypothesis whether the difference in beauty and liking ratings of abstract and representational paintings would be higher in non-experts compared to experts, we computed an interaction contrast for both Indian and Western culture participants separately. The contrast revealed that the difference between beauty and liking ratings for abstract and representational paintings was higher in non-experts than experts, but only for Western participants (beauty: M = 1.83, SE = 0.42, p  < 0.001; liking: M = 1.77, SE = 0.44, p  < 0.001) and not for Indian participants (beauty: M = 0.42, SE = 0.43, p  = 0.33, Fig.  5 A; liking: M = 0.51, SE = 0.43, p  = 0.24, Fig.  5 B).

The effect of category (abstract or representational paintings), expertise (art experts or non-experts) and culture (Indian participants or Western participants) on the ratings of beauty ( A ) and liking ( B ).

As our study was powered to detect a two-way interaction between category and expertise, we additionally ran a model to test for this interaction for Indian and Western culture participants separately:

Similar to the above findings, we found that beauty and liking ratings were modulated by an interaction between category and expertise only for Western participants (beauty: β = 1.76, p  < 0.001; liking: β = 1.66, p  < 0.001), and not for Indian participants (β = 0.44, p  = 0.32; liking: β = 0.53, p  = 0.25; see Table S7 ).

Additionally, we added the subjective variables of familiarity, evocativeness, complexity, and technical competency as fixed effects to our main model to investigate whether the three-way interaction modulated beauty and liking ratings irrespective of the contribution of the subjective variables. As expected, all subjective variables predicted ratings of beauty and liking, with higher familiarity, complexity, evocativeness, and technical competency predicting higher ratings of beauty and liking. Adding the subjective variables significantly improved our main models (beauty: AIC main  = 8492.53, AIC subj  = 7035.66, p  < 0.001; liking: AIC main  = 8893.61, AIC subj  = 7391.98, p  < 0.001) and the three-way interaction of category, expertise, and culture influenced ratings of beauty even when accounting for possible contributions of subjective variables. For liking ratings, the three-way interaction estimate confidence intervals partially overlapped with zero but still influenced ratings of liking even when accounting for possible contributions of subjective variables (see Table S4 ; Fig.  6 A,B).

For the outcome variables of beauty ( A ) and liking ( B ), beta estimates for the main model (in aqua blue) and the model with subjective variables (in purple) are plotted for each predictor variable along with their corresponding uncertainties (95% confidence interval width for a normal distribution for each estimate). Distributions are rescaled to match the height of each distribution. This figure (and other similar figures) is made using the plot_summs function in the jtools R package (v. 2.1.0; Long, 2020).

RQ2: Does expertise influence the ingroup bias for aesthetic judgements (preregistered but exploratory)?

The results of a cumulative link mixed effects model for beauty and liking ratings showed that source of painting (beauty: β = 1.05, p  < 0.001; liking: β = 1.01, p  < 0.001) and culture (beauty: β = 1.05, p  < 0.001; liking: β = 0.91, p  < 0.001) had an effect on the ratings of beauty and liking (Table S5 ). Specifically Indian paintings were liked more and rated as more beautiful than Western paintings by all participants. Indian participants (beauty: M = 0.43, SE = 0.23, 95% CI [− 0.03, 0.88]) showed higher ratings of beauty and liking for all paintings compared to Western participants (beauty: M = − 0.62, SE = 0.24, 95% CI [− 1.08, − 0.16]; p  < 0.001). There was no evidence of an ingroup bias or its modulation by art expertise: there were no other significant main effects or two-way or three-way interactions (see Table S5 , Fig.  7 A,B).

The effect of source of painting (A) and the source of painting as categorized by participants (B; Indian or Western paintings depicted in red and blue respectively), expertise (art experts or non-experts) and culture (Indian participants or Western participants) on the ratings of beauty and liking.

Similar to RQ1, we ran an additional model adding the subjective variables of familiarity, evocativeness, complexity, and technical competency as fixed effects. As expected, all subjective variables influenced the ratings of beauty and liking. Adding the subjective variables significantly improved our main models (beauty: AIC main  = 8636.42, AIC subj  = 7087.03, p  < 0.001; liking: AIC main  = 8893.61, AIC subj  = 7391.98, p  < 0.001). The main effects of culture (although marginally significant) and source of painting still influenced beauty and liking ratings even when accounting for the possible contributions of the subjective variables (see Table S5 , Fig.  8 A,B).

For the outcome variables of beauty and liking, beta estimates for the main model (in aqua blue) and the model with subjective variables (in purple) are plotted for each predictor variable along with their corresponding uncertainties (95% confidence interval width for a normal distribution for each estimate). Distributions are rescaled to match the height of each distribution. Figures A1 and A2 display models with source of painting as classified by the experimenter i.e., according to the origin of the artists. Figures B1 and B2 display models with source of painting as classified by the participants themselves.

Results were similar when the factor ‘source of painting’ was coded as either ‘Indian’ or ‘Western’ as categorized by the individual participants in the Categorization task (see Table S6 , Figs.  9 and 10 ). That is, source of painting and culture influenced beauty and liking ratings, but no other two-way or three-way interactions were found. However, a visual inspection of the data suggests that although a three-way interaction did not pass our statistical threshold (i.e. p  < 0.05), a trend for a three way interaction can be observed such that Western experts no longer showed higher ratings of beauty and liking for Indian paintings when paintings were categorized by the participants (see Figs.  7 A,B, 9 A,B).

For the outcome variables of beauty ( A ) and liking ( B ), beta estimates for the model with source of painting as categorized by the experimenter (in pink) and the model with source of paintings as categorized by the participant (in green) are plotted for each predictor variable along with their corresponding uncertainties (95% confidence interval width for a normal distribution for each estimate). Distributions are rescaled to match the height of each distribution.

The effect of dance expertise (experts or non-experts) and culture (Indian or Western participants) on beauty, liking, and enjoyability ratings of abstract (in purple) and representational (in yellow) dance videos.

Mean ratings for familiarity, complexity, evocativeness, technical competency, reproducibility, and abstractness across abstract and representational dance for experts and non-experts of Indian and Western cultures for Bharatanatyam and ballet dance styles are provided in Table S11 and in Figures S10 - S17 . To check whether participants perceived abstract and representational dance as more abstract and less abstract respectively, participants were also asked to rate the dance videos on abstractness. Overall, a paired-samples t-test suggested that participants rated abstract dance videos (Mean = 3.16, SD = 0.76) higher on abstractness compared to representational dance (mean = 2.59; SD = 0.79; t(89) = 4.81, p  < 0.001, 95% CI [0.37, ∞]; see Fig.  3 B).

Accuracy across dance style, category, expertise, and culture are provided in Table S18 . One sample t-tests suggested that for both Indian and Western dance styles, participants could accurately categorise dance videos as “Bharatanatyam” or “ballet” greater than chance (Bharatanatyam: Mean = 0.93, SD = 0.14, t(89) = 43.08, p  < 0.001, 95% CI [0.91, ∞]; ballet: Mean = 0.91, SD = 0.16, t(89) = 35.24, p  < 0.001, 95% CI [0.89, ∞]; see Fig.  4 B). There was no difference in accuracy for Bharatanatyam or ballet dance styles (t (89) = 1.13, p  = 0.26, 95% CI [− 0.01, 0.05]).

RQ1: Do expertise and culture shape aesthetic judgements of representational and abstract dance (preregistered and confirmatory)?

The results of a cumulative link mixed effects model for beauty, liking, and enjoyability ratings showed that culture (beauty: β = 0.75, p  = 0.004; liking: β = 0.46, p  = 0.07; enjoyability: β = 0.50, p  = 0.06), category (beauty: β = 0.41, p  = 0.06; liking: β = 0.51, p  = 0.01; enjoyability: β = 0.43, p  = 0.03) and dance expertise (beauty: β = 0.42, p  = 0.09; liking: β = 0.62, p  = 0.01; enjoyability: β = 0.63, p  = 0.01) had an impact on the ratings of beauty, liking, and enjoyability. Ratings by Indian participants (beauty: M = 1.22, SE = 0.19, 95% CI [0.84, 1.59]; liking: M = 0.745, SE = 0.19, 95% CI [0.37, 1.10]; enjoyability: M = 0.75, SE = 0.20, 95% CI [0.36, 1.14]) were overall higher than ratings made by Western participants (beauty: M = 0.46, SE = 0.21, 95% CI [0.04, 0.88], p  = 0.004; liking: M = 0.28, SE = 0.20, 95% CI [− 0.12, 0.68]; enjoyability: M = 0.25, SE = 0.21, 95% CI [− 0.16, 0.66]). Abstract dance videos (beauty: M = 1.04, SE = 1.87, 95% CI [0.68, 1.41]; liking: M = 0.76, SE = 0.18, 95% CI [0.41, 1.11]; enjoyability: M = 0.72, SE = 0.18, 95% CI [0.36, 1.08]) were rated as more beautiful, more enjoyable, and were liked more than representational dance videos (beauty: M = 0.63, SE = 0.19, 95% CI [0.26, 1.01], p  = 0.06; liking: M = 0.25, SE = 0.18, 95% CI [− 0.10, 0.61]; enjoyability: M = 0.28, SE = 0.19, 95% CI [− 0.08, 0.65]). Dance experts (beauty: M = 1.05, SE = 0.19, 95% CI [0.68, 1.43]; liking: M = 0.82, SE = 0.19, 95% CI [0.45, 1.18]; enjoyability: M = 0.82, SE = 0.20, 95% CI [0.43, 1.20]) rated all dance videos higher on beauty, liking, and enjoyability than non-dancers (beauty: M = 0.63, SE = 0.21, 95% CI [0.22, 1.04], p  = 0.09; liking: M = 0.20, SE = 0.20, 95% CI [− 0.20, 0.59]; enjoyability: M = 0.18, SE = 0.21, 95% CI [− 0.23, 0.59]). No other two-way or three-way interactions emerged for beauty and liking ratings (see Table S12 and Fig.  10 A–C). A two-way interaction between category and culture influenced enjoyability ratings (enjoyability: β = 0.51, p  = 0.05). Post hoc tests revealed that abstract dance videos (M = 0.59, SE = 0.23, 95% CI [0.13, 1.05]) were rated as more enjoyable compared to representational dance videos (M = − 0.09, SE = 0.24, 95% CI [− 0.57, 0.38], p  = 0.005) only by Western participants and not by Indian participants.

For Indian participants, dance expertise had a marginal effect on ratings of beauty, liking, and enjoyability, with expert dancers showing higher ratings than non-dancers (beauty: β = 0.59, p  = 0.08; liking: β = 0.68, p  = 0.04; enjoyability: β = 0.67, p  = 0.07), and for Western participants, abstract dance videos were rated as more beautiful, were liked more, and were rated as more enjoyable than representational dance videos (beauty: β = 0.58, p  = 0.04; liking: β = 1.01, p  = 0.005; enjoyability: β = 0.69, p  = 0.054; see Table S15 ). No two-way interaction between category and art expertise emerged.

Additionally, we added the subjective variables of familiarity, evocativeness, complexity, reproducibility, and technical competency as fixed effects to our full model to investigate whether the main effects of category, expertise, and culture modulated beauty, liking, and enjoyability ratings irrespective of the contribution of the subjective variables. As expected, all subjective variables predicted ratings of beauty, liking, and enjoyability with higher familiarity, complexity, evocativeness, reproducibility, and technical competency predicting higher ratings of beauty, liking, and enjoyability. Adding the subjective variables significantly improved our main models (beauty: AIC main  = 8469.90, AIC subj  = 7001.71, p  < 0.001; liking: AIC main  = 8862.6, AIC subj  = 7307.13, p  < 0.001; enjoyability: AIC main  = 8889.0, AIC subj  = 7366.1, p  < 0.001). Dance expertise influenced beauty, liking and enjoyability ratings, and category influenced liking and enjoyability ratings, even when accounting for possible contributions of subjective variables. In this particular analysis, we did not find that culture particularly influenced beauty, liking, and enjoyability ratings suggesting that the effects of subjective variables could perhaps explain the effect of culture seen in the main models (see Table S12 , Fig.  11 A–C).

RQ1: The effect of category, expertise, and culture. For the outcome variables of beauty ( A ), liking ( B ), and enjoyability ( C ) beta estimates for the main model (in aqua blue) and the model with subjective variables (in purple) are plotted for each predictor variable (fixed effect) along with their corresponding uncertainties (95% confidence interval width for a normal distribution for each estimate). Distributions are rescaled to match the height of each distribution.

The results of a cumulative link mixed effects model for beauty and liking ratings showed that culture (beauty: β = 0.70, p  = 0.006; liking: β = 1.01, p  = 0.09; enjoyability: β = 0.47, p  = 0.07), dance expertise (liking: β = 0.58, p  = 0.02; enjoyability: β = 0.60, p  = 0.02) the two-way interactions of dance style and expertise (beauty: β = 0.65, p  = 0.01; liking: β = 0.69, p  = 0.02; enjoyability: β = 0.53, p  = 0.06), and dance style and culture (beauty: β = 0.77, p  = 0.006) and the three way interaction of dance style, expertise, and culture (beauty: β = 1.32, p  = 0.01; liking: β = 1.30, p  = 0.02; enjoyability: β = 1.36, p  = 0.01) had an effect on the ratings of beauty, liking, and enjoyability (Table S13 ). Specifically, while the two-way culture by dance style interaction suggests that Western participants rated ballet as more beautiful than Bharatanatyam, and Indian participants rated Bharatanatyam as more beautiful than ballet, post hoc tests revealed than an ingroup bias was present such that only Western non-experts showed higher ratings of beauty, liking, and enjoyability for ballet (beauty: M = 1.01, SE = 0.34, 95% CI [0.34, 1.67]; liking: M = 0.46, SE = 0.35, 95% CI [− 0.24, 1.15] ; enjoyability: M = 0.27, SE = 0.34, 95% CI [− 0.39, 0.93]) compared to Bharatanatyam (beauty: M = − 0.18, SE = 0.35, 95% CI [− 0.86, 0.50], p  < 0.001; liking: M = − 0.35, SE = 0.37, 95% CI [− 1.08, 0.38], p  = 0.05; enjoyability: M = − 0.31, SE = 0.37, 95% CI [− 1.03, 0.42], p  = 0.05; see Table S13 , Fig.  12 A–C).

The effect of dance style (Bharatanatyam or ballet depicted in red and blue respectively), expertise (art experts or non-experts) and culture (Indian participants or Western participants) on the ratings of beauty ( A ), liking ( B ), and ( C ) enjoyability.

Similar to RQ1, we ran an additional model adding the subjective variables of familiarity, evocativeness, complexity, reproducibility, and technical competency as fixed effects. As expected, all subjective variables influenced the ratings of beauty and liking such that higher ratings of familiarity, evocativeness, complexity, technical competency, and reproducibility predicted higher ratings of beauty and liking. Adding the subjective variables significantly improved our main models (beauty: AIC main  = 8636.42, AIC subj  = 6977.28, p  < 0.001; liking: AIC main  = 8743.3, AIC subj  = 7241.4, p  < 0.001; enjoyability: AIC main  = 8814.7, AIC subj  = 7307.7, p  < 0.001). Importantly, the three-way interaction still influenced beauty, liking, and enjoyability ratings even when accounting for the possible contributions of the subjective variables (beauty: β = 0.84, p  = 0.06; liking: β = 0.99, p  = 0.05; enjoyability: β = 0.98, p  = 0.05); see Table S13 , Fig.  13 A–C).

RQ2: The effect of Expertise, Culture, and Dance Style. For the outcome variables of beauty ( A ), liking ( B ), and enjoyability ( C ) beta estimates for the main model (in aqua blue) and the model with subjective variables (in purple) are plotted for each predictor variable along with their corresponding uncertainties (95% confidence interval width for a normal distribution for each estimate). Distributions are rescaled to match the height of each distribution.

Results were similar when the factor ‘dance style’ was coded as either ‘Bharatanatyam’ or ‘ballet’ as categorized by the individual participants in the Categorization task (see Table S14 , Figures S19 - 21 ).

Art expertise and art experience questionnaires

We also computed art/dance expertise scores using the Art Expertise Questionnaire for paintings (art expertise, Table S19 ) and dance (dance expertise, Table S20 ) between Indian and Western experts and non-experts for Experiments 1 and 2. Independent samples t-tests suggested that experts (Experiment 1: Mean = 31.43, SD = 9.66; Experiment 2: Mean = 14.44, SD = 5.13) scored higher than non-experts (Experiment 1: Mean = 14.02, SD = 5.94; Experiment 2: Mean = 8.95, SD = 4.79) on the art expertise questionnaires (Experiment 1: t(90) = 10.58, p  < 0.001, 95% CI [14.14, 20.68]; Experiment 2: t(88) = 5.25, p  < 0.001, 95% CI [3.41, 7.57]). Expertise scores for Indian experts (Experiment 1: Mean = 31.19, SD = 9.65; Experiment 2: Mean = 14.48, SD = 4.91) and Western experts (Experiment 1: Mean = 31.67, SD = 9.91; Experiment 2: Mean = 14.41, SD = 5.47) were not significantly different from each other (Experiment 1: t(40) =  − 0.16, p  = 0.87, 95% CI [− 6.57, 5.62]; Experiment 2: t(43) = 0.04, p  = 0.96, 95% CI [− 3.05, 3.19]).

Demographic variables

For both Experiments 1 and 2, and RQ1 and RQ2, our findings were similar even when accounting for the demographic variables of age and education. That is, even when age and level of education were included in the models as control variables, our findings were similar to those reported above. We do not report these analyses in the main manuscript as they were not a part of our preregistered analyses but provide these data online for researchers to pursue related questions of interest.

The aim of the current work was to evaluate the extent to which people show universal aesthetic preferences across fine and performing arts, and to examine the extent to which one’s cultural background and experience with an art form shape these preferences. Across two experiments analysed using mixed effects models, we investigated whether the nature of aesthetic preference and the role of expertise in aesthetic judgements generalises across artforms (paintings and dance) and cultures (Indian, Western). As hypothesized, we found a preference for representational art (only for paintings) and an ingroup bias (only for dance), both modulated by painting/dance expertise. In both cases, however, the modulation by expertise emerged only among Western participants, and both the preference for representational art and an ingroup bias for aesthetic judgement did not manifest across artforms (paintings and dance) in a similar manner. In the following sections, we evaluate and position our findings within a broader context, and discuss implications for the field of empirical aesthetics in particular, and psychology more generally.

The preference for representational art and its modulation by expertise

In Experiment 1, we found that participants belonging to either Indian or Western cultures prefer representational paintings more than abstract paintings. Representational paintings were assigned higher ratings of beauty and liking compared to abstract paintings, consistent with previous research reporting a preference for representational compared to abstract images and paintings 6 , 8 , 17 , 21 , 22 , 23 . Furthermore, art expertise modulated beauty and liking ratings for representational and abstract paintings in the current study. As hypothesized, and in accordance with previous work, beauty and liking rating differences between representational and abstract art were smaller among art experts compared to non-experts 17 , 24 , 25 , 26 . This modulation, however, was present only among our Western participant sample. While both Indian experts and non-experts showed higher ratings of beauty and liking for representational paintings compared to abstract paintings, the difference between ratings for representational and abstract paintings did not differ across Indian experts compared to non-experts. In other words, the preference for representational paintings was more attenuated for Western experts compared to Western art naïve participants, but this attenuation did not emerge among the expert Indian participants.

While we expected a similar pattern of results across Indian and Western participants, to the best of our knowledge, all prior research investigating the modulation of art expertise on aesthetic ratings of abstract and representational art has solely examined participants from Northern America or Western Europe. The modulation of art expertise could represent a lower preference for representational art by experts compared to non-experts, a higher preference for abstract art by experts compared to non-experts, or a combination of both. Figure  5 suggests that the interaction between category of the painting (representational or abstract) and the expertise of the participants (experts or non-experts) in Western compared to Indian participants might be driven by lower ratings of beauty and liking for representational paintings by Western experts (or higher ratings for representational paintings by Indian participants).

One possible explanation for the three-way interaction between culture, category, and expertise could therefore be the familiarity and representativeness of the paintings for Indian and Western participants. It is possible that Indian participants are more familiar with the representative content of both Indian and Western paintings to a greater extent because of their exposure to Western culture in mainstream media 7 . Further, Western art forms a major part of the syllabus for art education in India, whereas exposure to Indian art and culture may be more limited in Western art education 67 . Indian participants may consequently report higher ratings for representational paintings from both Indian and Western painters compared to Western participants if we assume that higher familiarity with a painting leads to higher aesthetic ratings. While this explanation seems unlikely as the three-way interaction of culture, category, and expertise holds even when accounting for the contribution of the familiarity of the painting to the spectator, it remains possible that the meaningfulness of the representative content differs for Indian and Western art experts. Another possible explanation is that Indian experts do not show a preference for abstract art to the same degree as Western participants. Indeed, Fig.  5 suggests that the difference between Indian expert and non-expert ratings of abstract paintings is lower compared to Western participants. A key point of consideration here is the abstract-representational categorisation of paintings, which is not perceived similarly across cultures. In contrast to the Euro-American idea that abstraction is purely a formal phenomenon (related to the form and composition of a painting), abstraction in Indian art is considered more of a rupture in a narrative or a form of symbolism 68 . Therefore, it is possible that Indian experts might have perceived all abstract paintings differently than Western expert participants. An additional point of consideration here is the personality dimension of openness to experience. Previous evidence suggests an association between openness to experience and a preference for abstract art as well as novelty in art 69 . It is possible that some of our between-culture differences can be explained by this personality construct i.e., Indian art experts may score lower on the dimension of openness to experience, and therefore show a smaller preference for abstract art compared to western art experts who score higher on this dimension. However, previous research provides mixed evidence for cross-cultural differences in openness to experience 70 , 71 . Similarly, socioeconomic status and social class have been known to influence aesthetic preferences 72 . An important avenue for future research would be to explore the link between preferences for abstract art and their link to individual differences such as social class, socioeconomic status, and the personality dimension of openness to experience across different cultures.

In contrast to the findings from Experiment 1, we did not find a preference for representational dance in Experiment 2. Instead, participants from both Indian and Western cultures rated abstract Indian and Western dance videos higher on ratings of beauty and liking compared to representational Indian and Western dance videos. This preference for abstract dance was not modulated by expertise or culture, except for a modulation of enjoyability ratings by culture. Specifically, western participants enjoyed abstract ballet more than representational ballet (but Indian participants did not show this preference). Replicating previous findings that suggest experts show higher aesthetic ratings for artworks (e.g., 25 , 72 ), we also found a main effect of dance expertise such that dance experts belonging to either Indian or Western culture reported overall higher ratings for the dance videos than dance naïve participants (c.f. 16 ). Indian participants showed higher overall ratings of beauty, liking, and enjoyability for all dance videos compared to Western participants.

While we preregistered an expectation for similar findings be across both paintings and dance, our results are perhaps not that surprising, given differences between the fine arts and performing arts. Researchers have argued that “all visual art must obey the laws of the visual system” 73 implying common neurobiological underpinnings of perceiving paintings and dance 74 . However, painting is a static form whereas dance is dynamic, although both can convey cultural and social stories and contexts, and have the potential to evoke aesthetic responses 75 . Further, representativeness these two art forms is conveyed differently. Figure  3 A,B suggest that both abstract and representational paintings and dance videos were rated as significantly different from each other on abstractness ratings. But representational paintings can be a realistic representation of the visual world, and dance may convey objects or characters in the outside world using symbols and gestures, making its abstractness or representativeness more ambiguous, especially for dance-naïve spectators. Indeed, in our study, the difference in abstractness ratings between abstract and representational art was higher in paintings than in dance, suggesting a more clear-cut categorisation between abstract and representational paintings compared to abstract and representational dance. At the centre of much debate, especially in the context of Western ballet and modern dance, has been the distinction between abstract and representational dance 76 , 77 , 78 . While existing in theory, its mutual exclusiveness in actual practice (or performance) is more difficult for viewers to discern. In other words, even in the most narrative, dramatic, and expressive sequence, the structure of the choreography is driven both by formal, abstract features as well as its narrative content. In the same vein, any abstract dance will still involve some communication, representation, or expression, also because it involves a human body in motion (and the perception of the human body in motion by the spectators 79 ).

The ingroup bias and its modulation by expertise

Contrary to previous research and our predictions, we found no evidence of an ingroup bias for paintings in Experiment 1. Participants did not assign higher ratings to paintings belonging to their own cultural background compared to those belonging to another cultural background. Instead, overall aesthetic ratings assigned by Indian participants were higher than those assigned by Western participants, and Indian paintings overall were rated higher on beauty and liking compared to Western paintings by both Indian and Western participants. Findings were similar when the source of painting was categorised by the participants themselves. However, Fig.  7 shows that while all participants rated Indian paintings higher on beauty and liking, the difference in ratings between Indian and Western paintings among Western participants reduced when participants themselves categorised the paintings as ‘Indian’ or ‘Western.’ This observation suggests an attenuation of the preference for Indian paintings among Western participants when cultural background is explicitly referenced (although it remains important to note that an interaction between culture and source of painting was not statistically significant). The current results overall point toward an absence of the ingroup bias when aesthetically evaluating paintings, both when participants were not explicitly aware that the paintings belonged to their cultural background, and when they identified the painting as belonging to their own cultures.

Our results contradict previous (albeit limited) research that suggests people prefer artworks belonging to their own culture or country 6 , 43 , 80 . Indian paintings used in the current study were more contemporary than Western paintings. Therefore, it is possible that more recent paintings were perhaps more relatable and therefore showed higher ratings of beauty and liking. However, all paintings were matched on mean luminance, and the absence of ingroup bias persisted even when controlling for other subjective variables such as familiarity, evocativeness, complexity, and technical competency, and accounted for within-participant and within-item variance in our mixed effects models. While it is unlikely that an absence of an ingroup bias, and higher overall ratings for Indian paintings compared to Western paintings by both Indian and Western participants, were due to differences between Indian and Western paintings on luminance or subjective variables, it remains possible that other low-level features such as contrast, symmetry, and so on may explain differences between Indian and Western paintings.

We further speculate that Indian participants assigned overall higher ratings because they have more experience with both Indian and Western paintings (compared to Western participants for whom the content and style of the Indian paintings is relatively less familiar; 67 ). It is however also possible that overall higher ratings for Indian paintings by both Indian and Western participants can also be a result of more openness toward Indian culture by Western participants. Given the growing multicultural natures of western societies, it is plausible that Western cultures in general are more open or exposed to non-western cultures 81 . Another possible explanation is the “uncertainty-identity” hypothesis proposed by Mastandrea and colleagues 80 . In their recent study, Mastandrea and colleagues propose that national identity may be used to a greater extent as a heuristic to evaluate art when there is uncertainty about oneself. That is, when participants are less experienced or less familiar with art but still need to form an artistic opinion, they resort to group identification to resolve their uncertainty. In the current work, it is possible that participants in the first experiment (both experts and non-experts) were more familiar and experienced with art (and therefore had more information to form their evaluation) compared to participants in previous research that show an ingroup bias in art evaluation. Moreover, eastern artworks are also often considered more “exotic”, a symbol of splendour and opulence, compared to their western counterparts 82 . This could in part explain the bias toward Indian paintings in general found in the current work. Overall, however, the absence of an ingroup bias in Experiment 1 suggests that individuals share aesthetic preferences and experiences when evaluating artworks belonging to different cultures, and are not reliably biased by ingroup favouritism when viewing paintings.

In contrast to findings from Experiment 1, but in line with our hypotheses, in Experiment 2, we found an ingroup bias such that Indian participants preferred Bharatanatyam more than classical ballet, while Western participants preferred ballet over Bharatanatyam. This ingroup bias was modulated by dance expertise. Consistent with our preregistered hypotheses, non-experts showed an ingroup bias in the predicted direction (ingroup favouritism), while this bias was absent among expert participants. This modulation by expertise, however, was only present among our Western participant sample, and did not emerge among the Indian participants. The modulation of expertise in Experiment 2 may be explained by the uncertainty-identity hypothesis where national or cultural identity may be used as a heuristic to evaluate art when one is uncertain about one’s opinions due to a lack of experience or familiarity. Therefore, experts do not show an ingroup bias as they do not need to use an additional heuristic to base their evaluations on, whereas non-experts identify with a group and show ingroup favouritism to resolve their uncertainty 80 .

Similar to the first research question, while we expected the modulation of expertise to manifest similarly across cultures, we only found expertise modulation among our Western participant sample. In order words, both dance naïve and dance expert participants among our Indian participant sample preferred Bharatanatyam to ballet. No difference emerged in the ingroup bias between the two expertise groups. If we assume that non-experts identify with a group and show ingroup favouritism to resolve their identity, a lack of modulation by expertise in our Indian participants suggests that our Indian experts may continue to use an identity heuristic to evaluate artworks, and therefore prefer Bharatanatyam over ballet. Whether this is because of more experience in Bharatanatyam and/or lower experience with ballet is a question for future research. Another possible but less likely explanation for the discrepancy between cultures relates to the dancer featured in the stimuli we created for the current study. Our dancer (who is trained in both Bharatanatyam and ballet dance styles) wore Indian clothing (a kurta and leggings) but is of western origin. It is possible that even at this very subtle level, ingroup judgement by participants of Indian or Western origin might have been reinforced to different degrees. Future research should investigate this possibility with multiple dancers.

An important point of consideration is the multi-dimensional nature of aesthetic ratings. For instance, how “beauty” is defined may differ between cultures, and liking something because one feels a sense of national/cultural identity may be different to liking something that feels exotic. That is, even with similar Likert ratings for liking, the aesthetic experience of Indians when liking an Indian painting might be different to the aesthetic experience of Western participants when liking an Indian painting. A considerable but important challenge for future investigations into multicultural aesthetic experiences will be to tease apart different kinds of aesthetic experiences by using indicators that overcome limitations of the Likert-type scales used in the current work.

The modulation of the ingroup bias by dance expertise has important implications for the field of social psychology more generally. As we become increasingly more aware of ingroup biases and prejudices, attempts are being made to counter them. This is especially the case in professional settings and areas where such biases may lead to overt discrimination and poor outcomes in healthcare, law enforcement, education and additional contexts (see 83 for a review). The modulation by dance expertise of an ingroup bias that we report here highlights the importance of knowledge-based and educational interventions, training, and exposure to different art styles (or cultures, languages, or practices) to help reduce biases against the less familiar. One exciting avenue for future research could be to investigate whether expertise in arts (or training in arts knowledge, or exposure to art) transfers to other domains and leads to a reduction of ingroup biases in non-art contexts. Given that the arts create a snapshot about a culture and society in a particular point in time, place, and context, multicultural art education holds great potential to reduce stigmatisation of other cultures, groups, positions and worldviews, a position advocated by researchers in previous work on art education (e.g., 84 ), and further supported by the current findings.

It is further important to note that no significant difference between Indian and Western participants emerged among the scores on the painting/dance experience questionnaires across both experiments. Thus, a lack of modulation by expertise in both Experiments 1 and 2 in the Indian context cannot be explained by a difference in expertise between the two cultures.

More than a decade ago, in a seminal paper titled “The Weirdest People in the World?”, Heinrich and colleagues highlighted the variability in populations across the world in major domains that are associated with fundamental aspects of motivation, behaviour, and psychology 85 . Samples drawn from Northern America and Western Europe (which is the case for most previous research in empirical aesthetics) are hardly reflective of the entire population and cannot be used to justify that a behavioural phenomenon is universal. The current cross-cultural investigation thus begins to illuminate which features and aspects of aesthetic experience endure across culture (in this case, primarily Western European and Indian cultures). Across these two cultures, we found a preference for representational fine arts and abstract performing arts. We also found that ingroup biases emerged between cultures when evaluating the performing arts but not the fine arts. Both the preference for representational fine art and an ingroup bias for dance were modulated by prior relevant artistic expertise only for Western participants. Thus, the evidence reported here highlights that both cultural specifics and anthropological universals of human art creation and appreciation exist, and are aesthetically relevant across the fine and performing arts, as well as Indian and Western cultures. In an increasingly divided and fractured world where many seek to fortify boundaries based on culture, race, and country, our results point to the potential of art and art experience as a unique equaliser that can bind people together.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Social Robots team and the Social Brain in Action Lab for helpful discussions throughout this project and gratefully acknowledge funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement number 677270 to E. S. C.), and the Leverhulme Trust (PLP-2018-152 to E. S. C). We also thank Bharatanatyam and ballet dancer Sophia Salingaros for help with stimuli creation for this project.

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Article contents

Arts-based research.

• Janinka Greenwood Janinka Greenwood University of Canterbury
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.29
• Published online: 25 February 2019

Arts-based research encompasses a range of research approaches and strategies that utilize one or more of the arts in investigation. Such approaches have evolved from understandings that life and experiences of the world are multifaceted, and that art offers ways of knowing the world that involve sensory perceptions and emotion as well as intellectual responses. Researchers have used arts for various stages of research. It may be to collect or create data, to interpret or analyze it, to present their findings, or some combination of these. Sometimes arts-based research is used to investigate art making or teaching in or through the arts. Sometimes it is used to explore issues in the wider social sciences. The field is a constantly evolving one, and researchers have evolved diverse ways of using the communicative and interpretative tools that processes with the arts allow. These include ways to initially bypass the need for verbal expression, to explore problems in physically embodied as well as discursive ways, to capture and express ambiguities, liminalities, and complexities, to collaborate in the refining of ideas, to transform audience perceptions, and to create surprise and engage audiences emotionally as well as critically. A common feature within the wide range of approaches is that they involve aesthetic responses.

The richness of the opportunities created by the use of arts in conducting and/or reporting research brings accompanying challenges. Among these are the political as well as the epistemological expectations placed on research, the need for audiences of research, and perhaps participants in research, to evolve ways of critically assessing the affect of as well as the information in presentations, the need to develop relevant and useful strategies for peer review of the research as well as the art, and the need to evolve ethical awareness that is consistent with the intentions and power of the arts.

• multisensory
• performance

Introduction

The term arts-based research is an umbrella term that covers an eclectic array of methodological and epistemological approaches. The key elements that unify this diverse body of work are: it is research; and one or more art forms or processes are involved in the doing of the research. How art is involved varies enormously. It has been used as one of several tools to elicit information (Cremin, Mason, & Busher, 2011 ; Gauntlett, 2007 ; Wang & Burns, 1997 ) and for the analysis of data (Boal, 1979 ; Gallagher, 2014 ; Neilson, 2008 ), and so it serves as an enrichment to the palette of tools used in qualitative research. It has been used in the presentation of findings (Bagley & Cancienne, 2002 ; Conrad, 2012 ; Gray & Sinding, 2002 ) and so occupies a space that could be responded to and evaluated as both art and research. It has been used to investigate art and the process of art-making. The emergence of the concept and practice of a/r/tography (Belliveau, 2015 ; Irwin, 2013 ; Springgay, Irwin, & Kind, 2005 ), for example, places art-making and its textual interpretation in a dynamic relationship of inquiry into the purpose, process, and meaning of the making of an artwork.

The field is multifaceted and elusive of definition and encompassing explanation. This article does not attempt such definitions. But it does risk describing some well-trodden pathways through the field and posing some questions. Illustrative examples are offered from the author’s work, as well as citing of works by other researchers who use arts-based approaches.

My own explorations of arts-based research began many years ago, before the term came into usage. I was commissioned to develop a touring play for a New Zealand youth theater, and I chose to write a docudrama, Broadwood: Na wai te reo? (Greenwood, 1995 ). The play reported the case of a remote, rural, and predominantly Maori school that made Maori language a compulsory subject in its curriculum. The parents of one boy argued against the decision, claiming the language held no use for their son. The dispute was aired on national television and was debated in parliament. The minister agreed that the local school board had the right to make the decision after consultation with parents and community. The dispute ended with the boy being given permission to do extra math assignments in the library during Maori language classes. To develop the script, I interviewed all the local participants in the case and sincerely sought to capture the integrity of their views in my dialogue. I accessed the minister of education’s comments through public documents and media and reserved the right to occasionally satirize them. Just a week or two before final production, the family’s lawyer officially asked for a copy of the script. To my relief, it was returned with the comment that the family felt I had captured their views quite accurately. The youth theater was invited to hold its final rehearsal on the local marae (a traditional tribal Maori ground that holds a meeting house and hosts significant community occasions), and a local elder offered the use of an ancestral whalebone weapon in the opening performance, instead of the wooden one made for the production. The opening performance took place in the school itself, and the boy, together with his parents and family friends, sat in the audience together with hundreds of community people. The play had an interactive section where the audience was asked to vote in response to a survey the school had originally sent out to its community. The majority of the audience voted for Maori language to be part of the mandatory curriculum. The boy and his family voted equally emphatically for it not to be. The play then toured in New Zealand and was taken to a festival in Australia.

At the time I saw the work purely in terms of theater—albeit with a strongly critical social function. Looking back, I now see it was a performative case study. I had carefully researched the context and respectfully interviewed participants after gaining their informed consent. The participants had all endorsed my reporting of the data. The findings were disseminated and subject to popular as well as peer review. The performances added an extra dimension to the research: they actively invited audience consideration and debate.

This article discusses the epistemology that underlies arts-based approaches to research, reviews the purposes and value of research that involves the arts, identifies different stages and ways that art may be utilized, and addresses questions that are debated in the field. It does not seek to disentangle all the threads within this approach to research or to review all key theorizations and possibilities in the field. The arena of arts-based research is a diverse and rapidly expanding one, and it is only possible within this discussion to identify some of the common underlying characteristics and potentialities and to offer selected examples. Because this discussion is shaped within an essay format, rather than through a visual or performative collage, there is the risk of marking a limited number of pathways and of making assertions. At the same time, I acknowledge that the discussion might have alternatively been conducted through arts-based media, which might better reflect some of the liminalities and interweaving layers of art-based processes (see further, Greenwood, 2016 ).

The term art itself compasses a wide and diverse spectrum of products and process. This article focuses particularly on dramatic and visual art, while acknowledging that the use of other art forms, such as poetry, fiction, dance, film, and fabric work, have been variously used in processes of investigation. The word art is used to indicate the wider spectrum of art activities and to refer to more specific forms and processes by their disciplines and conventions.

Why Use Art?

One of the main reasons for the growth of arts-based approaches to research is recognition that life experiences are multi-sensory, multifaceted, and related in complex ways to time, space, ideologies, and relationships with others. Traditional approaches to research have been seen by increasing numbers of researchers as predominantly privileging cerebral, verbal, and linearly temporal approaches to knowledge and experience. The use of art in research is one of many shifts in the search for truthful means of investigation and representation. These include, among others, movements toward various forms of narratives (Riessman, 2008 ), recognition of indigenous knowledges, and indigenous ways of sharing and using knowledge (Bharucha, 1993 ; Smith, 2014 ), auto-ethnographies (Ellis, 2004 ), conceptualizations of wicked questions (Rittel & Webber, 1973 ), processes of troubling (Gardiner, 2015 ), and queering (Halperin, 2003 ). Preissle ( 2011 ) writes about the “qualitative tapestry” (p. 689) and identifies historic and contemporary threads of epistemological challenges, methods, and purposes, pointing out the ever-increasing diversity in the field. Denzin and Lincoln ( 2011 ) describe qualitative research as a site of multiple interpretative practices and, citing St. Pierre’s ( 2004 ) argument that we are in a post “post” period, assert that “we are in a new age where messy, uncertain multi-voiced texts, cultural criticism, and new experimental works will become more common, as will more reflexive forms of fieldwork, analysis and intertextual representation” (p. 15). Springgay, Irwin, and Kind ( 2005 ) assert that a/r/tography is not a new branch of qualitative research but a methodology in its own right, and that it conceptualizes inquiry as an embodied encounter through visual and textual experiences. The use of art in research is a succession of approaches to develop methodology that is meaningful and useful.

Art, product, and process allow and even invite art-makers to explore and play with knowing and meaning in ways that are more visceral and interactive than the intellectual and verbal ways that have tended to predominate in Western discourses of knowledge. It invites art viewers to interact with representations in ways that involve their senses, emotions, and ideas. Eisner ( 1998 , 2002 ) makes a number of significant assertions about the relationship between form and knowledge that emphasize the importance of art processes in offering expanded understandings of “what it means to know” (Eisner, 1998 , p. 1). He states: “There are multiple ways in which the world can be known: Artists, writers, and dancers, as well as scientists, have important thongs to tell about the world” (p. 7). Like other constructivists (Bruner, 1990 ; Guba, 1996 ), he further argues that because human knowledge is a constructed form of experience, it is a reflection of mind as well as nature, that knowledge is made, not simply discovered. He then reasons that “the forms through which humans represent their conception of the world have a major influence on what they are able to say about it” (p. 6), and, making particular reference to education, he states that whichever particular forms of representation become acceptable “is as much a political matter as an epistemological one” (p. 7). Eisner’s arguments to extend conceptualizations of knowledge within the field of education have been echoed in the practices of art-based researchers.

Artists themselves understand through their practice that art is way of coming to know the world and of presenting that knowing, emergent and shifting though it may be, to others. Sometimes the process of coming to know takes the form of social analysis. In Guernica , as a well-known example, Picasso scrutinizes and crystallizes the brutal betrayals and waste of war. In Caucasian Chalk Circle , Brecht fractures and strips bare ideas of justice, loyalty, and ownership. Their respective visual and dramatic montages speak in ways that are different from and arguably more potent than discursive descriptions.

In many indigenous cultures, art forms are primary ways of processing and recording communally significant information and signifying relationships. For New Zealand Māori, the meeting house, with its visual images, poetry, song, oratory, and rituals, is the repository library of mythic and genealogical history and of the accumulated legacies of meetings, contested positions, and nuanced consensual decisions. Art within Māori and other indigenous culture is not an illustrative addition to knowledge systems, it is an integral means of meaning making and recording.

One of the characteristics of arts and arts-based research projects is that they engage with aesthetic understandings as well as with discursive explanations. The aesthetic is a contested term (Greenwood, 2011 ; Hamera, 2011 ). However, it is used here to describe the engagement of senses and emotion as well as intellectual processes, and the consequent collation of semiotics and significances that are embedded in cultural awareness and are variously used by art makers and art viewers to respond to works of art. An aesthetic response thus is a visceral as well as rational one. It may be comfortable with ambiguities, and it may elude verbalization.

The processes of art-making demand a commitment to a continuous refinement of skills and awareness. Art-viewers arguably also gain more from an artwork as they acquire the skills and literacies involved with that particular art form and as they gain confidence to engage with the aesthetic. However, viewers may apprehend meaning without mastery of all the relevant literacies. I recall an experience of watching flamenco in El Puerto de Santa Maria, a township outside Cadiz. My senses drank in the white stone of former monastery walls and the darkening sky over an open inner courtyard. My muscles and emotions responded spontaneously to the urgency of the guitar and the beaten rhythms on a packing case drum. My nerves tensed as the singer’s voice cut through the air. The two dancers, both older and dressed in seemingly causal fawn and grey, riveted my attention. I was a stranger to the art form, and I did not know the language of the dance and could not recognize its phases or its allusions. I did feel the visceral tug of emotion across space. My heart and soul responded to something urgent, strangely oppressive, but indefinable that might have an apprehension of what those who understand flamenco call duende . If I was more literate in the art form, I would no doubt have understood a lot more, but the art, performed by those who did know and had mastered its intricacies, communicated an experience of their world to me despite my lack of training. In that evening, I learned more about the experience of life in southern Spain than I had in my earlier pursuit of library books and websites.

Art, thus, is positioned as a powerful tool that calls for ever-refining expertise in its making, but that can communicate, at differing levels, even with those who do not have that expertise. Researchers who use art draw on its rich, and sometimes complex and elusive, epistemological bases to explore and represent aspects of the world. The researchers may themselves be artists; at the least, they need to know enough of an art form to be aware of its potential and how to manipulate it. In some cases intended participants and audiences may also be artists, but often they are not. It is the researcher who creates a framework in which participants join in the art or in which audiences receive it.

Art, Research Purpose, and Research Validity

So far, the argument for the value of art as a way of knowing is multifarious, embodied, and tolerant of ambivalences and ambiguities. Where then are the rigors that are widely held as essential for research? It can be argued that arts-based research, to be considered as research, needs to have explicit research purpose and needs to subject itself to peer critique.

As has been widely noted (Eisner, 1998 ; Leavy, 2017 ; Sullivan, 2010 ), the making of art involves some investigation, both into the process of making and into some aspect of the experiential world. In research, that purpose needs to be overt and explicit. When the purpose is identified, then the choice of methods can be open to critical scrutiny and evaluation. The design of an arts-based research project is shaped, at its core, by similar considerations as other research.

Arts-based research needs to be explicit about what is being investigated. If the objective is not clear, then the result may still be art, but it is hard to call it research. Purpose determines which of the vast array of art strategies and processes will be selected as the research methods. The trustworthiness of any research depends on a number of factors: at the design stage, it depends on a clear alignment between the purpose of the research and the methods selected to carry out the investigation. In arts-based research, as in other research, it is vital that the researcher identifies the relationship between purpose and selected art tools, and offers recipients of the research clear means to evaluate and critique the reliability and usefulness of the answers that come from the research. This is where choices about strategies need to be clearly identified and explained, and both the aims and boundaries of the investigation need to be identified.

This does not imply need for a rigid and static design. Art is an evolving process, and the research design can well be an evolving one, as is the case with participatory action research (Bryndon-Miller, Karl, Maguire, Noffke, & Sabhlok, 2011 ), bricolage (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011 ), and a number of other research approaches. However, the strategic stages and choices of the emergent design donot need to be identified and explained. Nor does it imply that all data or findings need to be fully explicable verbally. One of the reasons for choosing arts-based methods, although not the only one, is to allow the operation of aesthetic and subconscious understandings as well as conscious and verbalized ones. That is part of the epistemological justification for choosing an arts-based approach. The ambivalences and pregnant possibilities that result may be considered valued gains from the choice of research tools, and their presence simply needs to be identified, together with explication of the boundaries of how such ambivalence and possibilities relate to the research question.

Different Kinds of Purpose

The sections of this article examine common and different areas of purpose for which arts-based research is frequently used, arranging them into three clusters and discussing some of the possibilities within each one.

The first, and perhaps largest, cluster of purposes for using arts-based research is to investigate some social (in the broadest sense of the word) issue. Such issues might, for example, include woman’s rights, school absenteeism, gang membership, cross-cultural encounters, classroom relationships, experiences of particular programs, problems in language acquisition. The methodological choices involved in this group of purposes have been repeatedly addressed (e.g., Boal, 1979 ; O’Brien & Donelan, 2008 ; Finley, 2005 ; Leavy, 2017 ; Prosser, 2011 ; Wang & Burns, 1997 ) in discussions of the use of arts-based approaches to the social sciences. The intention for using arts-based tools is to open up different, and hopefully more empowering, options for exploring the specific problem or issue, and for expressing participants’ perspectives in ways that can bypass participants’ discomfort with words or unconscious compliance with dominant discourses, or perhaps to present findings in ways that better reveal their dynamics and complexity than written reports.

Another smaller, but important, cluster of purposes is to research art-making processes or completed art works. For example, a theater director (Smithner, 2010 ) investigates the critical decisions she made in selecting and weaving together separate performance works into a theatrical collage. Or, a researcher (O’Donoghue, 2011 ) investigates how a conceptual artist working with film and video enquires into social, political, and cultural issues and how he shapes his work to provoke viewers to develop specific understandings. These kinds of studies explore the how and why of art-making, focusing on the makers’ intentions, their manipulation of the elements and affordances of their specific art field, and often engage with aesthetic as well as sociocultural dimensions of analysis. Often such studies are presented as narratives or analytic essays, and it is the subject matter of the research that constitutes the arts basis. Sometimes, such studies find expression in new artworks, as is the case in Merita Mita’s film made about the work of painter Ralph Hotere (Mita, 2001 ), which interlays critical analyses, documentation of process, interviews, and pulsating images of the artworks.

The third cluster involves research about teaching, therapy, or community development through one or more of the arts. Here arts are primarily the media of teaching and learning. For example, when drama is the teaching medium, the teacher may facilitate the class by taking a fictional role within the narrative that provokes students to plan, argue, or take action. Students may be prompted to use roles, create improvisations, explore body representations of ideas or conflicts, and explore contentious problems in safely fictitious contexts. Because it examines both work within an art form and changes in learners’ or community members’ understandings of other issues, this cluster overlaps somewhat with the two previous clusters. However, it is also building a body of its own traditions.

One strong tradition is the documentation of process. For example, Burton, Lepp, Morrison, and O’Toole ( 2015 ) report two decades of projects, including Dracon and Cooling Conflict , which have used drama strategies as well as formal theoretical teaching to address conflict and bullying. They have documented the specific strategies used, discussed their theoretical bases, and acknowledged the evidence on which they base their claims about effectiveness of the strategies in building understanding about and reducing bullying. The strategies used involved use of role and improvisation and what the authors call an enhanced form of Boal’s Forum Theatre. Other examples include the Risky Business Project (O’Brien & Donelan, 2008 ), a series of programs involving marginalized youth in dance, drama, music, theater performance, stand-up comedy, circus, puppetry, photography, visual arts, and creative writing; explorations of cross-cultural understandings through drama processes (Greenwood, 2005 ); the teaching of English as a second language in Malaysia through teacher-in-role and other drama processes (Mohd Nawi, 2014 ); working with traditional arts to break down culturally bound ways of seeing the world (Stanley, 2014 ); and the training of a theater-for-development team to use improvisational strategies to address community problems (Okagbue, 2002 ). While the strategies are arts processes and the analysis of their effect addresses aesthetic dimensions of arts as well as cognitive and behavioral ones, the reporting of these projects is primarily within the more traditional verbal and discursive forms of qualitative research.

Sometimes the reporting takes a more dramatic turn. Mullens and Wills ( 2016 ) report and critically analyze Re-storying Disability Through the Arts , an event that sought to create space for dialogue between students, researchers, artists, educators, and practitioners with different involvements or interests in disability arts. They begin their report by re-creating a scene within the workshop that captures some of the tensions evoked, and follow this with a critical commentary on three community-based art practices that engage in a strategy of re-storying disability. They present arts as means to “counter powerful cultural narratives that regulate the lives and bodies of disabled people” (Mullens & Wills, 2016 , p. 5). Barrett ( 2014 ) reports a project, informed by an a/r/tography methodology, which utilized the classroom teaching of the prescribed arts curriculum to allow students to explore evolving understandings of identity and community. Montages of photographs are a central component in the report, as is a series of images that illustrate Barrett’s reflections on her own role within the investigation.

Using Art to Research Social Issues: Collecting Data

Within a social science research project, art processes might be used to collect data, to carry out analysis and interpretation, or to present findings. Perhaps the most common use is to collect data. The process of photovoice (Wang & Burns, 1997 ), for example, gives participants cameras and asks them to capture images that they consider as significant elements of the topic being investigated. Graffiti might be used to prompt absentee students to discuss their perceptions of schooling. Body sculptures, freeze frames, and hot seating are examples of drama strategies that could be used to facilitate reflection and debate about cross-cultural encounters, feelings about hospitalization, experiences of domestic violence, or an array of other topics.

In each case the art produced becomes the basis for further discussion. This process is quite different from historical concepts of art therapy, where the therapist would give expert insight into what a patient’s artwork means; here it is the participants who give the explanation, perhaps independently or perhaps through dialogue with other participants and the researcher. The embodied experience of construction provides a platform and a challenge to talking in ways that are more thoughtful and more honest than through a conventionally structured verbal interview. The talk after making is important, but the art products are not merely precursors to verbal data, they are concrete points of references to which both participants and researchers can refer and can use to prompt further introspection or deconstruction. The process of making, moreover, is one that allows time for reflection and self-editing along the way and so may yield more truthful and complex answers than those that might be given instantly in an interview. Participants who are second language speakers or who lack the vocabulary or theoretical constructs to express complex feelings, reactions, or beliefs can be enabled to use physicalization to create a bridge between what they know or feel wordlessly inside them and an external expression that can be read by others.

The art tools available for such data gathering are as varied as the tools used by artists for making art. They might include drawing, collage, painting, sculpting materials or bodies, singing, orchestration, Lego construction, movement improvisation, creation of texts, photography, graffiti, role creation, and/or spatial positioning.

Art Processes as Tools for Analysis

Art processes can also be used to analyze and interpret data. Within qualitative paradigms, the processes of collecting and interpretation of data often overlap. This is also true of arts-based research. For instance, Greenwood ( 2012 ) reported on a group of experienced Bangladeshi educators who came to New Zealand to complete their Masters. While they were proficient in English, they found colloquial language challenging, struggling often to find words with the right social or emotional connotations at the speed of conversation. In previous discussions, they often looked to each other for translation. A teaching workshop, held as an illustration of arts-based research, addressed the research question: what have been your experiences as international students? A small repertoire of drama strategies, particularly freeze frames with techniques for deconstructing and refining initial offers, short animations, and narrative sequencing were used. These prompted participants to recall and show personal experiences, to critically view and interpret one another’s representations, and to further refine their images to clarify their intended meaning. The participants flung themselves into the challenge with alacrity and flamboyance and created images of eagerness, hope, new relationships, frustration, failed communication, anger, dejection, unexpected learning, and achievement. They also actively articulated ideas as we deconstructed the images and, through debate, co-constructed interpretations of what was being shown in the work and what it meant in terms of their experience, individual and shared, of overseas study. The interweaving of making, reflection, discussion, and further refinement is intrinsic to process drama; as a research method, it affords a means of interweaving data collection and collaborative analysis. In this case the participants also debated aspects of the validity of the process as research, raising questions about subjectivity in interpretation, about the nature of crystallization (Richardson, 1994 ), about informed consent, and about co-construction of narratives. Analysis shifted from being the task of an outsider researcher to one carried out, incrementally and experimentally, by insider participants. While the researcher held the initial power to focus the work, participants’ physical entry into the work, and their interrogation of the images that were created constituted a choice of how much they would share and contribute, and so they became active and sometimes playful partners in the research. This approach to analysis shares many features with participatory action research (Brydon-Miller et al., 2011 ), both in eliciting the agency of participants and in evolving a process of analysis that is interwoven with the gathering of data from preceding action and with the planning of further investigative cycles of action.

The work of Boal is perhaps one of the best known examples of the use of an art process, in this case theater, as a means of analysis of data. Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed ( 1979 ) details a series of strategies for deconstruction and collaborative analysis. For example, in the process he calls image theatre , participants select a local oppressive problem that they seek to resolve. They create and discuss images that exemplify experience of the problem and their idealized solutions (the data); they then analyze their images to find where power resides and how it is supported. Boal’s theater process calls for experimentation with further images that explore scenarios where power could become shared to some extent and could allow further action by those who experience the oppression. The process finishes with consequential explorations of the first step to be taken by participants as a means to work toward an equilibrium of power. Boal, as the title of his book, Theatre of the Oppressed , acknowledges, draws on the work of his Braziailan compatriot, Freire, and particularly on his concept of conscientization (Freire, 1970 , 1972 ). Boal’s process for analyzing experiences of oppression is not so much a direct action plan as a means of analyzing the mechanisms of specific conditions of oppression and the potential, however limited, for agency to resolve the oppression. The sequenced strategies of creating and discussing alternative images of oppression, power relationships, and action enable participants to deconstruct the socio-cultural reality that shapes their lives and to gain awareness of their capacity to transform it.

Art as a Means to Present Findings

There is a large and growing body of research that presents findings in arts forms. A few examples are briefly discussed.

After collecting data, through interviews and official communications from participants in a case where a district school was being threatened with closure, Owen ( 2009 ) commissioned a composer to write a score for sections of his transcripts and create a community opera. He expressed the hope that this would “transform their tiny stories into noisy histories” (p. 3). Part of the data was sung at a conference I attended. I was struck by the shift in power. What I might have regarded as dull data in a PowerPoint presentation now became a compelling articulation of experiences and aspirations and a dynamic debate between personal lives and authoritarian policy.

The AIDS Memorial Quilt project (Morris, 2011 ; Yardlie & Langley, 1995 ) is frequently described as the world’s greatest piece of community folk art. A claim can be made that, while each panel in the quilt is a product of folk art, the collation of the quilt in its enormity is a work of conceptual art that juxtaposes the fragility and isolation of individual loss with the overwhelming global impact of the AIDS epidemic. The quilt can also be seen as research that visually quantifies the death toll through AIDS in Western world communities and that qualitatively investigates the life stories and values of those who died through the perceptions of those who loved them.

A number of museums throughout the world present visual and kinaesthetic accounts of social and historical research. Well-known examples are the Migration Museum in Melbourne, the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, and the Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism in Munich. A less securely established exhibition is that of images of the Australian Aboriginal Stolen Generation that was collected by the Dumbartung Aboriginal Corporation to educate community and schoolchildren, “but only had the funding to showcase the exhibit for one night” (Diss, 2017 ). These and many other exhibitions create visual and experiential environments where the data of history can be not only seen and read but also felt.

In a similar way to how these exhibitions use actual archival photographs, theater may use the exact words of interviews to re-tell real stories. In making Verbatim , Brandt and Harcourt ( 1994 ) collated the words from 30 interviews with convicted murderers, their families, and the families of murder victims. “We went into the prisons to find out what the story was that we were going to tell, and that was the story that emerged from the material we collected,” Harcourt explained (White, 2013 ). “Not only the content, but also the form emerged from that context. We didn’t go in having decided we were going to make a solo show. Form emerged from the experience of the prison system.”

A frequently used form is that of ethnodrama (Mienczakowski, 1995 ; Saldaña, 2008 ). Ethnodrama presents data in a theatrical form: using stage, role, and sometimes lighting and music. Saldaña ( 2008 ) explains that ethnodrama maintains “close allegiance to the lived experiences of real people while presenting their voices through an artistic medium” (p. 3) and argues that the goals are not only aesthetic, they also possess emancipatory potential for motivating social change within participants and audiences.

Sometimes the ethnographic material is further manipulated in the presentation process. Conrad ( 2012 ) describes her research into the Native program at the Alberta youth corrections center in play form as “an ethnographic re-presentation of the research—a creative expression of the research findings” (p. xii). Her play jumps through time, creating fragments of action, and is interspersed by video scenes that provide alternative endings that could result from choices made by the characters. Conrad explains her choice of medium: “Performance has the potential to reach audiences in ways beyond intellectual understanding, through engaging other ways of knowing that are empathetic, emotional, experiential, and embodied, with the potential for radically re-envisioning social relations” (p. xiii).

Belliveau ( 2015 ) created a performative research about his work in teaching Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing in an elementary school. He interwove excerpts of students’ performances from the Shakespearean text with excerpts of their discussions about the issues of power, pride, love, and other themes in a new performance work that illustrated as well as explained primary students’ response to Shakespeare. He later presented a keynote at the IDEA (International Drama in Education Association) conference in Paris where he performed his discussion of this and other work with young students. Similarly, Lutton’s ( 2016 ) doctoral research explored the work and challenges of selected international drama educators using imagination and role play. In her final performance of her research, she took the role of an archivist’s assistant at a fictitious Museum of Educational Drama and Applied Theatre to provide “an opportunity for drama practitioners to use their skills and knowledge of drama pedagogy to tell their own stories” (Lutton, p. 36). She states that her choice of research tool embraces theatricality, enabling the embodiment of participants’ stories, the incorporation of critical reflection and of aesthetic knowledge (p. 36).

The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black Black Oil , developed by John McGrath and the 7:84 Theatre Company, recounts the history of economic exploitation of the Scottish people, from the evictions that followed the clearances for the farming of Cheviot sheep, through the development of Highland stag hunts, to the capitalist domination of resources in the 1970s oil boom. Within a traditional ceilidh form it tells stories, presents arguments, and uses caricature, satire, and parody. The play is the result of research and of critical analysis of movements of power and economic interests. It is also a very effective instrument of political persuasion: McGrath gives the dispossessed crofters a language that tugs at our empathy whereas that of the landlords provokes our antagonism. Is this polemics or simple historic truth? Does the dramatic impact of the play unreasonably capture our intellects? And if the facts that are presented are validated by other accounts of history does it matter if it does? What is, what should be, what can be the relationship between research and the evocation, even manipulation of emotions?

Emotion—and Its Power

In as much as arts offer different ways of knowing the world, their use at various stages of research has the power to influence both what we come to know and how we know it. Art tools, strategically used, allow access to emotions and visceral responses as well as to conscious ideas. That makes them powerful for eliciting information. It also makes them powerful in influencing audiences.

The photos of the brutality of the police and of the steadfastness of the activists in the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg are examples of powerfully influencing as well as informing data. As well as the events that are recorded, the faces and the bodies speak through the photos. Their exhibition in blown-up size at eye level together with film footage and artifacts create a compellingly powerful response in viewers. Like many others, I came out of the museum emotionally drained and confirmed, even strengthened, in my ideological beliefs. The power of the exhibition had first sharpened and then consolidated my understandings. Was this because of the power of the facts presented in the exhibition, or was it because of the power of their presentation ? Or was it both? When the issue presented is one like apartheid, I am not afraid of having my awareness influenced in multiple ways: I believe I already have an evidence-informed position on the subject. I also applaud the power of the exhibition to inform and convince those who might not yet have reached a position. But what if the issue was a different one? Perhaps one which I was more uncertain about? Might it then seem that the emotional power of the exhibition gave undue weight to the evidence?

The issue here is not a simple one. The presentation is not only the reporting of findings: it is also art. The researcher (in the artist) stays true to the data; the artist (in the researcher) arranges data for effect and affect. Conrad explicitly states her hope that her choice of presentation mode will add impact to her research findings: she wants the presentation of her research about youth in detention centers to engender more empathetic understandings of their experiences and lead, in turn, to more constructive attitudes toward their needs. By putting their words to music, Owen wants his audience to listen more attentively to opinions of the stakeholders in the schools threatened with closure. McGrath wants his audience to side with those dispossessed by the combined power of capital and law. The Dumbartung Aboriginal Corporation plans to emotionally move as well as to inform its community. In writing Broadwood , I meticulously presented both sides of the dispute, I deliberately placed music and metaphor at the service of Maori language, and I deliberately used the spatial suggestiveness of the stage to evoke possibilities in the ending. The boy is alone in the library while his classmates are on the marae listening to an elder explain the history of their meetinghouse. The elder gives them an ancient whalebone weapon to hold, the students pass it among themselves, then hold it out across space to the boy. The boy stands, takes half a cautious step toward them and then stops; the lights go down. I intended the audience to complete the action in their subconscious.

In each of these cases, the art form of the presentation allows the artist/researcher to manipulate affect as well as critical cognition. To my mind, this is not simply another iteration of the argument between subjectivity and objectivity in research. Many contemporary approaches to research openly recognize that knowledge is mediated by context, experience, and social and historical discourses as well as by individuals’ personal interpretation (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011 ; Ellis, 2004 ). It is shaped by what is left out as well as by what is included. The practice of careful and scrupulous reflexivity is a way of acknowledging and bounding the subjectivity of the researcher (Altheide & Johnson, 2011 ; Ellingson, 2011 ). The researcher-who-is-artist draws on a subconscious as well as a conscious sense of how things fit together, and constructs meaning subconsciously as well as consciously, manipulating affect and effect in the process. Perhaps all researchers do so to some extent. For instance, the deliberately invisible authors of much quantitative research, who allow the passive voice to carry much of the reporting, who triangulate and define limitation, create an effect of fair-minded and dependable authority. The affect is not necessarily misleading, and it is something that readers of research have learned to recognize. However, the researcher-who-is-artist can draw on the rich repertoire of an art field that already operates in the domain of the aesthetic as well as of the critically cognitive, in spaces that are liminal as well those that are defined. It is arguable that readers of research still need to recognize and navigate through those spaces. Arguably, the challenge exists not only in the field of research: it is present in all the media that surrounds our daily lives.

A/r/tography and Examination of Places Between

The challenge of exploring liminal spaces of intention, process, explanation, effect, and affect is seriously taken up by the emergent discipline of a/r/tography . The backslashes in the term speak of fracture; they also denote the combined authorial roles of artist, researcher, and teacher. Springgay, Irwin, and Kind ( 2005 ) explain that a/r/tography is deliberately introspective and does not seek conclusions: rather it plays with connections between art and text and seeks to capture the embodied experience of exploring self and the world. Irwin et al. ( 2006 ) state: “Together, the arts and education complement, resist, and echo one another through rhizomatic relations of living inquiry” (p. 70). A/r/tography is explicitly positioned as a practice-based and living inquiry: it explores but resists attempting to define the spaces between artist, teacher, and researcher, and so implicitly rejects boundaries between these roles. It conceptualizes inquiry as a continuing experiential process of encounter between ideas, art media, context, meaning, and evolving representations. At the same time as it blurs distinctions, it teases out interrelationships: it offers art inquiry as something that is purposeful but unfixed, and art knowing as something that is personally and socially useful, but at best only partially and temporarily describable, never definable. This is one reason why its proponents explain it as a substantively different and new methodology outside the existing frameworks of qualitative research.

A/r/tography emerged out of the field of art education, with the explicit aim to extend the opportunities afforded by education in the arts, and to develop means to record and report the complex facets of learning and teaching in the arts. Consequently its language may be experienced, by readers who are outside the discipline, as highly abstract, deliberately ambiguous, and even esoteric: it seems to speak, as many research disciplines do, primarily to others in its own field. However, its broad principles have been picked up, and perhaps adapted, by practitioners who seek to explore the processes of their students’ learning through the arts and the evolving understandings they develop. For instance, Barrett and Greenwood ( 2013 ) report exploration of the epistemological third space through which place-conscious education and visual arts pedagogy can be interwoven and through which students, many of whom do not aspire to become artists, can use art-making to re-imagine and re-mark their understandings of their physical and social context and of their relationship with community. The value of this kind of research is posed in terms of the insights it affords rather than its capacity for presenting authoritative conclusions.

A Conference Debate, and the Politics of Research

Whether the provision of insights is enough to make art-making into research is a question that is frequently and sometimes fiercely contested. One such debate took place at a European conference I recently attended. It occurred in an arts-based research stream, and it began with the presentation of two films. The films were relatively short, and a discussion followed and became increasingly heated. Personally, I liked the films. The first reported a dance process that became an undergraduate teaching text. The second, in layers of imagery and fragments of dialogue, explored the practice of two artists. However, I was not sure what the added value was in calling either research. I saw art responding to art, and that seemed valuable and interesting enough. Why was the construct of research being privileged? The filmmakers defended the claim to research on the grounds that there was inquiry, on the grounds that art spoke in languages that were best discussed through art, and on the grounds that research was privileged in their institutions. Then a respected professor of fine arts put forward more direct criticism. Research, he argued, needed to make explicit the decisions that were made in identifying and reporting findings so that these would be accessible for peer review. Neither film, he said, did so. Defenses from the audience were heated. Then another senior art educator argued that art itself could not just be self-referential: it had to open a space for others to enter. The debate continued in corridors long after the session ended.

That the criticisms were unrelenting seemed an indication of how much was at stake. The space held by arts-based research within the European academic congregation is still somewhat fragile. The arts-based network was formed because of advocates’ passionate belief in the extended possibilities that arts-based methods offer, and this year again it expressed its eagerness to receive contributions in film and other art media as well as PowerPoint and verbal presentations. However, the network also saw itself as a custodian of rigor.

The participants in the session re-performed an argument that lingers at the edges of arts-based research. At the far ends of the spectrum, art and research are readily recognizable, and when art is borrowed as a tool in research, the epistemological and methodological assumptions are explicable. But the ground is more slippery when art and research intersect more deeply. When is the inquiry embedded within art, and when does it become research? Is it useful to attempt demarcations? What is lost from art or from research if demarcations are not attempted? The questions, as well as possible answers, are, as Eisner suggested, political as well as philosophical and methodological.

The doing of research and its publication have become big academic business. Universities around the world are required to report their academics’ research outputs to gain funding. My university, for example, is subject to a six-yearly round of assessment of research performance, based primarily on published and on funded research outputs. Each academic’s outputs are categorized and ranked, and the university itself is ranked and funded, in comparison with the other universities in the country. There is pressure on each academic to maximize research publications, even at the cost, it often seems, of other important academic activities, such as teaching. The competitive means of ranking also increases contestations about what is real research, serving both as a stimulus for positioning differing forms of inquiry as research and as a guarded gateway that permits some entries and denies others. Politicians and policymakers, in their turn, favor and fund research that can provide them with quotable numbers or clear-cut conclusions. Arts-based research still battles for a place within this politico-academic ground, although there appears to be growing acceptance of the use of art tools as means to elicit data.

Site for Possibilities—and Questions

The politics of research do matter, but for researchers who are committed to doing useful research, there are other factors to consider when choosing research approaches. These include the potentialities of the tools, the matter that is to be investigated, and the skills and practice preferences of the researcher.

The emergence and development of processes of arts-based research are grounded in belief that there are many ways of knowing oneself and the world, and these include emotions and intuitive perceptions as well as intellectual cognition. The epistemology of arts-based research is based on understandings that color, space, sound, movement, facial expression, vocal tone, and metaphor are as important in expressing and understanding knowledge as the lexical meanings of words. It is based on understandings that symbols, signs, and patterns are powerful means of communication, and that they are culturally and contextually shaped and interpreted. Arts-based research processes tolerate, even sometimes celebrate, ambiguity and ambivalence. They may also afford license to manipulate emotions to evoke empathy or direct social action.

The use of arts-based processes for eliciting participants’ responses considerably increases researchers’ repertoire for engaging participants and for providing them with means of expression that allow them to access feelings and perceptions that they might not initially be able to put into words as well as giving them time and strategies for considering their responses. The use of arts-based processes for analysis and representation allow opportunities for multidimensional, sensory, and often communal explorations of the meaning of what has been researched. It also presents new challenges to receivers of research who need to navigate their way not only through the overt ambiguities and subjective expression, but also through the invisible layers of affect that are embedded in art processes.

The challenges signal continuing areas of discussion, and perhaps work, for both arts-based researchers and for the wider research community. Does the use of art in representation of research findings move beyond the scope of critical peer review? Or do we rather need to develop new languages and strategies for such review? Do we need critical and recursive debate about when art becomes research and when it does not? Are the ambiguities and cognitive persuasions that are inherent in arts-based representations simply other, and useful, epistemological stances? Does the concept of research lose its meaning if it is stretched too far? Does art, which already has a useful role in interpreting and even shaping society, need to carve out its position as research? Does the entry of arts-based research into the arena of research call for revisions to the way we consider ethics? How do the procedures of institutional ethics committees need to be adapted to accommodate the engagement of the human body as well as the emergent design and ambiguities of the arts-based research processes? What are the more complex responsibilities of arts-based researchers toward their participants, particularly in terms of cultural protocols, reciprocity of gains, and the manipulation of emotions and cognition through visually or dramatically powerful presentations?

The already existing and expanding contribution of arts-based researchers argues vigorously for the place of arts processes in our congregations of research discussion and production. Quite simply, the arts address aspects of being human that are not sufficiently addressed by other methodologies. They are needed in our repertoire of tools for understanding people and the world. However, like other research approaches, they bring new challenges that need to be recognized and debated.

Further Reading

• Belliveau, G. (2015). Research-based theatre and a/r/tography: Exploring arts-based educational research methodologies . p-e-r-f-o-r-m-a-n-c-e , 2 (1–2).
• Bharucha, R. (1993). Theatre and the world: Performance and the politics of culture . London, U.K.: Routledge.
• Boal, A. (1979). Theatre of the oppressed . London, U.K.: Pluto Press.
• Brandt, W. S. , & Harcourt, M. (1994). Verbatim . Wellington: Victoria University Press.
• Conrad, D. (2012). Athabasca’s going unmanned . Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense.
• Eisner, E. (2002). The arts and the creation of mind . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• Greenwood, J. (2012). Arts-based research: Weaving magic and meaning . International Journal of Education & the Arts 13 (Interlude 1).
• Greenwood, J. (2016). The limits of language: A case study of an arts-based research exploration . New Zealand Journal of Research in Performing Arts and Education: Nga Mahi a Rehua , 6 , 88–100.
• Irwin, R. (2013). Becoming/tography. Studies in Art Education , 54 (1), 198–215.
• Leavy, P. (Ed.). (2017). Handbook of arts-based research . New York, NY: Guilford Press.
• Margolis, E. , & Pauwels, L. (Eds.). (2011). The SAGE handbook of visual research methods . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• O’Brien, A. , & Donelan, K. (2008). Creative interventions for marginalised youth: The Risky Business project . Monograph 6. City East, Queensland: Drama Australia.
• Saldaña, J. (2008). Ethnodrama and ethnotheatre. In J. Knowles & A. Cole (Eds.), Handbook of arts in qualitative research (pp. 195–207). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Wang, C. , & Burns, M. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. Health Education & Behavior , 24 (3), 369–387.
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Restoration of Tanjore paintings using segmentation and in-painting techniques

• S. Poornapushpakala 1 ,
• S. Barani   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3643-1772 1 ,
• M. Subramoniam 1 &
• T. Vijayashree 1  

Heritage Science volume  10 , Article number:  41 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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India has its unique and rich cultural heritage. One such uniqueness in India is ancient paintings. Especially in South India, Tanjore paintings are very popular. These paintings are made during 1010 AD with vibrant colours, gold, silver and precious stones. These paintings are the memorabilia of the great Chola kingdom. These paintings can be seen in great Brahadeeshwara Temple walls till now. Damages to these paintings happen due to varying environmental conditions and rituals followed throughout the year. Hence, preserving these heritages could be an additional source in National Cultural Museum and cultural libraries. This paper focuses towards the restoration of such ancient painting images that can be digitized and archived for the future use of aesthete. The painting images are preprocessed using Weiner filter for removing the background noises since its PSNR value is higher than Gaussian and Median filters. The preprocessed image is then applied to restoration algorithm. Two types of restoration algorithm is attempted, image segmentation and in-painting algorithm. The degraded image was restored efficiently with in-painting algorithm than segmentation algorithm. Further research can be focused towards automatic adaptive selection of patch based on the nature of images. From the results it is observed that with in-painting algorithm the image restoration is better than the segmentation algorithm for degraded painting images.

Introduction

India is famous for its culture and civilization. Indian ancestors excelled in the field of Architecture, Art, Medicine, Astrology, etc., that are recognized and admired worldwide. They passed on the information about the heritage to their future generation in the form of sculptures, paintings and inscriptions. Paintings are one such art form which depicts the ancient history and culture. Chittannavasal and Tanjore paintings are very prominent in India which attracts people around the world. Tanjore painting play a significant role in Indian paintings which are made of vibrant colours, gold and precious stones. But due to climatic changes, lack of maintenance and rituals these paintings are degraded. Though many efforts are carried out to save these paintings from further damage, it is very challenging to restore the paintings from the existing degradation. However, with developing technology in the field of image processing has made this challenge achievable. These painting can be restored by formulating a degradation model and then developing an algorithm to restore the degraded portions. This paper deals with the various methodologies adopted for restoration of damaged images. This section describes the various restoration techniques adapted for paintings.

Several image processing techniques has been adopted by researcher to restore ancient painting and images. In Chinese paintings, nearest neighbor methodology [ 1 ] was adopted for the restoration of tears, flakes and cracks in the painting. Hierarchy based restoration technique [ 2 ] is also used for the restoration of Chinese paintings. In this algorithm, painting is split into foreground and background layers. Then restoration algorithm is applied to these layers and finally the results are combined to produce the synthesized image restoration.

Crack detection and elimination in digitized paintings are performed using morphological top-hat transformation [ 3 , 4 ]. The authors were able to achieved true positive rate of 98.3%. Though this algorithm provides better result for digitized images, it has to be explored for real time painting images. Non-uniform illumination enhancement technique [ 5 ] was applied for illumination enhancement and color restoration. The authors could achieve local contrast improvement, detail enhancement thus preserving the originality of the image in the cultural heritage dataset.

In computer vision system for robust restoration [ 6 ] of prehistoric Tehran wall paintings is presented. The authors applied an image stitching algorithm for image restoration. An area of relevant semantics, geometry and color in a different spot of the wall paintings was selected and stitched into the damaged area. Their key focus was the identification of damaged or missing area in the painting performed using morphological algorithm in addition with edge information.

Similarly, computer-guided and virtual artwork restoration techniques [ 7 ] are implemented in paintings. These technique aids the restorer with virtual cleaning software to identify the best suitable cleaning procedure with a small patch of the paintings. Thus with initial study, it could be extended to the painting upon successful implementation with the small patch.

Two different methodologies for color image restoration [ 8 ] such as, blending of the standard deviation- weighted gray world and the Combined Gray World and Retinex (CGWR). The second technique was based on alteration of the Multi Scale Retinex (MSR) theory. In these techniques, the effect of neighboring pixels on the human eye is replicated for modifying the algorithms. In addition, the modified MSR is applied on CGWR technique to improve the performance of the basic algorithm. Their experimental results depicted the comparison between these two techniques with the basic traditional technique. A non blind deconvolution [ 9 ] is applied for restoring the degraded image with point spread function estimation. With this method, incorrect estimation may occur if the signal is narrower than the blur size. This limitation is overcome with use of gradient Reliability map (R-Map).

From the literature studies it is evident that restoration of images plays a vital role in preserving the cultural heritage. Though the various restoration techniques have been applied to Chinese paintings, it is observed from the literatures that digital restoration techniques are not explored for Tanjore paintings which were made during 1010 AD. Though many years passed, these paintings still remains astonishing to the spectators who come across it. Hence, the motivation of the work is to preserve the ancient paintings through digital technology for the future generation to cherish the culture and heritage. Since, the digital restoration process is not explored; it is a first of its kind attempt for the restoration of Tanjore paintings. Hence, this paper focuses on restoration of ancient Tanjore painting using image processing techniques.

Methodology

Figure  1 shows the various steps involved in the restoration of ancient Tanjore paintings. The major techniques involved are (1) Image preprocessing, (2) Image restoration. The ancient painting images are captured in Brahadeeshwara Temple, Tanjore using a digital camera during a bright sunny day. From the captured image, 40 images which are more degraded are considered for the study. Most of the images taken for the study are within the size of 1220 × 775 pixels. The captured image contains background noises due to the ambient conditions. Hence image pre-processing is essential to suppress the background noises in the image. “ Pre-processing of paintings ” section describes the study made by applying various filtering techniques for removing noises on the captured images. The pre-processed images are then subjected to image restoration techniques. The results obtained with restoration techniques are given in " Image restoration " section

Work flow of the proposed system

Pre-processing of paintings

Pre-processing techniques involves the suppression of background noises from the degraded images. Filters such as Weiner, Median and Gaussian filter had produced promising results in noise removal of degraded images [ 10 , 11 ]. Hence a study is attempted by applying those filtering techniques on the degraded images considered for restoration. The Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) is estimated and best suitable filter is selected for pre-processing steps. Figure  2 shows the results obtained through the application of various filters on degraded images.

Performance of various Filters on the image

Figure  3 shows the performance of various filters on the degraded images. It is observed that the PSNR value is higher for Weiner filter than Gaussian and median filter for the degraded images. Hence in the study, Weiner filter is applied for pre-processing of painting images which is effective in eliminating any noise that might have occurred during acquisition of images.Table 1 shows the performance of various filters for the degraded painting images.

PSNR of various Filters for degraded painting Images

Image restoration

The next step in image restoration is recovery of degraded portions from the filtered images. Two techniques such as segmentation technique and In-painting technique were applied in this stage of study. A comparison is made on the restored images from the results obtained with these two techniques to estimate the best fit.

Segmentation techniques

In segmentation technique, the degraded images are segmented into various blocks. Initially the image was segmented in to four parts and the restored image was analyzed. The RGB image in each segmented block is converted into binary image. From the binary image the region of interest (ROI), which is the degraded part in the specific block, is identified based on region based segmentation technique by applying threshold value. Various trials were done and finally a threshold value of 0.6 is fixed which provided better result for all the degraded images. The average RGB component in each block is computed by the algorithm. The colour corresponding to the computed average RGB is filled in the degraded part. This process is performed for all the segmented blocks in the image and retrieval of the degraded parts in the image is done. With four blocks of segmentation, the ROI is not properly identified and hence filling was very poor. When the same has been analyzed with sixteen blocks, the restoration is better than 4 blocks. However, the colours are not properly averaged, and it is filled with inappropriate RGB colour. Hence based on heuristic approach, with 8 blocks segmentation best result are produced. Figure  4 a–c shows the original, degraded and restored painting images respectively through this segmentation technique. Though segmentation technique restores the degraded portions of the image, the outcome is not satisfactory. Hence, to achieve better restoration of ancient images, in-painting technique is attempted.

a Original images b degraded images c restored image through segmentation techniques

• In-painting technique

In-painting technique is applied to restore degraded paintings, remove certain portions in an image without changing the nature of the image [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ] . A patch based method is adopted for degrade identification in images using a binary mask (M) according to Eq. ( 1 ).

where, p is the pixel index, D is the damage area of the painting and U is the undamaged area of the painting. The RGB image corresponding to the damaged area D from the binary mask is selected as ROI. Initially the image is decomposed to group into texture and structural features. The structural features such as lines and edges are extracted. Similarly the texture features such as pixel intensity is extracted from the image. Once the features are extracted the interpolation of images is done for both extracted images. A patch ( \({\varphi }_{d}\) ) at the edge of the damaged area and undamaged area that has the highest priority is selected. A similar patch with the same texture and structural features in the undamaged area ( \({\varphi }_{u}\) ) is searched as per Eq. ( 2 ). A patch size of 4 is fixed for this work. After searching the best patch ( \({\varphi }_{u}\) ), the same is filled in the damaged area.

where, \(\mathrm{min}({\varphi }_{d}, {\varphi }_{u}))\) is the sum of squared difference. The selected patch \({\varphi }_{u}\) is then copied to the damaged portion of the image patch by patch using interpolation. Thus through interpolation, the structural and texture features propagates in to the damaged portion of the image for restoration of damaged portions of the painting image. The flow of the work has been given in Fig.  5 . Figure  6 a–d shows the original image, degraded image, binary mask and restored images respectively through in-painting technique are given in Fig.  6 .

Flowchart of in-painting technique

a Original image b degraded image c binary mask d restored image using in-painting technique

Results and discussion

The algorithm developed for the restoration of degraded images of Tanjore paintings are discussed in the previous sections. From the overall results obtained, the restored images are compared and analysed for its restoration quality. The parameters such as the quantity of degraded portions retrieved, matching of colours between the non-degraded and degraded portions in ROI are considered for assessment. The retrieved images are compared with the images from internet sources. However, the restored images are not cross validated with the Real-time images of historical evidence material, since there are no such non-degraded images available with authenticated sources. From the study made, Weiner filter performed well as compared to other filters used in the study for the noise removal of degraded images. Weiner filter produced a minimum MSE as low as 0.001 in this application as given in Table 1 .

From Fig.  4 it is observed that the images have been filled with the average of RGB colours in the segmented blocks which restores the degraded portions. However the exact match of RGB colours as in the original historical evidence images are not obtained in filled portions of the degraded images. In addition, identification of degraded portions in the images for the selection of ROI is still remains challenging in few images. Also, the image is resized to a lesser dimension and image is blurred. With In-painting technique, the restoration is better than the segmentation technique. However few degraded portions are not filled with proper RGB value.

Conclusions

This research focuses on the restoration of Tanjore painting images based on segmentation and In-painting techniques. From the results, it is concluded that in-painting techniques performs better than segmentation process for the restoration of ancient painting images. The restoration performed using segmentation technique by averaging RGB components was not able to fill the colour properly. The ROI of the segmented block is filled with the average colour of the corresponding segment. However, the region of interest may have a dominant colour of the neighbouring block. Hence segmentation of blocks should be optimized in such a way that appropriate colour should be chosen for filling. At the same time the number of blocks could be varied dynamically based on the colours used in images. Images having less number of colours are restored efficiently than the images with a large number of colour combinations. It is evident that in Tanjore paintings vibrant and number of colours are used. Hence segmentation technique is not suitable for painting images. In-painting performs better for restoration of ancient painting images. Further research can be carried out with adaptive patch selection algorithm without compromising on the quality of restored image for improving the performance of restoration process. In addition, the restores images can be digitally archived in a cloud portal with the information related with specific Tanjore paintings. This will aid in preserving the restored Tanjore paintings digitally which will last for years in spite of the degradation of the real-time image.

Availability of data and materials

The data was collected through capturing the degraded images using a digital camera by the Authors of this paper at Bhahadeeshwara Temple, Tanjore, India.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank ICSSR and Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology for extending their support.

This work is funded by Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) under IMPRESS scheme (IMPRESS/P1415 /2018–19/ICSSR).

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SP—Image acquisition and preprocessing, preparation of the manuscript. SB—Developed the restoration algorithm, preparation of manuscript. MS—Image acquisition and processing. TV—Supported in documentation of literature reviews. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Poornapushpakala, S., Barani, S., Subramoniam, M. et al. Restoration of Tanjore paintings using segmentation and in-painting techniques. Herit Sci 10 , 41 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-022-00661-1

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• Tanjore paintings
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Introduction

Artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting humankind in various aspects. In recent years, scientists have been dedicated to generating creative products such as poetry, stories, jokes, music, paintings, and so on. For instance, taking advantage of Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN), Elgammal et al. (2017) built a new system to generate art by learning about styles and deviating from style norms. Astonishingly, human subjects could not distinguish paintings generated by this system from paintings made by contemporary artists ( Elgammal et al., 2017 ). Although the art-generating agent is mature enough to deceive our eyes (for a review, see Cetinic and She, 2021 ), a more thought-provoking question is whether it could capture our minds.

Many discussions have been held on the value of artworks created by AI ( Ploin et al., 2022 ). Previous studies have focused on comparing AI-created and artist-made artworks such as paintings ( Chamberlain et al., 2018 ; Hong and Curran, 2019 ; Gangadharbatla, 2021 ), performing arts ( Darda and Cross, 2022b ), and music ( Moffat and Kelly, 2006 ). Researchers are interested in the following three important issues: whether observers could distinguish art generated by AI from those made by humans; whether a bias against AI-created artworks exists; and whether art experience plays a role. First, concerning the ability of observers to discern between computer and man-made art, most prior studies showed that observers could not differentiate between computer-generated and man-made art ( Chamberlain et al., 2018 ; Gangadharbatla, 2021 ; Darda and Cross, 2022b ), while Moffat and Kelly (2006) found that participants could differentiate musical pieces composed by a computer from those composed by humans. Second, a bias against AI-generated artworks has been proven in previous studies. For instance, both implicit and explicit biases against computer-generated paintings were found in Chamberlain et al. (2018) , that is, participants perceived paintings categorized as computer-generated by them had lower aesthetic value, irrespective of whether they rated or categorized the paintings first. Third, prior research on art expertise and aesthetics has shown that art experts and non-experts appreciate art differently ( Hekkert and Van Wieringen, 1996 ; Leder et al., 2012 ; Bimler et al., 2019 ). Researchers demonstrated that art experts gave higher ratings to artworks ( Leder et al., 2012 ) and showed a much higher level of comprehension than beginners ( Leder et al., 2004 ; Mullennix and Robinet, 2018 ). A few studies have explored the role of expertise in modulating the bias against AI-generated artworks ( Moffat and Kelly, 2006 ; Chamberlain et al., 2018 ; Darda and Cross, 2022b ). Moffat and Kelly (2006) showed that musicians had a heightened bias against computer-generated musical pieces than non-musicians, whereas Chamberlain et al. (2018) found no modulation effect of art education.

Another line of research in empirical aesthetics, including behavioral studies ( Belke et al., 2010 ; Hawley-Dolan and Winner, 2011 ; Mastandrea and Umiltà, 2016 ; Mastandrea and Crano, 2019 ) and neuroimaging studies ( Kirk et al., 2009 ; Silveira et al., 2015 ), investigated framing effects by exploring how labels and titles influence aesthetic processing and evaluations. For instance, Mastandrea and Crano (2019) demonstrated that artworks said to be created by famous artists were appreciated more than the same artworks attributed to non-famous artists, being judged more interesting and beautiful. Silveira et al. (2015) investigated whether a socially defined context would set a mental frame that modulates the neurocognitive processing of artworks. Participants were presented with identical abstract paintings from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York that were labeled as being either from the MoMA or from an adult education center. Higher neural activation was found when they were evaluating artworks from the MoMA than the education center. Kirk et al. (2009) labeled images as either originating from an art gallery or generated by a computer program (Photoshop) and presented images to participants. They found that participants’ aesthetic ratings were significantly higher for stimuli viewed in the “art gallery” than in “computer program” contexts. Overall, these findings indicate that mental frames play a role in aesthetic evaluations.

In addition, while much research has focused on participants’ perceptions of and biases toward AI-generated artworks, several bodies of research explored the ingroup bias in aesthetic evaluations (for a review, see Che et al., 2018 ). Prior behavioral and neurological evidence consistently indicated cultural preference (ingroup bias) in aesthetic evaluations ( Bao et al., 2016 ; Yang et al., 2019 ), that is, people showed a tendency to like artworks originating from one’s own culture more than another culture. Individuals may feel a sense of cultural identity and belongingness when looking at artworks from their own culture and therefore gave higher aesthetic ratings compared to those from another culture ( Bao et al., 2016 ). People showed ingroup bias in evaluating artwork, especially when they lack art-related expertise and experience ( Mastandrea et al., 2021 ), which could be accounted for by the uncertainty-identity theory ( Hogg, 2007 , 2015 ). The uncertainty-identity theory is an extension of social identity theory that proposes uncertainty reduction as a major driving force behind group and intergroup actions and social identity processes ( Hogg, 2007 ). According to this theory, people try to lessen their feelings of uncertainty about and connection to themselves through group identification, which would promote ingroup bias in behavior and attitudes.

The present research

In 2018, a painting called Portrait of Edmond Belamy, created by AI, rocked the art world, selling for $432,500 at Christie’s. Art, as an investment, is embedded with financial attributes. It is essential to understand people’s evaluations and ultimate reception of it. Thus, indicators of paintings’ value, such as purchase intention and collection intention, are worth noting, besides the aesthetic rating. For instance, Gangadharbatla (2021) measured purchase intention as well as the evaluation of artworks. Thus, the current studies measured participants’ liking ratings, purchase intentions, and collection intentions.

People’s ingroup bias in the context of AI-generated artworks and the modulation of art expertise warrants greater understanding. We conducted two studies to explore these questions in this study. The aim of study 1 was to explore the influence of the author (AI and human artists) and the style (Western and Chinese) of paintings in the aesthetic evaluations of Chinese participants without art-related experience or expertise. In line with previous research on the bias against artworks created by machine/AI (e.g., Chamberlain et al., 2018 ) and the framing effect, we expected a bias against AI-generated paintings irrespective of whether they were of Western or Chinese style. Moreover, based on findings in Mastandrea et al. (2021) and uncertainty-identity theory, we predict that people might be uncertain about the AI-generated context and may resort to cultural identity as an art appreciation heuristic, therefore showing a higher preference for Chinese-style than Western-style AI-generated paintings. Together, our first hypothesis (H1) includes (H1a) Chinese participants showed an overall bias against AI-generated paintings irrespective of whether they were Western or Chinese style; (H1b) Chinese participants favored Chinese-style paintings more than Western-style paintings; and (H1c) participants showed a greater ingroup bias in the context of AI-generated paintings.

Previous evidence suggests that people who are interested in art concur in their aesthetic judgments irrespective of their cultural backgrounds ( Child, 1965 ; Iwao and Child, 1966 ; Iwao et al., 1969 ). Moreover, previous research showed an ingroup bias for dance, but not for paintings, and also the modulation role of art expertise ( Darda and Cross, 2022a ). The aim of study 2 was to explore the influence of the author (AI and human artists) and the style (Western and Chinese) of paintings in aesthetic evaluations and whether it would be modulated by art expertise. Our second hypothesis (H2) extends H1 to incorporate the modulation effect of art expertise, and a three-way interaction would be tested. We first focused on the difference between human-artist and AI-created art for experts only (H2a), then the preference of non-experts toward different styles of paintings (H2b), and the difference between experts and non-experts in evaluating AI-generated paintings (H2c). Together, H2 includes (H2a) art experts showed a greater bias against AI-generated paintings irrespective of whether the painting was in Western or Chinese style; (H2b) non-experts favored Chinese-style paintings more than Western-style paintings irrespective of whether the painting was AI-generated or artist-made; and (H2c) art experts evaluated AI-generated paintings lower than non-experts.

Study 1 explored whether the author of paintings (AI and human artists) and art style (Western and Chinese) influence individuals’ perceptions of paintings.

Materials and methods

Design and participants.

Study 1 employed a two-factor mixed-subject design, with the author of paintings (AI art and human artists) as the between-subject factor and the art style (Western and Chinese) as the within-subject factor. Study data were collected from wenjuanxing 1 in China. As a professional survey company that provides online questionnaires and data collection services, Wenjuanxing has 2.6 million registered members on the platform. All participants were assured that the survey was completely anonymous and confidential, and they were informed that there were no right or wrong answers. A total of 106 participants were recruited online, and they all completed the study via the Wenjuanxing platform. The online study took approximately 10 min to complete. Participants first completed an online consent form and a question about their background in art. If the participant responded yes to the question “Have you ever received art-related training or worked in art-related areas?” the questionnaire would skip to the end. All participants reported no professional art-related experience in study 1. The average age of participants was 42.35 years ( SD = 7.41; range 21–50 years), and 39 were identified as men and 67 as women. Most held 4-year college degrees or higher (59.4% had 4-year college degrees, 9.4% had master’s degrees, and 3.8% had doctoral degrees).

The stimuli consisted of 12 high-quality digital paintings (6 were Western style and 6 were Chinese style), including landscape pictures, portraits, and abstract drawings. Following previous research ( Mastandrea et al., 2021 ), the proportions and brightness of the stimuli were in accord with the original format of each painting. The painting sizes and resolution in the display were between 18 and 54 cm in height and between 14 and 24 cm in width, with 72 dpi. All paintings were of similar dimensions, except for one Western-style landscape picture. Half of these paintings were randomly selected and presented to participants. All paintings were made by human artists who were acknowledged in the painting area but were not well-known to the popular. A pilot ( N = 20) was conducted to exclude the confounding effect that these paintings might be recognized especially by art experts. Both non-experts ( N = 7) and art experts ( N = 13; majoring in design and art education) reported that they could not recognize the paintings. This study manipulated the author of paintings (AI art and human artists) by describing the paintings based on the participant’s assigned condition before evaluation. In the AI art condition, the participants read a description of the technology used in art and were told that the paintings were generated by “AlphaART” based on learning original paintings. In the artist-made condition, participants were told that the paintings were done by famous artists. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions, with 53 participants in the AI art condition and 53 participants in the human artist condition.

Following Reymond et al. (2020) , we measured participants’ liking of a painting with a rating slider displayed below the image, offering the possibility to rate the paintings from 0 to 100 (0 = “not at all,” 100 = “very much”).

The willingness to buy and the willingness to collect

This study measured the willingness to buy a scale (I want to buy this painting; The likelihood of my purchasing this painting is high; The probability that I would buy this painting is high; α = 0.96) using a three-item scale adopted from Dodds et al. (1991) , and the purchase intention was calculated by averaging scores on these three items. Furthermore, the willingness to collect (I want to collect this painting; I think this painting is worth collecting; α = 0.94) was measured using a two-item scale, and the collection intention was calculated by averaging scores on these two items. For all items, agreement with the statements was assessed on a Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 = totally disagree to 7 = totally agree.

Data analysis

Greenhouse-Geisser corrections were applied to repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) analyses. Partial eta-squared (η p 2 ) was used as a measure of effect size, with values of 0.01, 0.06, and 0.14 indicating small, medium, and large effects, respectively ( Cohen, 2013 ). Effect sizes were reported using Cohen’s d z for within-subject comparisons ( Lakens, 2013 ). All t -tests were two-tailed. ANOVAs, simple tests, and t -tests were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, United States).

Liking of paintings

To investigate the effect of the author and style on participants’ liking of paintings, we ran a 2 (author: AI vs. human artists) × 2 (Style: Western vs. Chinese style) ANOVA (refer to Figure 1 ), with the former as a between-subject factor and the latter as a within-subject factor. The analysis revealed a significant main effect of the painting style [ F (1, 104) = 9.47, p = 0.003, η p 2 = 0.08], and the main effect of the author and their interaction effect was non-significant. Although the interaction effect was not significant, we conducted post-hoc tests (paired-t tests) to verify H1c. Results indicate that the liking of AI-generated Chinese paintings was greater than the liking of AI-generated Western paintings, t (52) = 3.45, p = 0.001, while no significant difference was found between Chinese and Western paintings made by artists, t (52) = 1.11, p = 0.272 (refer to Table 1 ).

Figure 1. Mean values for the four conditions (author: AI vs. human artists; style: Western vs. Chinese style) in study 1. Participants gave higher ratings for Chinese-style paintings (A) and showed higher purchase intention (B) and collection intention (C) for Chinese-style paintings. Error bars stand for ± S.E.M.

Table 1. Mean values of liking ratings, purchase intention, and collection intention toward paintings in different conditions.

Purchase intention and collection intention of paintings

For purchase intention and collection intention, 2 (author: AI vs. human artists) × 2 (style: Western vs. Chinese style) ANOVA tests indicated consistent results. The analysis revealed a significant painting style effect [purchase intention: F (1, 104) = 13.54, p < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.12; collection intention: F (1, 104) = 17.14, p < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.14], and the main effect of author and interaction effect were non-significant. Paired-t test (refer to Table 1 ) further indicated that the purchase and collection intention of AI-generated Chinese painting was greater than AI-generated Western painting [purchase intention: t (52) = 3.55, p = 0.001; collection intention: t (52) = 3.93, p < 0.001]. Moreover, the purchase and collection intention of artist-made Chinese painting was greater than artist-made Western painting [purchase intention: t (52) = 2.10, p = 0.041; collection intention: t (52) = 2.42, p = 0.019].

Results in study 1 showed that the main effect of the author under hypothesis H1a was not significant, suggesting that there was no bias against AI-generated paintings. In addition, the main effect of the painting style was significant, supporting H1b. Chinese participants favored Chinese-style paintings more than Western-style paintings. Although the interaction of the author and the style was not significant, we conducted a post-hoc analysis to verify the proposed H1c. Evidence suggests that participants preferred AI-generated Chinese-style paintings to AI-generated Western-style paintings. Specifically, they showed more purchase and collection intentions toward Chinese-style than Western-style paintings, no matter whether the paintings were AI-generated or artist-made. For the liking rating, participants gave a higher rating for AI-generated Chinese-style than Western-style paintings, while no significant preference for artist-made paintings was found.

In Study 2, we further explored the effect of art expertise on painting liking, purchase intention, and collection intention. We recruited participants with art experience from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (students and teachers majoring in design or art education), which is the only higher art institution in southern China approved by the Ministry of Education. Participants without art experience (non-experts) were recruited from Jinan University in the same city (students and teachers majoring in management). Participants first completed an online consent form and a question about their background in art. If the participant responded yes to the question “Have you ever received art-related training or worked in art-related areas?” they were labeled as art experts, otherwise labeled as non-experts. Participants completed the study online via the Wenjuanxing platform, and it took approximately 10 min to complete.

Study 2 employed a three-factor mixed-subject design, with the art expertise (experts and non-experts) and the author of paintings (AI art and human artists) as the between-subject factors and the art style (Western style and Chinese style) as the within-subject factor. A total of 301 participants were recruited, and 2 participants failed to complete it. Thus, 299 participants were included in the final analysis. The average age of participants was 28.20 years ( SD = 10.19; range 18–50), and 134 were identified as men and 165 as women. Participants consisted of 143 experts (mean age: 27.34, SD = 10.73) and 156 non-experts (mean age: 28.99, SD = 9.64), and there was no difference between the two groups in age or education (age: paired t -test, p = 0.162; education level: Mann-Whitney U test, p = 0.112). Stimuli, procedure, and measures adopted in study 2 were the same as that in study 1. The reliability of the willingness to buy a scale and the willingness to collect were both over 0.90.

For the liking of paintings, we ran a 2 (art expertise: experts vs. non-experts) × 2 (author: AI vs. human artists) × 2 (style: Western vs. Chinese style) ANOVA, with the former two as between-subject factors and the latter as a within-subject factor. The analysis revealed a significant main effect of the author effect [ F (1, 295) = 8.09, p = 0.005, η p 2 = 0.03], a significant interaction effect of the author and the art expertise [ F (1, 295) = 3.90, p = 0.049, η p 2 = 0.01], and a significant interaction effect of the style and the art expertise [ F (1, 295) = 10.42, p = 0.001, η p 2 = 0.03]. Neither the main effect of the style, the main effect of the art expertise, nor the interaction effect of the style and the author, the interaction effect of the three factors were significant ( Fs < 3.59, ps > 0.05).

The results of the author and the art expertise interaction are presented in Figure 2A , and mean values are listed in Table 2 (left panel). Simple effect analysis further showed that experts showed more liking toward artist-made paintings than AI-generated paintings, F (1, 296) = 11.53, p = 0.001; and no difference was found for non-experts, F (1, 296) = 0.43, p = 0.515. Moreover, experts showed less liking toward AI-generated paintings than non-experts, F (1, 296) = 5.72, p = 0.017; and no difference was found for artist-made paintings, F (1, 296) = 0.04, p = 0.832.

Figure 2. Author (AI and artist) by art expertise (experts and non-experts) interaction. Consistent results were found for liking rating (A) , purchase intention (B) , and collection intention (C) . Error bars stand for ± S.E.M.

Table 2. Mean values of liking ratings, purchase intention, and collection intention toward paintings.

The results of the painting style and the art expertise interaction are presented in Figure 3A , and mean values are listed in Table 2 . Simple effect analysis showed that non-experts showed more liking toward Chinese-style paintings, F (1, 297) = 7.27, p = 0.007 than experts, but not for Western-style paintings, F (1, 297) = 0.01, p = 0.943. Experts showed more liking toward Western-style than Chinese-style paintings, F (1, 297) = 7.51, p = 0.007, and non-experts showed no preference in liking, F (1, 297) = 3.50, p = 0.062.

Figure 3. Painting style (Western style and Chinese style) by art expertise (experts and non-experts) interaction. Consistent results were found for liking rating (A) , purchase intention (B) , and collection intention (C) . Error bars stand for ± S.E.M.

For purchase intention and collection intention, a 2 (art expertise: experts vs. non-experts) × 2 (author: AI vs. human artists) × 2 (style: Western vs. Chinese style) ANOVA indicated consistent results. The analysis revealed a significant main effect of the author effect [purchase intention: F (1, 295) = 3.95, p = 0.048, η p 2 = 0.01; collection intention: F (1, 295) = 13.77, p < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.05], a significant interaction effect of the author and the art expertise [purchase intention: F (1, 295) = 4.78, p = 0.029, η p 2 = 0.02; collection intention: F (1, 295) = 8.38, p = 0.004, η p 2 = 0.03], and a significant interaction effect of the style and the art expertise [purchase intention: F (1, 295) = 15.28, p < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.05; collection intention: F (1, 295) = 21.71, p < 0.001, η p 2 = 0.07]. Neither the main effect of the style, the main effect of the art expertise, nor the interaction effect of the style and the author, the interaction effect of the three factors were significant ( Fs < 1.32, ps > 0.05).

For the interaction of the author and the art expertise, simple effect analysis on the purchase intention ( Figure 2B ) and collection intention ( Figure 2C ) revealed similar results. As expected, experts showed higher purchase and collection intentions toward artist-made paintings than AI-generated paintings ( Fs > 8.36, ps < 0.005), and no difference was found for non-experts ( Fs < 0.88, ps > 0.560). Besides, experts showed higher collection intention of artist-made paintings than non-experts, F (1, 296) = 5.36, p = 0.021; and no difference was found for AI-generated paintings, F (1, 296) = 2.12, p = 0.146. The purchase intention toward neither AI-generated paintings [ F (1, 296) = 2.26, p = 0.134] nor artist-made paintings [ F (1, 296) = 2.11, p = 0.148] was affected by art expertise.

For the interaction of the painting style and the art expertise, simple effect analysis on the purchase intention ( Figure 3B ) and collection intention ( Figure 3C ) also revealed similar results, except that experts were more willing to collect Western-style paintings than non-experts, F (1, 297) = 5.44, p = 0.020, but no difference in purchase intention. In addition, experts were more willing to buy and collect Western-style relative to Chinese-style paintings, F (1, 297) > 8.44, p < 0.004, while non-experts were more willing to buy and collect Chinese-style relative to Western-style paintings, F (1, 297) > 7.18, p < 0.008.

Collectively, art experts evaluated less favorably (less liking, lower purchase and collection intentions) AI-generated paintings relative to artist-made paintings, while non-experts showed no preference. Non-experts showed significantly higher purchase intention and collection intention toward Chinese-style paintings than Western-style paintings, but no difference in liking ratings, partially supporting H2b. Art experts evaluated AI-generated paintings lower than non-experts.

We investigated how AI art alters people’s liking, purchase intention, and collection intention toward Chinese-style and Western-style paintings, and whether art expertise plays a role. In study 1, several findings were revealed. One is that the main effect of the author under hypothesis H1a was not significant. Specifically, who made the art (AI vs. artists) would not influence evaluations, purchase intention, and collection intention toward paintings. Second, the main effect of painting style (ingroup preference) was revealed as hypothesized (H1b). Chinese participants favored Chinese-style paintings more than Western-style paintings. Third, although the interaction of the author and the style was not significant, we conducted post-hoc tests and found that participants preferred AI-generated Chinese-style paintings to AI-generated Western-style paintings in support of H1c. Study 2 further investigated the modulation effect of art expertise and found a significant main effect of the author, interaction of the author and the art expertise, and interaction of the style and the art expertise. In support of H2a, art experts evaluated less favorably (less liking, lower purchase and collection intentions) AI-generated paintings relative to artists-made paintings, while non-experts showed no preference. Non-experts showed significantly higher purchase intention and collection intention toward Chinese-style paintings than Western-style paintings, but no difference in liking ratings, partially supporting H2b. In support of H2c, art experts evaluated AI-generated paintings lower than non-experts. Overall, these findings partially supported our hypotheses.

We expected a bias against AI-generated paintings based on existing literature on the framing effect of labels or titles in empirical aesthetics ( Kirk et al., 2009 ; Belke et al., 2010 ; Hawley-Dolan and Winner, 2011 ; Silveira et al., 2015 ; Mastandrea and Umiltà, 2016 ; Mastandrea and Crano, 2019 ). However, participants (non-experts) in study 1 showed no bias against AI-generated paintings. One explanation was that the label “AI-generated” might make observers feel novel ( Israfilzade, 2020 ). Israfilzade (2020) found that abstract paintings were rated more novel and surprising when artificial intelligence accompanied the title, and no difference was found in terms of complexity, interestingness, and ambiguity arousal of the paintings. Moreover, participants in study 1 showed a preference for AI-generated Chinese-style to AI-generated Western-style paintings, in line with the uncertainty-identity hypothesis ( Mastandrea et al., 2021 ). They might be uncertain about the AI-generated context and may resort to cultural identity as an art appreciation heuristic.

As expected, non-experts in this research (study 1 and study 2) showed a preference for Chinese-style relative to Western-style paintings, indicating the existence of ingroup bias in aesthetic evaluations (for a review, refer to Che et al., 2018 ). However, art experts in study 2 showed a preference for Western-style paintings. One explanation might be that people who are interested in art concur in their aesthetic judgments irrespective of their cultural backgrounds ( Child, 1965 ; Iwao and Child, 1966 ; Iwao et al., 1969 ). This finding was consistent with results in Darda and Cross (2022a) , which found that art experts tended to agree in their judgments and showed lower ingroup preference than non-experts.

Additionally, we expected that art expertise modulated the bias against AI-generated paintings. As expected, we found a bias among art experts but not non-experts, in line with Darda and Cross (2022b) . However, this finding was inconsistent with Moffat and Kelly (2006) and Chamberlain et al. (2018) , which indicated a bias against computer-generated artworks by both experts and non-experts. One explanation for this discrepancy might be the stimuli adopted. We used artist-made paintings and labeled them as made by AI or artists. Chamberlain et al. (2018) selected paintings from computer art databases and matched them with man-made counterparts. The paintings used in our studies were of high artistic value, meanwhile avoiding being too well-known to be recognized by participants. Therefore, it is important to note that these findings should only be interpreted to the current image set and should not be broadened to the overall comparison of AI-generated and artist-made paintings.

Implications and limitations

As stated in Leder et al. (2012) , “Art is a unique feature of human experience. It involves the complex interplay among stimuli, persons, and contexts.” This may explain why the aesthetic appreciation of experts and non-experts differs to a great extent, and why the author of artworks matters to experts. The findings in this study offer support for the bias against AI-generated paintings and the modulation effect of art expertise, contributing to the framing effect and ingroup bias research in empirical aesthetics. In terms of applications, our findings also suggest that AI-related personnel, such as designers of websites and apps taking AI art as a focus, should consider how to decrease potential users’ bias against AI-generated paintings as well as enrich painting styles to meet individuals’ tastes and preferences. Increasing anthropomorphism of the “AI” system might be useful. Previous evidence suggested that viewing the creation of artwork by a robot increased aesthetic appreciation for it ( Chamberlain et al., 2018 ). It is worth noting that perceptions of AI anthropomorphicity can be manipulated by changing the language used to talk about AI—as a tool vs. agent ( Epstein et al., 2020 ). AI-enhanced, rather than AI-generated, has been used in the research report, and it is essential to emphasize that AI/machine was dedicated to helping unlock human creative potential ( Ploin et al., 2022 ).

Several limitations in this research should be addressed in future studies. First, the sample we recruited may have restricted the generalization of findings in the current studies. For ease of sampling, we collected data mainly from students and teachers in design and art education in China. Famous artists and a larger size of sample would be more appropriate. In addition, we only recruited Chinese participants for this research. It is preferable to recruit participants from both China and Western culture in future studies. Second, some relevant characteristics were not collected prior to the studies, such as the participants’ level of familiarity with Western-style and Chinese-style paintings, making it difficult to perform assessments of the specific effects of familiarity with paintings. The inclusion of characteristics such as this would add value to analyses in future studies. Third, although we conducted a pilot to make sure these paintings would not be recognized (author and name of the painting), especially by our sample population, several teachers reported that they might see the painting before even though they could not recall its name. Asking participants whether they recognized any of the paintings at the end of the study would be a better way to exclude the confounding effect.

Data availability statement

The data generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.

Ethics statement

Ethical review and approval were not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Participants provided online informed consent before their enrollment in the study.

Author contributions

LG: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing (original draft), and visualization. YL: conceptualization and writing (revision). Both authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This research was supported by the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2020A1515010610) to LG and the Art Project of the National Social Science Foundation of China (19BG110) to YL.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords : artificial intelligence, painting style, art expertise, framing effect, liking, purchase intention

Citation: Gu L and Li Y (2022) Who made the paintings: Artists or artificial intelligence? The effects of identity on liking and purchase intention. Front. Psychol. 13:941163. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.941163

Received: 11 May 2022; Accepted: 11 July 2022; Published: 05 August 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Gu and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Li Gu, [email protected] ; Yong Li, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Writing a paper for an art history course is similar to the analytical, research-based papers that you may have written in English literature courses or history courses. Although art historical research and writing does include the analysis of written documents, there are distinctive differences between art history writing and other disciplines because the primary documents are works of art. A key reference guide for researching and analyzing works of art and for writing art history papers is the 10th edition (or later) of Sylvan Barnet’s work, A Short Guide to Writing about Art . Barnet directs students through the steps of thinking about a research topic, collecting information, and then writing and documenting a paper.

A website with helpful tips for writing art history papers is posted by the University of North Carolina.

Wesleyan University Writing Center has a useful guide for finding online writing resources.

The following are basic guidelines that you must use when documenting research papers for any art history class at UA Little Rock. Solid, thoughtful research and correct documentation of the sources used in this research (i.e., footnotes/endnotes, bibliography, and illustrations**) are essential. Additionally, these guidelines remind students about plagiarism, a serious academic offense.

Paper Format

Research papers should be in a 12-point font, double-spaced. Ample margins should be left for the instructor’s comments. All margins should be one inch to allow for comments. Number all pages. The cover sheet for the paper should include the following information: title of paper, your name, course title and number, course instructor, and date paper is submitted. A simple presentation of a paper is sufficient. Staple the pages together at the upper left or put them in a simple three-ring folder or binder. Do not put individual pages in plastic sleeves.

Documentation of Resources

The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), as described in the most recent edition of Sylvan Barnet’s A Short Guide to Writing about Art is the department standard. Although you may have used MLA style for English papers or other disciplines, the Chicago Style is required for all students taking art history courses at UA Little Rock. There are significant differences between MLA style and Chicago Style. A “Quick Guide” for the Chicago Manual of Style footnote and bibliography format is found http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. The footnote examples are numbered and the bibliography example is last. Please note that the place of publication and the publisher are enclosed in parentheses in the footnote, but they are not in parentheses in the bibliography. Examples of CMS for some types of note and bibliography references are given below in this Guideline. Arabic numbers are used for footnotes. Some word processing programs may have Roman numerals as a choice, but the standard is Arabic numbers. The use of super script numbers, as given in examples below, is the standard in UA Little Rock art history papers.

The chapter “Manuscript Form” in the Barnet book (10th edition or later) provides models for the correct forms for footnotes/endnotes and the bibliography. For example, the note form for the FIRST REFERENCE to a book with a single author is:

1 Bruce Cole, Italian Art 1250-1550 (New York: New York University Press, 1971), 134.

But the BIBLIOGRAPHIC FORM for that same book is:

Cole, Bruce. Italian Art 1250-1550. New York: New York University Press. 1971.

The FIRST REFERENCE to a journal article (in a periodical that is paginated by volume) with a single author in a footnote is:

2 Anne H. Van Buren, “Madame Cézanne’s Fashions and the Dates of Her Portraits,” Art Quarterly 29 (1966): 199.

The FIRST REFERENCE to a journal article (in a periodical that is paginated by volume) with a single author in the BIBLIOGRAPHY is:

Van Buren, Anne H. “Madame Cézanne’s Fashions and the Dates of Her Portraits.” Art Quarterly 29 (1966): 185-204.

If you reference an article that you found through an electronic database such as JSTOR, you do not include the url for JSTOR or the date accessed in either the footnote or the bibliography. This is because the article is one that was originally printed in a hard-copy journal; what you located through JSTOR is simply a copy of printed pages. Your citation follows the same format for an article in a bound volume that you may have pulled from the library shelves. If, however, you use an article that originally was in an electronic format and is available only on-line, then follow the “non-print” forms listed below.

B. Non-Print

Citations for Internet sources such as online journals or scholarly web sites should follow the form described in Barnet’s chapter, “Writing a Research Paper.” For example, the footnote or endnote reference given by Barnet for a web site is:

3 Nigel Strudwick, Egyptology Resources , with the assistance of The Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge University, 1994, revised 16 June 2008, http://www.newton.ac.uk/egypt/ , 24 July 2008.

If you use microform or microfilm resources, consult the most recent edition of Kate Turabian, A Manual of Term Paper, Theses and Dissertations. A copy of Turabian is available at the reference desk in the main library.

C. Visual Documentation (Illustrations)

Art history papers require visual documentation such as photographs, photocopies, or scanned images of the art works you discuss. In the chapter “Manuscript Form” in A Short Guide to Writing about Art, Barnet explains how to identify illustrations or “figures” in the text of your paper and how to caption the visual material. Each photograph, photocopy, or scanned image should appear on a single sheet of paper unless two images and their captions will fit on a single sheet of paper with one inch margins on all sides. Note also that the title of a work of art is always italicized. Within the text, the reference to the illustration is enclosed in parentheses and placed at the end of the sentence. A period for the sentence comes after the parenthetical reference to the illustration. For UA Little Rcok art history papers, illustrations are placed at the end of the paper, not within the text. Illustration are not supplied as a Powerpoint presentation or as separate .jpgs submitted in an electronic format.

Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream, dated 1893, represents a highly personal, expressive response to an experience the artist had while walking one evening (Figure 1).

The caption that accompanies the illustration at the end of the paper would read:

Figure 1. Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893. Tempera and casein on cardboard, 36 x 29″ (91.3 x 73.7 cm). Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, Norway.

Plagiarism is a form of thievery and is illegal. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, to plagiarize is to “take and pass off as one’s own the ideas, writings, etc. of another.” Barnet has some useful guidelines for acknowledging sources in his chapter “Manuscript Form;” review them so that you will not be mguilty of theft. Another useful website regarding plagiarism is provided by Cornell University, http://plagiarism.arts.cornell.edu/tutorial/index.cfm

Plagiarism is a serious offense, and students should understand that checking papers for plagiarized content is easy to do with Internet resources. Plagiarism will be reported as academic dishonesty to the Dean of Students; see Section VI of the Student Handbook which cites plagiarism as a specific violation. Take care that you fully and accurately acknowledge the source of another author, whether you are quoting the material verbatim or paraphrasing. Borrowing the idea of another author by merely changing some or even all of your source’s words does not allow you to claim the ideas as your own. You must credit both direct quotes and your paraphrases. Again, Barnet’s chapter “Manuscript Form” sets out clear guidelines for avoiding plagiarism.

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Pigments—the palette of organic colourants in wall paintings

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• Published: 08 September 2021
• Volume 13 , article number  159 , ( 2021 )

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• Maurizio Aceto   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6360-3632 1 , 2  

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The present contribution deals with the use of organic colourants in wall paintings, polychrome pottery and painted stone artworks, i.e. painted artworks on inorganic supports. The term organic colourants is referred to the chemical nature of these compounds but not to the way of application; therefore, organic colourants can be dyes, lakes or pigments. The use of organic colourants in wall paintings has been given little attention in the past, perhaps on the assumption that they were rarely used by ancient artists. Recent diagnostic studies, however, brought evidence that their use was not fragmentary; on the contrary, there seems to be continuity in the centuries, at least with regard to the most widely used such as madder, Tyrian purple and indigo. Sources, alteration phenomena, identification methods and analytical evidence is given for the main organic colourants with concern to red, yellow, green, purple and blue hues. Drawbacks and issues are discussed with concern to the identification techniques.

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This Topical Collection (TC) covers several topics in the field of study, in which ancient architecture, art history, archaeology and material analyses intersect. The chosen perspective is that of a multidisciplinary scenario, capable of combining, integrating and solving the research issues raised by the study of mortars, plasters and pigments (Gliozzo et al. 2021 ).

The first group of contributions explains how mortars have been made and used through the ages (Arizzi and Cultrone 2021 , Ergenç et al. 2021 , Lancaster 2021 , Vitti 2021 ). An insight into their production, transport and on-site organisation is further provided by DeLaine ( 2021 ). Furthermore, several issues concerning the degradation and conservation of mortars and plasters are addressed from practical and technical standpoints (La Russa and Ruffolo 2021 , Caroselli et al. 2021 ).

The second group of contributions is focused on pigments, starting from a philological essay on terminology (Becker 2021 ). Three archaeological reviews on prehistoric (Domingo Sanz and Chieli 2021 ), Roman (Salvadori and Sbrolli 2021 ) and Medieval (Murat 2021 ) wall paintings clarify the archaeological and historical/cultural framework. A series of archaeometric reviews illustrate the state of the art of the studies carried out on Fe-based red, yellow and brown ochres (Mastrotheodoros et al. forthcoming ); Cu-based greens and blues (Švarcová et al. 2021 ); As-based yellows and reds (Gliozzo and Burgio 2021 ); Pb-based whites, reds, yellows and oranges (Gliozzo and Ionescu 2021 ); Hg-based red and white (Gliozzo 2021 ) and organic pigments (this paper). An overview of the use of inks, pigments and dyes in manuscripts, their scientific examination and analysis protocol (Burgio 2021 ) as well as an overview of glass-based pigments (Cavallo and Riccardi forthcoming ) are also presented. Furthermore, two papers on cosmetic (Pérez-Arantegui 2021 ) and bioactive (antibacterial) pigments (Knapp et al. 2021 ) provide insights into the variety and different uses of these materials.

Introduction (terminology, historical context, technical documents, recipes)

The present contribution will deal with the use of organic colourants in wall paintings, encompassing also other painted artworks on inorganic supports such as polychrome pottery and stone artworks. The use of organic colourants in wall paintings has been given little attention, perhaps by the artists who created the paintings, most probably by the scholars who later studied the paintings and by the diagnostics experts who analysed them. There are some reasons for this, that will be dealt with later. Let us firstly give some definitions. The term organic colourants refers strictly to the chemical nature of these compounds, irrespective of the way of application: they are composed mainly of organic molecules, that is, compounds of carbon and hydrogen. Despite the difference on the method of application in painting, organic colourants can be either pigments , dyes or lakes :

A pigment is a colourant not soluble in a medium, in which it forms a dispersion; while typically pigments are of inorganic nature, organic compounds not soluble in water can be used as organic pigments .

A dye is a colourant soluble in the medium.

A lake is a dye chemically or physically supported on an inorganic base, in such a way that it is not any more soluble in the medium and therefore behaves like a pigment.

Dyes are of vegetal or animal origin, therefore they are intrinsically of organic nature. There are several hundreds of different dyes, some of which were used since at least the second millennium BC (Cardon 2007 ). While the main application of dyes has always been in textile dyeing, some of them have been used in painting as well, as juices , i.e. simple aqueous extracts, or lakes , i.e. juices chemically or physically fixed on white inorganic substrates. Lakes are specific to art of painting, but there are strong similarities in the mechanisms of fixing dyes on fabrics to give coloured garments and of fixing dyes on inorganic supports to give lakes: a cation, such as Al 3+ , is mostly involved as intermediate.

While the groups of dyes and lakes contain several members, very few colourants, among which indigo and Tyrian purple, corresponded to the definition of organic pigments: they are in fact organic materials respectively of vegetal and animal origin, used mainly as textile dyes but insoluble in water (they are in fact vat dyes , i.e. they request a preliminary step in which are reduced to soluble forms); therefore, they could be used as pigments in painting art. After the development of the oil industry, however, several organic pigments derived from oil were synthetically created, a remarkable example of which are the copper phthalocyanines.

A marked difference must be highlighted between the use of dyes/lakes from one side, and of organic pigments (indigo and Tyrian purple above all) from the other side: the former have little or no hiding power, so they were used mostly as transparent or translucid glazing, in order to modify the appearance of the macroscopic colours of mineral pigments applied below; the latter have body and higher hiding power, so they were used exactly as any other pigment.

It is well known that the palette used by artists for wall paintings was plenty of mineral pigments such as ochres and earths, but, apart from carbon-based pigments, relatively poor in organic colourants derived from vegetal and animal sources; the oldest organic colourant dye must have been Tyrian purple, the earliest evidence of which is reported in eighteenth to seventeenth century BC Minoan wall paintings, while indigo and madder are attested respectively since thirteenth and eight centuries BC (see later). In comparison, the palette used for panel painting and for miniature painting was far richer in such colourants: kermes , cochineal , brazilwood , saffron , weld, as well as indigo and madder , were almost indispensable for these artistic formats at least since Egyptian times. Why is this not true for wall paintings? The main reason is that most organic colourants are fugitive, that is they can fade in time due to the action of light and other chemical and biological agents. While this is not an issue for painted artworks intended to be kept indoors, such as illuminated manuscripts and—in part—wood or canvas paintings, it certainly is for artworks intended for open or otherwise illuminated spaces, such as most wall paintings. Already in the end of fouteenth century, Cennino Cennini, in his Il libro dell’arte (Frezzato 2009 ), warned painters against the use of colourants of vegetal or animal origin in wall paintings:

At chapter XLIV, speaking of a generical lake (it is not clear whether of vegetal or animal origin) he says that “ laccha … s'adopera in muro con tempera; ma l'aria è sua nimica " (“lake… is used in wall painting with temperas; air is its enemy, however”).

For saffron (chapter XLIX) he states “ …guardi non vegga l'aria , ché subito perde suo colore ”, (“be careful that it does not see the air, because it immediately loses its colour”).

As to weld (chapter L), he finally says “ …perde all'aria; non è buono in muro ” (“it loses consistency in the air; it is not good in the wall”).

In addition, most dyes and lakes are not compatible with the alkaline medium used in fresco painting. Cennino Cennini advises (chapter LXXII) that “… in fresco sono colori che non si può lavorare , come orpimento , cinabro , azzurro della Magnia , minio , biaccha , verderame , e laccha ” (“there are colours that cannot be used for fresco, such as orpiment, cinnabar, blue of Magna (i.e. azurite from Alemagna—Germany), red lead, white lead, verdigris, and lake”); the lake cited by Cennini could be either of vegetal or animal origin as said before. This is only a part of the explanation, however, because painters would rarely use 100% true fresco painting; in fact, mineral pigments incompatible with alkaline pH, such as lead white or azurite, were however used in wall paintings, only they were used with the appropriate medium Cennini himself, in chapter LXXVII, told “…e nota, che ogni cosa che lavori in fresco vuole essere tratto a fine e ritoccato in secco con tempera” (“and notice that everything you work in fresco wants to be fine-tuned and retouched in secco with tempera”).

On the other hand, the hypothesis, highly popular among scholars from the 1960s onwards, that the ancient wall paintings were by definition fresco paintings, has been denied on the basis of accurate diagnostic evidence. Different authors (Brecoulaki et al. 2012 ; Cuní 2016 ) brought to light the fact that mostly mixed painting techniques, if not techniques completely based on organic binders, were also used, at least as far as wall paintings from the Late Bronze Age to the Roman era are concerned; the same holds true for most wall paintings created in Asian cultures. A thorough work by Casadio et al. ( 2004 ) surveyed the historical information arising from ancient literary sources on the binding media used in wall paintings, and compared it to the analytical evidence arising from modern diagnostic studies. A wide range of organic binders emerged that were cited in the historical sources from Greek-Roman age to the Renaissance, to which relatively few—and mostly recent—diagnostic studies corresponded; this may explain why it was assumed that all wall paintings were created with the fresco technique. In the end, then, the use of organic colourants in wall paintings does not appear to have been limited by the binding medium.

Another explanation for the limited use of organic colourants in wall paintings can be commercial: organic colourants were on average more expensive than mineral pigments, so their use on large painted areas, as is the case of wall paintings, was generally unfavourable. Product information can be found in the few literary sources that provide information on the cost of colourants, such as in the Ricordanze by Neri di Bicci, artist in Florence in the fifteenth century (Santi 1976 ): he tells us that red lakes (possibly kermes or other dyes from scale insects) were second in price only to the precious lapis lazuli from Afghanistan and to superior quality azurite, probably due to the difficult and highly specialised production of such colourants. A similar information was reported by Nash ( 2010 ) who surveyed the proofs of payment for colourants supplied to the court of the Dukes of Burgundy in the fourteenth to fifteenth century: rose and sinople, two terms that may refer to scale insect dyes and/or to brazilwood, ranked second in price after Azur d’Acre (best quality lapis lazuli) and on par with Azur d’Alemaigne (azurite). Of course, such assumptions are valid only for the periods for which literary sources are available, and do not necessarily apply to other periods.

For the reasons above explained, it is not surprising that the use of organic colourants in wall paintings has never been given adequate attention. Very few comprehensive reviews exist in the scientific literature. The research carried out by the Getty Conservation Institute in the years 2006–2010 (Grzywacz et al. 2008 , 2010 , 2011 ) in collaboration with the Dunhuang Academy (China), surveyed all the biological sources that were used for the production of organic colourants in Asia, identifying not less than 108 items. The information gathered was used to produce reference samples and spectral databases, to improve the diagnostic potential in studying the paintings at the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, China, as well as in future diagnostic works. This seems to be, to the author’s knowledge, the only systematic work on organic colourants.

Nevertheless, the world of organic colourants is worthy of being known also in the case of wall paintings, because it reveals ingenious solutions by the artists of ancient times.

As it will appear later, a survey on the scientific literature will reveal that the use of organic colourants in wall paintings has a longer and wider tradition in Asian cultures that in European ones, probably due to the major availability of raw matters (Grzywacz et al. 2010 ). Moreover, in some cultures, e.g. Indian and Tibetan, the buon fresco painting technique is rarely used in favour of the secco technique (Agrawal 1989 ; Oeter and Skedzuhn-Safir 2015 ) that allows the use of a larger palette, including organic colourants that cannot withstand the alkaline medium of fresco painting.

Apart from the diagnostic evidences given by chemical analysis, a major part of the information can be drawn from ancient literary sources. As far as European sources are concerned, however, from Antiquity to fourteenth century, we can rely on very few treatises, mostly compilations of complex and anonymous handwritten traditions, often interpolated with other traditions and alchemical practices. The most significant sources containing prescriptions for the preparation of vegetal colourants are as follows:

Compositiones Lucenses or Compositiones ad tingenda musiva , Codice n. 490 at Biblioteca Capitolare di Lucca, datable between the end of the eighth century and the beginning of the ninth (Caffaro 2003 ).

De coloribus et artibus Romanorum , text attributed to Eraclius and datable between the eighth and the ninth century (Garzya Romano 1996 ).

Mappae Clavicula , datable between the ninth and the twelfth century (Phillipps 1847 ).

Interesting information, though more oriented towards the use of dyes for textile dyeing, can be found in the following Greek and Latin sources:

De architectura by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, first century BC to first century AD, in which the Latin author, at book VII, chapter XIV, speaks about some plant colours (De Architectura VII).

Naturalis Historia by Pliny the Elder, first century AD, in which the Latin author, at books XXXIV and XXXV describes some plant and animal colourants used for painting (Nat. Hist. XXXIV/XXXV).

De materia medica by Pedanius Dioscorides, first century AD, in which the Greek author describes several plant and animal extracts (De materia medica).

the Leiden Papyrus (Caley 1926 ) and the Stockholm Papyrus (Caley 1927 ), two collections of recipes datable to the third century AD, most probably written by the same unknown scribe.

As for Asian sources, Yu ( 1988 ) reviewed the extensive use of organic colourants described by ancient Chinese sources. According to these sources, since the sixth century AD vegetable and animal colourants were commonly used in combination with inorganic pigments. Examples were indigo laid under cinnabar in order to make the latter more purple; a mixture of vegetal and animal dyes called rouge in Chinese, made from lac dye, madder and safflower red, laid over cinnabar to make it redder; gamboge lightly applied over malachite to give it a more delicate shade of green.

Dyes, lakes and organic pigments in painting

Red dyes and lakes were widely used both for dyeing textile artworks and for painting. They were obtained by extraction from vegetal and animal sources; several recipes in ancient treatises well described the procedures to be applied (Phillipps 1847 ; Garzya Romano 1996 ). A secondary source for red dyes and lakes involved recycling the dyes used for textiles (Kirby et al. 2017 ): clippings of dyed cloth were subjected to extraction by boiling them in alkaline solutions, after which the addition of alum (potassium aluminium sulphate) would form a precipitate of Al(OH) 3 on which the textile dyes were absorbed. Although this procedure was commonly used from late Middle Ages, recent analytical evidence suggests that it could have been exploited already in Classical Antiquity (Dyer et al. 2018 ).

The use of red dyes on wall paintings must have been very common. In fact, a great number of identification of a generic “red lake” are present in the scientific literature, unfortunately without further specification. In most cases, the identification was obtained by polarised light microscopy (PLM) that allows distinguishing mineral red pigments from transparent or translucid dyes and lakes, or by UV light. Examples of generical identification of a red lake were in first century AD Nabatean wall paintings at Petra, Jordan (Akrawi and Shekede 2010 ), in eighth century Carolingian wall paintings at Müstair, Switzerland (Mairinger and Schreiner 1986 ; Cavallo et al. 2020 ), in eleventh to fourteenth century Tibetan-Buddhist wall paintings (Goepper et al. 1996 ; Skedzuhn et al. 2013 ; Yong and Shiwei 2014 ; Gill et al. 2014 ; Oeter and Skedzuhn-Safir 2015 ), in the Mogao caves in Dunhuang, China (AA.VV. 2013 ). Howard ( 2003 ) reported on numerous occurrences of red lakes in English medieval wall paintings and polychrome sculptures but she gave a precise identification of the dyes in three cases only. Identification of red lakes is common in polychrome clay figurines of the Hellenistic period also (Tsatsouli and Nikolaou 2017 ). Despite it is probable that most of this preliminary evidence could be attributed to madder lake, in particular when UV was used by the authors, further insights with more powerful techniques would be needed.

Red lakes were mostly used in wall paintings as glazes, due to their translucency, usually over a layer of lead white or of another pigment, mostly red. Their colour is not simply red but rather can encompass a large variety of hues, from dark purple to mauve, violet, red and pink. This is due to the fact that their preparation is largely dependent on the recipe used, which involves extraction from plants or insects followed by addition of chemical reagents, among which alum, lime, and gypsum. In alternative, they could be used mixed with blue pigments to obtain a purple hue.

One important drawback of red lakes is the fact that they are fugitive, that is they tend to fade under exposition to UV–visible light (Saunders and Kirby 1994 ), a feature that may have limited their use in wall paintings compared to the more stable cinnabar, red lead and red ochre. However, Howard ( 2003 ) reported a remarkable use of red lakes for large external polychromies on the portals and fronts of Amiens, Exeter and Lausanne Cathedrals.

Anthraquinones

The most important reds are anthraquinones and have a long history of exploitation as textile dyes, datable to at least the second millennium BC (Cardon 2007 ). The main members of the anthraquinone group are madder, extracted from the roots of plants of the Rubiaceae family, widespread all over the world, and the dyes extracted from scale insects, i.e. insects of the superfamily Coccoidea : kermes, from Kermes vermilio , widespread in the Mediterranean basin as well as in Iran and Iraq; Armenian cochineal, from Porphyrophora hamelii , characteristic of the countries of the Caucasian area such as Armenia and Azerbaijan; Polish cochineal, from Porphyrophora polonica , endemic to Eastern Europe; Mexican cochineal, from Dactylopius coccus , typical of South America; Indian lac or lac dye, from Kerria lacca , typical of India and Southeast Asia. The structures of the main molecules present in these dyes are shown in Fig. 1 . The presence of anthraquinone red lakes on paintings can be identified in preliminary way by taking UV fluorescence images (Buzzegoli and Keller 2009 ) exploiting the characteristic emission. Then, further information can be obtained by means of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), that allows to identify the biological source of the dye when specific chemical markers are identified.

Structures of the main molecules present in anthraquinone dyes: (1) alizarin (madder), (2) purpurin (madder), (3) kermesic acid (kermes), (4) carminic acid (Armenian cochineal, Mexican cochineal, Polish cochineal), (5) laccaic acid A (Indian lac)

Vegetal anthraquinones

Madder was mainly extracted from the roots of Rubia tinctorum , a species widely diffused in the Mediterranean basin, but also from Rubia peregrina and Rubia cordifolia (Cardon 2007 ). The extraction was simple and consisted in treating bits of roots in boiling water in order to extract the molecules there contained. The extract was then filtered and could be used as such (this can be called juice ) to impart delicate glazes on paintings, though relatively weak and fugitive. More frequently, it was added to alum and brought to alkaline pH in order to precipitate on aluminium hydroxide, or fixed on a white inorganic support such as white lead, calcium carbonate, gypsum, clays or earths, to produce madder lake (Daniels et al. 2014 ). The lake can be used like a pigment, though with less hiding power and chemical resistance.

A preliminary identification of madder in paintings can be obtained by exploiting the typical pinkish-orange fluorescence under UV irradiation. Using UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry with optic fibres (FORS), madder shows two characteristic absorption bands occurring at ca. 510 and 540 nm (Aceto et al. 2014 ); alternatively, surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) analysis can be used for a fingerprint identification (Bruni et al. 2011 ).Then, an important insight is given by HPLC analysis, useful for recognising the specific vegetal species of origin: a high amount of alizarin typically addresses the source towards Rubia tinctorum , but high amounts of purpurin and the absence of alizarin (Mantzouris and Karapanagiotis 2015 ; Fostiridou et al. 2016 ; Dyer et al. 2018 ) address the source to Rubia peregrina or Rubia cordifolia . Cases are reported in diagnostic studies on Hellenistic and Roman artefacts in which madder lake markers were found together with markers of scale insect dyes (Mantzouris and Karapanagiotis 2015 ; Fostiridou et al. 2016 ; Andreotti et al. 2017 ; Dyer et al. 2018 ).

Madder lake was the most widely used red lake in wall paintings, possibly since it is the least fugitive among red dyes, and in the decoration of polychrome pottery (Bourgeois and Jeammet 2020 ), votive shards and stone artworks. The oldest reported occurrences on wall paintings date as far back as eighth century (see list in Table  1 ). Brecoulaki ( 2014 ) reports that madder lake was frequently used with Egyptian blue in paintings from the Bronze Age to Hellenistic times, either in mixture or in superimposed layers; the same was reported by Guichard and Guineau on Roman age paintings (2002).

A list of identification is reported in Table 1 .

In one case, a pink-purple pigment found in Pompeii (Clarke et al. 2005 ), madder was identified together with ellagic acid, a chemical marker of hydrolysable tannins used in the dyeing of textiles: these evidences suggest that the lakes were prepared from clippings of dyed cloth, a practice commonly reported for medieval lakes but rarely reported for Hellenistic-Roman times.

It is interesting to note that most of the diagnostic studies on ancient paintings report the predominant, if not exclusive, presence of purpurin in place of alizarin, a chemical composition very different from that recorded in the madder lakes used in later western European canvas paintings. It is possible that this difference be related to different methods of preparation of the lakes, but more probably it reflects the use of a different plant source, i.e. Rubia peregrina rather than Rubia tinctorum .

Animal anthraquinones

Dyes and lakes from scale insects were considerably more expensive than madder, at least according to the medieval and Renaissance literary sources available. Pharmacy price lists in fifteenth to sixteenth century Germany (Burmester and Krekel 1998 ) suggest that madder was even 40 times cheaper than grana , the name with which kermes was indicated in Italian medieval treatises. Similarly lac dye or Indian lac, the red dye extracted from the scale insect Kerria lacca , native to India and south-eastern Asia, was considered as an exceptionally expensive material, inferior in price only to gold and ultramarine (Kirby 2000 ; Howard 2003 ). The use of such lakes on wall paintings must be always regarded as symptom of high-quality commissions. Therefore, it is not surprising that the number of identification of lakes from scale insects be lower than for madder.

The identification of scale insect dyes and lakes is not easy in a non-invasive way. Using FORS, scale insect dyes show two characteristic absorption bands occurring at slightly longer wavelengths than in madder (Aceto et al. 2014 ). It is not possible, however, distinguishing the various scale insect dyes among themselves on the basis of FORS features; this requests micro-invasive techniques, such as SERS (Bruni et al. 2011 ) or HPLC (Shahid et al. 2019 ) by detection of the chemical markers specific for each dye.

Howard et al. ( 2020 ) reported only two occurrences of kermes in English medieval wall paintings: in the fourteenth century scheme in the chapter house of Westminster Abbey in London, most probably a sign of the importance of the Westminster paintings, and over the late fourteenth century tomb of the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral, in this case along with lac dye and madder. Highly remarkable evidences of kermes were recently given by Osticioli et al. ( 2019 ) who identified the lake in one of the most famous wall paintings, Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper , kept in Santa Maria delle Grazie church in Milan, and in Masolino da Panicale’s Beheading of St. John the Baptist , kept in the baptistery of in Castiglione Olona (Varese, Lombardy), both datable to fifteenth century; the analytical technique used was Subtracted Shifted Raman Spectroscopy (SSRS).

Two other scale insect dyes are Armenian cochineal from Porphyrophora hamelii , and Polish cochineal from Porphyrophora polonica . They were widely used in textile dyeing in Europe and Central Asia, but in painting the evidence is at present few. A single identification is known: in a collection of Hellenistic terracotta funeral figurines found in Thessaloniki (Macedonia, Greece), datable to third to second century BC, HPLC–DAD analysis on samples from pink lakes identified the presence of carminic acid, marker for cochineal; the absence of kermesic and flavokermesic acid, markers for Polish cochineal, suggested that Armenian cochineal was the dye used for the preparation of the lakes (Mantzouris and Karapanagiotis 2015 ; Fostiridou et al. 2016 ); the scale insect dye was found together with purpurin, possibly originating from Rubia peregrina or Rubia cordifolia .

Mexican cochineal, the dyestuff extracted from Dactylopius coccus , has a long history of use in South America (Cardon 2007 ). After the conquest of Mexico by Hernan Cortés in 1521, cochineal was exported in Spain and then to the rest of Europe and Asia and soon became highly appreciated, becoming the second-most profitable trade item from the New World after silver (Anderson 2015 ). This was due to the high content of dye in the insects’ body, estimated at 10 times than that contained in the European and Asian species. In South America, while the lake appears to have been frequently used in manuscripts and documents, its presence is only suggested in wall paintings from the Maya and Zapotec sites (Brittenham 2015 ). Magaloni-Kerpel attributed to Mexican cochineal (although without analytical evidence), the organic lakes found in the paintings of some Zapotecs tombs in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico, datable between 200 BC and 800 AD; the lakes were mixed with hematite or with hematite and cinnabar to make what has been called “Zapotec Red” for the backgrounds of scenes of funerary rituals (Magaloni-Kerpel 2010 ). Further investigation is of course needed to understand the real extension of the use. In the European textile dyeing sector, cochineal quickly replaced the other species, but it is hard to evaluate how such phenomenon occurred in European painting, due to the low number of precise identification; the lake has been identified in canvas paintings (Anderson 2015 ), but no case are reported in wall paintings.

Slightly higher is the number of identification of Indian lac or lac dye, the red dye extracted from Kerria lacca , a scale insect species typical of India and Southeast Asia. Among the anthraquinone dyes extracted from scale insects, lac dye must have been particularly appreciated; this would explain the fact that it was imported in the Mediterranean basin from the very distant India already in the Hellenistic period.

A list of identification of the main scale insect dyes and lakes is reported in Table 2 .

A remarkable case is the purple pigment found on third century BC terracotta oinochoes from Canosa di Puglia, southern Italy (Dyer et al. 2018 ) in which the authors reported the contextual identification of lac dye, of purpurin (marker for a dye extracted from a plant of the Rubiaceae family) and of ellagic acid (indicative of hydrolysable tannins used in the dyeing of textiles): this is one of the earliest evidence of the production of organic lakes from clippings of dyed cloth. Zhou et al. ( 2020 ) recently reported on the use of lac dye as mordant for adhering gold foils in the wall paintings of Kizil Grottoes, north-western China, datable between fifth and seventh century AD.

Apart from the anthraquinone dyes, there are many other red dyes, mostly of vegetal origin. All of them, however, have been rarely used on wall paintings. Brazilwood is extracted from the bark of Caesalpinia sappan L., a plant typical of South-east Asia imported in Europe from the tenth century, or of Caesalpinia echinata and Haematoxylum brasiletto , South American species imported in Europe from the sixteenth century. It was widely used in textile dyeing (Cardon 2007 ) and in miniature painting (Vitorino et al. 2016 ), in particular in Late Middle Ages and Renaissance Europe. The structure of brasilein, the main molecules of brazilwood, is shown in Fig. 2 . The identification of brazilwood is possible by means of FORS (Aceto et al. 2014 ), spectrofluorimetry (Melo et al. 2014 ) or SERS (Bruni et al. 2011 ). However, possibly due to the fact that it was considered the most fugitive among red dyes, the use of brazilwood in wall paintings has been demonstrated only two times (Howard 2003 ): in the fourteenth century choir screens at Cologne Cathedral and in the already cited fourteenth century paintings in the chapter house of Westminster Abbey in London, where it was found mixed with kermes, possibly as a consequence of the use of lakes extracted from a dyebath of cloth clippings.

Structure of brasilein, the main molecule present in brazilwood

Safflower red

Safflower red is one of the two colourants extractable in water from the Carthamus tinctorius plant. While safflower yellow (C.I. Natural Yellow 5) is extracted at neutral pH, safflower red (C.I. Natural Red 26) is extracted at alkaline pH. Both were used as textile dyes since ancient times (Cardon 2007 ). The structure of carthamin, the main molecule present in safflower red, is shown in Fig. 3 . The identification of safflower yellow and red is possible by means of HPLC (Wouters et al. 2010 ) or SERS (Bruni et al. 2011 ). Their use in wall paintings, and in overall painting art, is however uncertain since they have never been identified on such artworks up to now. Wouters et al. ( 2010 , 2011a , b ) verified the possibility of preparing safflower pigments by following ancient Chinese texts, and produced reference samples. Documents found in the famous caves of Mogao (Gansu province, China) attest the use of safflower red according to donors offering the colourant for decorating the caves (Shekede et al. 2010 )..

Structure of carthamin, the main molecule present in safflower red

Despite the availability of several yellow dyes used in textile art and handed down to canvas and miniature painting, such as saffron, weld, and turmeric, very few of them are suitable for wall painting for the reasons previously detailed by Cennino Cennini. In the Mediterranean world, yellow organic colourants have been rarely identified. Considering the most important class of yellow dyes as far as textile dyeing is concerned, that is the flavonoids, there is one case reported in the scientific literature: in the Roman necropolis of Carmona, Sevilla (Spain), datable from the first century BC to the second century AD, in a recent study on the wall paintings (Jorge-Villar et al. 2018 ), the authors identified weld, the dye extracted from the Reseda luteola plant, in admixture with blue for obtaining a green colour, as suggested by Vitruvius (De Architectura VII, 14, 2). Akrawi and Shekede ( 2010 ) reported a generic “yellow organic matrix” in their study of first century Nabatean wall paintings at Petra (Jordan). It must be considered, however, that the identification of yellow dyes is more difficult than that of red dyes using non-invasive techniques. The spectral features of the different dyes in FORS analysis are not specific enough (Aceto et al. 2014 ). Therefore, micro-invasive techniques are generally needed. SERS (Bruni et al. 2011 ) and HPLC (Lech 2020 ) provide the best diagnostic power for a selective identification.

However, if we look beyond Europe, some solutions also appear for this colour area. In the ninth to tenth century AD wall paintings at Mogao Cave 85 in Dunhuang (China) where traces of genistein found by means of HPLC–MS suggested an original presence of a yellow flavonoid dye, now probably faded (AA.VV. 2013 ); the authors of the study suggested that one possible vegetal source could be the Asian orange-dye-yielding plant Flemingia macrophylla .

Indian yellow

An organic pigment with a very peculiar story is Indian yellow : originally introduced in India from Persia in fifteenth century AD (Ploeger and Shugar 2017 ), it was produced from the urine of cows fed only with mango leaves, a practice that generated a powdery pigment with a beautiful yellow colour but also condemned cows to starvation. This made the producers of the pigment quite unpopular among Hindi people, so that the whole production was prohibited in 1908 (Baer et al. 1986 ). The composition of Indian yellow has long been part of a mystery. According to many literary sources of the past, it was unclear whether its origin was vegetal or animal (Ploeger and Shugar 2017 and references therein); in addition, on the colour market, it was frequently adulterated or substituted with cheaper pigments such as chrome yellow, tartrazine or cobalt yellow. It is now consolidated the fact that true Indian yellow is a mixture of Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ salts of euxanthic acid (structure in Fig. 4 ) and of other compounds, among which euxanthone (Tamburini et al. 2018 ). Indian yellow was used mainly for watercolour and tempera-like paints, and therefore its main application was in miniature painting, but since it was found to be resistant to alkali (Field 1809 ), its use in fresco painting was suggested. The identification of Indian yellow can be obtained by means of Raman spectroscopy (de Faria et al. 2017 ) or HPLC–MS (Tamburini et al. 2018 ). At present, however, only two cases of identification in wall paintings are reported: the seventeenth century paintings within the Garh Palace in Bundi, Rajasthan (India) (Tamburini et al. 2018 ) and paintings datable between fifteenth and eighteenth century in a church in the Skopje Fortress (Macedonia) (Tanevska et al. 2009 ).

Structure of euxanthic acid, the main molecule present in Indian yellow

Another yellow vegetal dye is gamboge , extracted from the latex of trees of Garcinia genus, indigenous to south-eastern Asia. This colourant, which is composed by structure is shown in Fig. 5 , was frequently used in far eastern Asian painting schools, but its occurrence in wall paintings has been evidenced only once, in a yellow glaze identified by means of Raman spectroscopy and HPLC–DAD in eleventh to twelfth century AD Buddhist wall paintings at Nako Monastery, in northern India (Bayerová 2018 ). Due to the relative difficulty in its identification, it is possible that it had been used in other unreported instances, however. Riederer ( 1977 ) tentatively hypothesised the use of gamboge, kermes and madder lake for Late Antique and early medieval Asian wall paintings, kept at the Asian Art Museum in Berlin.

Structure of gambogic acid, the main molecule present in gamboge

The use of organic greens on wall paintings has been quite limited. The few available green dyes ( iris from the petals of Iris germanica , sap green from the ripe berries of Rhamnus cathartica L.) were so poorly reliable that dyers themselves, to dye in green, referred using double dyeing with indigo and a yellow dye rather using green dyes. Two green colourants of partial organic nature can be included in the discussion: verdigris and copper resinate .

A partially organic pigment is verdigris , an umbrella term for a complex mixture of hydrated Cu 2+ acetates with different hydration and basicity degrees, as well as slightly different colours. The following compounds are reported (Chaplin et al. 2006 ; San Andrés et al. 2010 ): Cu(CH 3 COO) 2 ·H 2 O, [Cu(CH 3 COO) 2 ]·2[Cu(OH) 2 ], Cu(CH 3 COO) 2 ·3Cu(OH) 2 ·2H 2 O [Cu(CH 3 COO) 2 ]·Cu(OH) 2 ·5H 2 O, [Cu(CH 3 COO) 2 ] 2 ·Cu(OH) 2 ·5H 2 O, and [Cu(CH 3 COO) 2 ] 2 ·Cu(OH) 2 ·5H 2 O. This variability is a consequence of the variations in the recipes which basically refer to the action of vinegar on copper but can include wine making by-products, soap, honey, sodium or ammonium chloride, and urine. Copper can be exposed to vinegar vapours or directly immersed into vinegar; moreover, the exposure time can vary from 15 days to 6 months. Among the green colourants used in painting, verdigris is one of the most important. In miniature painting, it was the most commonly used since early Middle Ages. Even before, it was mentioned by Theophrastus, Dioscorides and Pliny the Elder. Pliny, in particular (Nat. Hist. XXXIV, 26), wrote about the frequent use of aerugo (verdigris) and detailed the various passages of its production. From his chronicle, we can guess that in Roman times it was a valuable pigment, since he also stated that it was often falsified. The identification of verdigris can be obtained by means of Raman spectroscopy (San Andrés et al. 2010 ). Despite ancient literary evidence, the occurrence of verdigris in wall paintings of Greek-Roman age has been rarely reported and never as the main green pigment. Kakoulli ( 2002 ) in her survey on Late classical and Hellenistic paintings artworks, did not report verdigris in any instance. Villar and Edwards ( 2005 ) analysed samples from several paintings excavated in first century BC to first century AD Roman villas in Burgos (Spain) but identified the pigment in a single instance. A more frequent use is instead reported in the Middle Ages. Cennino Cennini, in chapter LXXII of his Il libro dell’arte treatise, warned not to use verderame (verdigris) in the buon fresco painting technique, which is consistent with the instability of the pigment in lime; he does not, however, warn against its full use in wall painting. Damiani et al. ( 2014 ) identified verdigris in the dark green areas on the fourteenth century Madonna and Child enthroned with Saints wall painting of Ambrogio Lorenzetti, kept inside St. Augustine church in Siena, Italy. Fioretti et al. ( 2020 ) recently identified verdigris mixed with green earth in the fifteenth century paintings at S.ta Maria Veterana, near Bari (Apulia, Italy). Howard ( 2003 ) reported several cases of the use of verdigris in Gothic wall paintings in England, as well as in polychrome sculpture artworks, together with accounts for the purchase of the pigment that in late medieval England seemed to be cheap and readily available. Another evidence of the use of verdigris in the context of medieval England was in the polychromy of a fourteenth century alabaster statue kept in the British Museum collection (Pereira-Pardo et al. 2019 ). Rollier-Hanselmann ( 1997 ) cited the identification of verdigris in Romanesque wall paintings in France, as well as in early medieval wall. Verdigris was found applied with oil painting and mostly mixed with lead white in all cases detected, coherently with the suggestion of Cennino Cennini.

Copper resinate

Another partially organic green pigment, and an umbrella term as well, is copper resinate. It is a synthetic colourant obtained by boiling a copper salt, usually verdigris, with different organic ingredients, among which Venice turpentine, colophony, pine resin, or mastic, characterised by a high content in terpenic compounds, but also siccative oils. The resulting product is a translucid green pigment with low hiding power, useful for glazes. It was produced since the eighth century and it is reported to be used, at least on canvas painting, up to the seventeenth century, but its poor resistance to fading was at any rate well known to artists. The identification of copper resinate is complicated by the fact that it is not easy to understand the role of verdigris in the preparation; Raman spectroscopy can be used (Conti et al. 2014 ) but confirmation must be given by detection of the resinous compounds involved. The features of copper resinate are particularly unsuitable for wall paintings, and not surprisingly up to know it has been evidenced in very few instances: in thirteenth to fourteenth century wall paintings in San Juan del Hospital Church in Valencia (Spain), made by an anonymous artist (Doménech-Carbó et al. 2000 ), in the twelfth century Romanesque portal of the abbey-church of Cluny, where Castandet and Rollier-Hanselmann ( 2013 ) tentatively identified copper resinate mixed with lead–tin yellow in some green areas, and in the previously cited polychromy of a fourteenth century alabaster statue kept in the British Musem collection (Pereira-Pardo et al. 2019 ) where the pigment could have been used to impart a glossy effect to the underlying alabaster substrate and to gilded areas. Again, Howard ( 2003 ) reported that some studies have suggested the presence of copper resinate in medieval wall paintings and polychrome sculpture artworks according to the contextual identification of copper and resinous compounds, but the author correctly advised against the possibility that such evidence could be related to resins simply added to verdigris (but not after reaction with) in order to improve the glazing properties of the green paint.

Since Antiquity, the purple colour has been always considered as synonymous of power and richness. This can be partially (but not entirely) explained with the high cost of production of the purple pigment par excellence , the famous Tyrian purple obtained from mollusks of the Murex genus, also considering that no other pure colourants were available for painting in purple.

The only member of this group is therefore Tyrian purple , the famous colourant produced from the hypobranchial gland of various shellfish species of Murex genus. The structures of the main molecules present in Tyrian purple, as well as those present in indigo and woad (see later) are shown in Fig. 6 . Despite its role in the history of Mankind is mainly connected with the dyeing of precious garments produced for kings, emperors and high ecclesiastical offices (Karapanagiotis 2019 ), Tyrian purple was used for painting and in particular in wall paintings, being insoluble in water and therefore suitable as a pigment. Its colour is characteristic but, as in the case of red dyes, different recipes—and different shellfish species as well—can yield slightly different hues. However, very few analytical evidences of its real presence have been given, while in many more instances it was found that cheaper substitutes, such as mixtures of madder and Egyptian blue or indigo, were used instead (Brecoulaki 2014 ; Dyer and Sotiropoulou 2017 ).

Structures of the indigoid molecules present in Tyrian purple, indigo and woad: (1) indigotine (indigo/woad and Tyrian purple), (2) indirubine (indigo/woad and Tyrian purple), (3) 6-monobromoindigotine (Tyrian purple), (4) 6,6′-dibromoindigotine (Tyrian purple)

Pliny the Elder described (Nat. Hist. XXXV, 26) the method of preparation of purpurissum , the pigment obtained from shellfish. According to his description, the preparation of the pigment could occur in the same bath used for dyeing textiles, and therefore in the same context of the dyeing industry. Pliny tells that creta argentaria was to be added to absorb the colour from the bath; based on diagnostic evidence this can be identified with chalk in the form of aragonite (Karapanagiotis et al. 2017 ) or kaolinite (Papliaka et al. 2017 ). Readers should not be misled by this addition: it was not done in order to obtain a true lake as defined in chapter 2, but rather for the need of tuning the purple hue of the pigment (Boesken Kanold 2011 ).

The identification of Tyrian purple, as well as that of indigo (see below) is relatively easier than that of all other dyes. Its behaviour as a pigment facilitates the visualisation of the particles and more generally the response to the various diagnostic techniques. FORS analysis can provide a preliminary identification according to a characteristic absorption bands occurring at ca. 525 nm (Aceto et al. 2014 ). Elemental analysis can provide an indirect identification through the presence of two bromine atoms in the structure of 6,6′-dibromoindigotine, a feature exploited in several instances (Aloupi et al. 2000 ; Maravelaki-Kalaitzaki and Kallithrakas-Kontos 2003 ; Sotiropoulou 2004 ; Coccato et al. 2020 ); care must be taken, however, as a recent work (Aceto et al. 2015 ) demonstrated that the sole evidence of bromine is not enough for an exclusive identification of Tyrian purple: other dyes such as orchil and folium can have significant amounts of bromine. Raman spectroscopy (Karapanayiotis et al. 2004 ) can provide a fingerprint identification without the need of exploiting the SERS method, a feature almost unique among organic colourants. Finally, HPLC can be used in order to trace the animal source by the distribution of the chemical compounds (Karapanagiotis 2019 ).

The number of identification of Tyrian purple on wall paintings and other painted artworks on inorganic supports is limited, as evidenced by the recent review by Karapanagiotis ( 2019 ). An updated list is reported in Table 3 .

The oldest evidence of the use of Tyrian purple as a pigment is related to the Minoan civilisation. It is dated to eighteenth to seventeenth century BC and refers to the islands of Santorini and Rhodes in the Aegean Sea. According to these findings, the Minoans developed the use of this colourant, both for painting and for dyeing, well before the Phoenicians. Most of the identification is in painted artworks of the Late Bronze Age to Hellenistic times; Brecoulaki ( 2014 ) cites the frequent use of mixtures, or superimpositions, of Tyrian purple with Egyptian blue, as well as in the case of madder. The precious pigment was used for painted artworks of particular value and/or in selected figurative motifs in order to emphasise the symbolic value of the composition. One remarkable example is the purple applied on the crocus petals of the Saffron Gatherers depiction at Akrotiri, on the island of Thera, nowadays Santorini (Sotiropoulou 2004 ). Another example is the particular hue obtained by mixing Tyrian purple with Egyptian blue to depict the sea in the Naval Scene painting at the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, a Mycenaean site, datable to 1200 BC (Kokiasmenou et al. 2020 ). Later on, the current archaeological records indicate the predominant use in the eastern Mediterranean basin up to first century BC, with a single evidence reported for the entire Middle Ages, referring to the twelfth century paintings in the Church of Sainte Madeleine at Manas, Department of Drôme, south-eastern France (March et al. 2011 ), interestingly a church linked with the Knights Templar.

It is possible that, as a consequence of an increase in diagnostic studies, further evidence may be brought to light in order to extend the period and the geographic areas of use. It is in fact necessary to make a consideration, from a logistical point of view based on the possibility that the production of the pigment was closely linked with the production of the textile dye, as it is suggested in recent studies (Sotiropoulou et al. 2021 ): the number of sites that show archaeological evidence of the purple dye industry is currently very high (Kalaitzaki et al. 2017 ; Marín-Aguilera et al. 2019 ) and this suggests that the contextual production of the pigment, and therefore its use in painting, may/must have been much greater than what has been highlighted so far by diagnostics.

To overcome the high cost of Tyrian purple, artists often sought alternative solutions for the purple colour in their artworks. It was reported by some chroniclers of the Greek-Roman era, among which Pliny the Elder, Theophrastus and Vitruvius, that cheaper substitutes of Tyrian purple were used in ancient times, both in textile industry and in painting. Vitruvius (De. Arch. VII, 14), tells about a purple colour obtained by mixing chalk with madder or with hysginum , this last attributed to kermes or other dyes extracted from scale insects. Dyes extracted from lichens are cited as substitutes (Aceto et al. 2015 ). A confirmation can come from the identification of orchil, the dye extracted from Roccella tinctoria and other lichen species, in the polychromies of the collection of Greek terracotta figurines in the Musée du Louvre (Pagès-Camagna 2010 ). Brecoulaki suggested that the purple floral motifs and the garments painted on three marble pyxides kept at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, datable to the end of fifth century BC, could be rendered with orchil (Brecoulaki et al. 2014 ), due to the lack of analytical evidence for Tyrian purple or even madder. Pereira-Pardo et al. ( 2016 ) in their study on sixteenth century wall paintings from Ribeira Sacra (Galicia, north-western Spain), detected a purple colourant of organic nature, tentatively attributed to orchil or to an extract from vine grape ( Vitis vinifera ) but no analytical evidence was given.

The use of organic blue colourants in wall paintings is later than the other colours, despite the fact that indigo and woad were available for dyeing and painting since at least the second millennium BC (Cardon 2007 ).

Indigo and woad

A remarkable blue organic colourant is indigo , extracted from the leaves of Indigofera tinctoria , a plant typical of south-eastern Asia, or of Isatis tinctoria , a plant typical of western and central Asia but also Europe. In the latter case, the colourant is known as woad . The structures of the main molecules present in indigo and woad are shown in Fig.  6 . Indigo and woad were used as textile dyes at least since the second millennium BC in Egypt (Cardon 2007 ); being vat dyes and insoluble in water, as Tyrian purple, they were used as pigments in painting since at least the second millennium BC (Schweppe 1997 ). It is not easy to give accurate references with concern to indigo and woad because, from a diagnostic point of view, the distinction is very difficult if possible, and certainly not possible with non-invasive methods. Therefore, most of the information available must refer to ancient literary sources. We know that Pliny the Elder cites indigo (Nat. Hist. XXXV, 27) as a product coming from India.

Again, it must be noted that the addition of a white substrate does not mean the transformation of indigo into a lake but rather the need of changing its original greenish or blackish tone, not very pleasant, into a more pleasant tone by mixing with white. Cennino Cennini (Frezzato 2009 ) talked about the preparation of indigo mixed with a white pigment to simulate the brilliant aspect of azurite (chapter LXI): “… togli indaco baccadeo, e trialo perfettissimamente con acqua; e mescola con esso un poco di biacca, in tavola; e in muro, un poco di bianco sangiovanni ” (“take indigo from Baghdad, and grind it perfectly with water; and mix it with a little white lead on the panel; and [if you want to paint] on the wall, [mix it with] a little St. John’s white”). It is remarkable the annotation that indigo was called by Cennini baccadeo , that is from Baghdad, at those times the hub for the commerce of several goods from Asia. It is a further testimony that European painters used indigo for painting and not woad, and therefore that indigo was to be considered as a precious item. The price for Baghdad indigo was several times higher than woad, considering the need to justify the importation costs (Balfour-Paul 2016 ).

As Tyrian purple, indigo is a lightfast pigment, with a slow—though significant—tendency to fade. It is also considered suitable for fresco painting, due to its chemical resistance in alkaline medium. Cennini cites its use to imitate ultramarine blue in fresco painting (chapter LXXV): “ Se vuoi fare un vestire in fresco simigliante all'azzurro oltramarino, togli indaco con bianco sangiovanni ” (“If you want to make a hue similar to ultramarine blue in fresco painting, mix indigo with St. John’s white”).

The identification of indigo follows that of Tyrian purple in terms of relative ease. FORS analysis can identify it according to the typical absorption at ca. 650 nm (Aceto et al. 2014 ); elemental analysis, however, is of course useless. As for Tyrian purple, Raman spectroscopy (Karapanayiotis et al. 2004 ) can provide a fingerprint identification in conventional mode. HPLC can be used in order to discriminate between indigo and woad (Witkowski et al. 2017 ).

Indigo and woad were widely used in painting. The number of identification is high (some of them are reported in Table 4 ); it is possible that further identification is possible upon application of more powerful techniques, especially in situations where the pigment could be faded.

Further identification of indigo on wall paintings is to be found in artworks of Chinese culture, considering the long history of its use in Far eastern Asia (Zhu et al. 2016 and references therein).

A further indigoid pigment is Maya blue . This term has been given to the pigment found for the first time in 1931 on the wall paintings of the Temple of the Warriors at the Mayan site of Chichén Itzá, in Yucatán (Merwin 1931 ), but there is no archaeological evidence to attribute its invention to the Mayan culture rather than to other Mesoamerican cultures; in fact, it has been found in painted artworks of Aztec (Sánchez del Río et al. 2011 ), Zapotec (Alderson 2002 ), Teotihuacans (Doménech-Carbó et al. 2012 ) and other cultures.

Maya blue is a sort of synthetic organic/inorganic lake in which indigo, extracted from local plants such as Indigofera suffruticosa , is encapsulated inside the channels of a clay of zeolithic type, one of which is palygorskite or attapulgite. The pigment has notable properties in terms of chemical and physical resistance, which are imparted to indigo by the palygorskite cage. The interaction between indigotine molecules and palygorskite has been described in several scientific studies (Chiari et al. 2003 ; Doménech-Carbó et al. 2019 ; Caliandro et al. 2019 ) but not totally elucidated; it is remarkable, however, the fact that it can be truly considered as a nanotechnology dating back at least 2000 years (Chiari et al. 2008 ).

The production and the use of Maya blue have been attested at least since the Classic Period of the Mayan culture, i.e. between 300 and 1000 AD, up to the Spanish conquest in sixteenth century. Later studies, however (Vázquez de Ágredos Pascual et al. 2011 ) dated back the first use to the Pre-Classic period (around 150 AD) and recently (Vázquez de Ágredos-Pascual et al. 2019 ), it has been hypothesised a further backdating to at least 250 BC and the evidence that the technology of production could have been developed by another Pre-Hispanic culture of Western Mexico, the Chupicuaro.

The identification of Maya blue relies on the possibility of its distinction from indigo. This can be obtained with Raman spectroscopy (Leona et al. 2004 ; Giustetto et al. 2005 ; Sánchez del Río et al. 2006b ; Manciu et al. 2007 ) according to the change in spectral features caused by the interaction between indigo and palygorskite.

Maya blue was particularly suitable for wall paintings due to its chemical-physical features, which allowed it to remain unaltered for hundreds of years even in harsh climates such as the tropical Mesoamerican lowlands. Its use is therefore attested in a great number of wall paintings from the Pre-Classical Mayan Period onwards. While until the 1990s it was thought that the use of Maya blue had ceased after the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish in 1521 and in any case limited to the continental area of Central America, subsequent analytical evidences were given of some continuity and diffusion in the use and/or production of the pigment. In fact, despite the replacement of native products with European technologies imposed by the new rulers, in many Augustinians, Dominicans and Franciscans convents built during sixteenth century in Mexico artists used Maya blue for decorating wall paintings (Sánchez del Río et al. 2006a ), perhaps in an attempt of combining Christianity and Prehispanic culture. In addition, the pigment was found in wall paintings in Cuba between the eighteenth and the nineteenth century (Tagle et al. 1990 ), possibly as a consequence of the commercial link established between Mexico and Cuba in that period; indeed, accounts of Cuban merchants dealing in pigments attested that New Spain (i.e. Mexico) was among the sources of their imports. Considering the previous finding, the hypothesis made on a stylistic basis, but without diagnostic evidence, that in the seventeenth century Mexican artists of the Baroque era used Maya blue for their works (Van Houten Maldonado 2018 ) could have credit.

Identification methods

The identification of the organic colourants in wall paintings is generally more difficult than the identification of the inorganic ones. This is due to a combination of unfavourable factors:

Organic compounds have intrinsically lower chemical stability that can only get worse in the case of wall paintings, so that in many cases we are facing relics of the colourants and not the original composition.

Organic compounds have also lower physical stability: as specified in the introduction, most of them are fugitive, i.e. they tend to lose colour due to the action of light, so that they become unrecognisable.

From a purely spectroscopic point of view, most of the dyes have high molar extinction coefficients: this means that they can generate hues at relatively low concentrations, so that the artists could use them with little amounts in paints; their identification, therefore, requires highly sensible techniques.

The complexity of the composition: with no exception, all organic colourants are mixtures of two or more compounds, so that in many cases separative techniques are requested in order to have a reliable identification.

In addition to the previous point, it must be considered that single molecules can be common to different dyestuffs, so that in order to identify a specific dye it is better to characterise the distribution of its major components, or at least to look for its specific markers.

The production of lakes starting from clippings of dye cloths (Kirby et al. 2017 ), cited before with concern to red dyes and lakes, involves a possible fractionation of the original chemical distribution and, consequently, the onset of variable patterns which render more difficult the identification of the original material.

The composition is rendered even more complex in cases where contamination occurs by materials used in restoration interventions, such as the application of egg-based fixatives or synthetic resins, that are mostly of organic nature.

Finally, being organic colourants composed only by light elements (H, C, O, N, more rarely P and S), all elemental techniques, e.g. X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), scanning electron microscope–Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDX) or proton induced X emission spectroscopy (PIXE), are of little use for their identification. There is a single, notable exception: the indirect identification of Tyrian purple is made possible by the presence of two bromine atoms in the structure of 6,6′-dibromoindigotine. This feature has been exploited in several instances, in particular in diagnostic works on Minoan paintings (Aloupi et al. 2000 ; Maravelaki-Kalaitzaki and Kallithrakas-Kontos 2003 ; Sotiropoulou 2004 ) but also in Roman paintings (Coccato et al. 2020 ).

General information on the identification and characterisation of dyes and lakes on artworks can be found in the reviews by Degano et al. ( 2009 ) and by Shahid et al. ( 2019 ).

Being dyes and lakes composed of poorly volatile compounds, the most powerful and commonly used technique for the identification of organic colourants is by far HPLC coupled with MS and/or DAD. Some reviews on this topic were given by Lech et al. ( 2009 ) and by Zasada-Kłodzińska et al. ( 2020 ). One major drawback of HPLC, and in general of the application of separative techniques to organic colourants, is that a preliminary step is always needed in order to take into solution the chemical markers from the sample. This can introduce some uncertainty in the subsequent results, as the recovery of molecules depends strictly on pH, time and temperature of extraction, etc. Acids such as formic hydrochloric, hydrofluoric, oxalic can be used, either with or without methanol. It is difficult to find a solution valid for all the colourants, however. The wide literature existing on the extraction of dyes from textile samples is poorly useful, being different the type of interaction between colourant and support. Wouters et al. ( 2011b ) compared different methods of hydrolysis for the extraction of organic colourants from pigments and paints, finding that hydrofluoric acid followed by hydrochloric acid was the best solution; another suitable solution was oxalic acid followed by hydrochloric acid.

Another powerful technique, though less used than HPLC in this field, is GC–MS (Degani et al. 2014 ; Sutherland 2019 ). Usually, the gas-chromatographic analysis of organic colourants involves a derivatisation step in order to render more volatile the compounds present. Silanizing agents such as hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) (Casas-Catalán and Doménech-Carbó 2005 ) and N,O-bis(trimethylsilyl)acetamide (BSTFA) (Degani et al. 2015 ) or etherification agents such as m-(trifluoromethyl) phenyltrimethylammonium hydroxide (TMTFTH) (Poulin 2018 ) can be used for the purpose.

As to spectroscopic techniques, the most suitable is undoubtedly surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) that provides the necessary sensitivity to identify dyes and lakes even at extremely low amounts. The works by Leona et al. ( 2006 ), Bruni et al. ( 2011 ) and Brosseau et al. ( 2011 ), among others, can be acknowledged as reference works for the identification of organic colourants on painted artworks. The application of conventional Raman spectroscopy, i.e. without aid by SERS substrates, is limited to the identification of organic pigments, that is indigo/woad and Tyrian purple (Karapanayiotis et al. 2004 ), verdigris (San Andrés et al. 2010 ) and copper resinate (Conti et al. 2014 ).

Other spectroscopic techniques to be cited in the identification of organic colourants are UV–visible diffuse reflectance spectrophotometry with optic fibres (FORS) (Aceto et al. 2014 ) and FT-IR spectrophotometry (Manfredi et al. 2017 ). Both techniques, though having lower diagnostic power than SERS and Raman spectroscopy, show the advantage that can provide a totally non-invasive identification (as to FT-IR spectrophotometry, this is valid when used in reflectance mode). Interesting and powerful extensions of reflectance spectrophotometry are multispectral and hyperspectral imaging in the visible and near-infrared ranges (Cucci et al. 2016 ; Cavaleri et al. 2017 ) that allows identification of some dyes and lakes, in particular madder, brazilwood, and cochineal (Vitorino et al. 2015 ) on large painted artworks, so they seem to be promising methods for analysis of wall paintings. The same holds true for multispectral photo-induced luminescence imaging, a group of techniques useful for detection and mapping of madder on painted artworks (Dyer and Sotiropoulou 2017 ). A general description of multispectral imaging methods is contained in Dyer et al. ( 2013 ).

Finally, the role of microspectrofluorimetry must be also cited (Melo and Claro 2010 ; Idone et al. 2017 ), though it is usually a micro-invasive technique.

There is a slight difference between the identification and the characterisation of an organic colourant. In the first case, we can have preliminary, easy-to-obtain results from spectroscopic techniques such as FORS or FT-IR spectrophotometry and a fingerprint identification with Raman or SERS spectroscopy. In the second case, the characterisation of the distribution of compounds presents in an organic colourant allows in many cases the identification not only of the colourant itself, but also of the vegetal or animal source. This requests of course more powerful techniques such as the chromatographic ones.

Although there may be differences in the application of organic colourants between paintings on inorganic supports (i.e. wall paintings, polychrome pottery and painted stone artworks) and paintings on organic supports (i.e. canvas paintings, miniature painting), from the diagnostic point of view the differences are very few. Since organic colourants are never used in buon fresco , the binding media used in wall paintings will be similar to those used on canvas, i.e. egg tempera, gums, waves, siccative oils and many others as described by Casadio et al. ( 2004 ). The interactions between dyes and lakes and their binding media are therefore similar as well.

One drawback can arise when one wants to distinguish between a dye and its lake. Using spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques would hardly reveal differences; elemental analysis could be useful in order to identify key elements typical of the inorganic supports, such as Al (from alum and aluminium hydroxide), Pb (from lead white), Si (from clays or earths) or Ca (from chalk, limestone or shell), but these are all common elements in wall paintings, deriving from paints and/or intonaco layers; therefore, their specific presence as lake supports must be verified with techniques with high spatial resolution such as SEM–EDX, to be used on micro samples.

Concluding summary of key concepts

The use of organic colourants in wall paintings, polychrome pottery and painted stone artworks has been given little attention in the past, perhaps on the assumption that they were rarely used by ancient artists. A survey on the scientific literature, however, reports a large number of diagnostic evidences and despite the lack of specific publications on the subject, it appears that there has been continuity through the centuries in the use of such colourants in painted artworks on inorganic supports, at least with regard to the most important such as madder, Tyrian purple and indigo. In several studies among the older ones, the results reported the occurrence of a generical “organic lake” or “organic colourant”. This typically occurred for red lakes. The application of powerful micro-invasive techniques such as SERS, HPLC–MS and other chromatographic techniques has been greatly increased in the last 20 years, allowing to obtain more precise, sensitive and informative identification. As an example, it is common practice now going beyond the identification of “a red lake” and providing full characterisation of the different red anthraquinone lakes. In a recent work, Gismondi et al. ( 2018 ) applied GC–MS to micro samples of paints taken from first century Roman wall paintings. Authors were able to identify a high number of metabolites of vegetal species, among which some that could possibly derive from at present unknown colourants. Such study was an example of the wide information that can be disclosed by the systematic application of chromatographic techniques to the analysis of micro samples from wall paintings.

It is advisable that future studies on wall paintings, polychrome pottery and stone will systematically involve the application of micro-invasive separative techniques, in order to have a better understanding of the use of organic colourants. In this way, new information will be gathered with concern to artistic techniques, biological sources and trade routes, which will allow to have a clearer view of the use of these wonderful and mysterious colourants.

Data availability

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.

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Visualizing the Impact of Art: An Update and Comparison of Current Psychological Models of Art Experience

Matthew pelowski.

1 Department of Basic Research and Research Methods, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Patrick S. Markey

Jon o. lauring.

2 BRAINlab, Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Helmut Leder

The last decade has witnessed a renaissance of empirical and psychological approaches to art study, especially regarding cognitive models of art processing experience. This new emphasis on modeling has often become the basis for our theoretical understanding of human interaction with art. Models also often define areas of focus and hypotheses for new empirical research, and are increasingly important for connecting psychological theory to discussions of the brain. However, models are often made by different researchers, with quite different emphases or visual styles. Inputs and psychological outcomes may be differently considered, or can be under-reported with regards to key functional components. Thus, we may lose the major theoretical improvements and ability for comparison that can be had with models. To begin addressing this, this paper presents a theoretical assessment, comparison, and new articulation of a selection of key contemporary cognitive or information-processing-based approaches detailing the mechanisms underlying the viewing of art. We review six major models in contemporary psychological aesthetics. We in turn present redesigns of these models using a unified visual form, in some cases making additions or creating new models where none had previously existed. We also frame these approaches in respect to their targeted outputs (e.g., emotion, appraisal, physiological reaction) and their strengths within a more general framework of early, intermediate, and later processing stages. This is used as a basis for general comparison and discussion of implications and future directions for modeling, and for theoretically understanding our engagement with visual art.

Introduction

Today, millions of individuals across the globe regularly encounter works of art. Whether, in the museum, the city-center, or on the web, art is an omnipresent part of human life. Underlying the fascination with art is a uniquely impactful experience. When individuals describe noteworthy art or explain why they go to museums, most often they refer to a complex mix of psychological events (Pelowski and Akiba, 2011 ). Art viewing engenders myriad emotions, evokes evaluations, physiological reactions, and in some cases can mark or alter lives. Reactions can also differ greatly between individuals and settings, or evolve within individual experiences themselves.

Understanding this multifaceted impact of art is key for numerous areas of scholarship—including all humanities, sociology, evolution, museum education, art history—and is especially key for psychology and empirical art research (Leder, 2013 ). The relevance of the topic has only grown in the past decade, which has seen a burgeoning of psychological aesthetics through the emergence of new empirical methods, growing interest in affect and emotion, and new integration between behavioral and neurophysiological analyses.

Perhaps most important, recent approaches have been accompanied by attempts to model the underlying processes of art engagement (Leder, 2013 ). These models build from recent trends in cognitive science, employing a visual approach for highlighting the interconnections and outcomes in our experience. They posit key inputs, and connect these via a flow of processing stages (often utilizing a box-and-arrow design) to outcomes or psychological implications. Thus, by offering a process-driven articulation of psychological elements, models have become the indispensable basis for shaping hypotheses. Even more, by stepping beyond written theory and articulating ideas within a visual frame, models can emphasize processes and important elements that previously might have been merely implicit. Thus, the visual models themselves often become the working theories for art study, and determine empirical research.

However, current modeling also suffers from several limitations, which hamper our ability to fully compare and understand approaches. Models are often made with different emphases and visual grammars. There are often also different arrangements of processing stages or focus on different portions of the processing sequence. Psychological inputs and outcomes are also often differently considered, or can be omitted from the processing sequence. Thus, we often lose the major theoretical benefit—a clear connection between inputs, processes, and outputs—that can be had from placing ideas into a visual form. It is also difficult to consider various models' overlaps or major differences when explaining specific reactions to art, and thus difficult to articulate how they might contribute to our understanding of art experience.

This is the goal of this paper, which represents our attempt to provide a comparison of current key modeling approaches, and involving their translation into a comparable visual format. We do this by reviewing six influential approaches to art experience, as well as supporting literature by the same authors, and place these into a model form. For existing models, we adapt the previous approaches to a unified layout, and also suggest additions or changes based on our literature review. When an author's idea does not yet have a visual form, we newly create models based on their arguments. Through our review, we also give specific consideration to outputs or psychological implications for art experience, as well as general organization around early, intermediate and late processing stages. We end with a synthesis and discussion of avenues for future research. In this review, we have chosen approaches, which, we feel, have come to be bases for the past decade of general empirical art-viewing research, and which employ a cognitive or information processing focus. Although this paper can, admittedly, only address a small selection of models, by providing this analysis, we hope to create one more useful tool for advancing understanding of art processing and modeling research.

Review: key model components and previous approaches to modeling art

Before beginning, it is instructive to briefly review what aspects should be considered in models of viewing art, and which will provide the material for this paper's comparison. Psychological models generally have three main components. These include: (1) inputs that feed into experience. These might include personality of the viewer, social or cultural setting, background affective state, other context (e.g., Jacobsen, 2006 ), as well as the specific artwork body and its history (Bullot and Reber, 2013 ); (2) processing mechanisms, which act on the inputs in specific stages (explained further below); and (3) mental and behavioral consequences (outputs) that arise from processing art. While it is the second stage of actual processing that makes up the bulk of models we will review, it is these outputs that constitute their implicit goal of addressing art interaction, and also the frame for this paper's review.

A literature review suggests multiple output examples. We have given these short labels, which will be used in the following discussions, and which can be divided into four main clusters: First, art has the capability to influence basic aspects of affect or the body. This can come from: (1) Affect , specific emotions/moods evoked by content or derived from the act of viewing; (2) Physiology , such as heart rate, skin conductivity, or other processes of the autonomic nervous system (e.g., Tschacher et al., 2012 ); and (3) Actions , for example gesture, eye movement, or physical movement during art reception.

Art also has been connected to numerous aspects of perception and understanding (e.g., see Leder et al., 2004 ), including: (4) Appraisals or particular judgments (beauty, liking); (5) Meaning-making as well as ability to strengthen conceptions, help us to learn, challenge our ideas, or even lead to insight. (6) Novelty: Art can impact what we see, induce changes in visual or perceptual experience involving new attention to physical aspects.

There are also elements which are more art-specific, or which are particularly salient in reports of art experience: (7) Transcendence : feelings of more sudden change, epiphany, or catharsis (Pelowski and Akiba, 2011 ); (8) Aesthetic mode: “aesthetic” emotions and responses, which might involve a state of being, whereby one detaches or uncouples from concerns or everyday life perceptions, often related to periods of contemplation or harmonious enjoyment, as well as potential positive reaction to negatively-valenced or troubling art (Cupchik et al., 2009 ). (9) Negative affect: Art can also evoke negative reactions such as disgust, queasiness or anger—outcomes that particularly require an explanation in models of experience (Silvia, 2009 ).

Art is also argued to create longitudinal impacts. These include: (10) Self-adjustment , changes in one's personality, worldview, cognitive ability (Lasher et al., 1983 ), or in the relation between art and viewer. This might also include a deepened ability to appreciate art or a more general improvement in visual-spatial ability (Funch et al., 2012 ). (11) Social : Art also may guide social behavior—e.g., in rituals or institutions—or lead to social ends such as indoctrination or social cohesion (Dissayanake, 2008 ). (12) Health : art may even have general impact on health and wellbeing, for example through reduced stress (Cuypers et al., 2012 ).

A brief note on previous art modeling research

The above aspects have been the main focus for attempts to explain interaction with art. Models—as a result of systematic, scientific endeavor—can be traced back to at least the work of Berlyne (e.g., Berlyne, 1960 , 1974 ; see also Funch, 2013 for review), who revived focus on art within empirical aesthetics, integrating a psychophysiological and cognitive perspective. Looking to physiological arousal, he posited opposing reward and aversion systems tied to “collative” art properties. He was followed by Kreitler and Kreitler ( 1972 ), who took a largely cognitive and Gestalt approach, arguing that artwork content and structure make it a carrier of multiple meanings that can stimulate understanding and emotion. Similarly, based on Gestalt perception, (e.g., Arnheim, 1966 ) considered the means whereby structural unity of artworks (balance, grouping) and individual features drive responses. This was followed by, for example, Martindale (Martindale, 1988 ; Martindale et al., 1988 ), who more fully emphasized cognition, focusing on matching of schema and stimulus, and proposing prototypicality as a key determinant for positive appraisal/affective response. These were followed by an even greater expansion of approaches. Notable examples include: Lasher et al. ( 1983 ), who proposed a cognition-based model of profound experience or insight; Ramachandran and Hirstein ( 1999 ), who gave one of the first attempts to posit universal rules for reactions and their underlying biological or neurological connections; and Jacobsen ( 2006 ) as well as Solso ( 1994 ), Vitz ( 1988 ), Zeki and Nash ( 1999 ), who presented an integrative neuro-cognitive theory. Other important approaches, many of which deal with specific aspects of viewing, also include: the fluency-based theory of aesthetic pleasure by Reber et al. ( 2004 ); Graf and Landwehr's ( 2015 ) updated consideration of fluency and visual interest; Van de Cruys and Wagemans ( 2011 ) account of rewarding reactions; Armstrong and Detweiler-Bedell's ( 2008 ) work with beauty; Funch's ( 2007 ) phenomenological model of art experience; Carbon ( 2011 ); Hekkert's ( 2012 ) design-based model; Bullot and Reber's ( 2013 ) integrated model of low-level processes and top-down integration regarding viewer knowledge of artwork history; and Tinio's ( 2013 ) consideration of creating/viewing art.

These approaches, among many others, give a basis for present modeling, notably pointing out the importance of individual elements such as beauty, pleasure. They also represent a research trend from emphasizing single, often simple visual elements to a more complex interplay of factors, which may drive emotion and physiological response. Especially cognitive approaches have also strongly contributed to the basic input-process-output form of the models we consider below.

Current models and cohesive theories of interacting with art

What follows is a review of six models, which we feel, offer a good overview of present approaches to general empirical exploration of art experience. These again are not the only important models, as witnessed from the review above, but were chosen because they offer psychological explanations which are explicit in respect to underlying cognitive processes, and which are presently used in empirical consideration of outputs/inputs when viewing art. The following paragraphs will follow a repeated pattern: First, the background and main elements of each model are presented and put into a unified visual form. When a visual example has been previously produced by the models' authors, we have attempted to reproduce in verbatim the original structure and wording, with only some shifting in the location of elements. At the same time, we have taken the liberty of creating new models or new processing elements when this was deemed to be necessary. To distinguish from our own additions, previously created model components are shown in black, while our contributions are shown in blue. All models will thus have a standardized format, employing five components. Inputs and contextual factors are shown with rounded edges and depicted on the far left, processing stages in the middle, and outputs on the far right (distinguished by a gray band).

The middle section also incorporates a timeline (bottom), showing general ordering and designating early, intermediate, and late processing stages. These were included because the specific placement of components within these stages may be key in hypothesis-making, and the relative emphasis also varies greatly between the reviewed models. Although there is as of yet no agreed-upon distinction, generally the early stage refers to immediate, automatic, bottom-up visual processing and attention, while intermediate refers to more specific processes involving object recognition, classification and memory contribution. The late stage refers to more overt cognitive components such as reflection, association, or changes in viewer approach (Leder and Nadal, 2014 ). Thus, this factor provided one more point for comparison and for the ordering of model presentation below. In the time line, we also include designation of automatic or more overtly conscious processing, as this is mentioned in many approaches. Finally, specific outputs, using the above labels (see also Table 2 ), are placed in red circles at their suggested model location. If an output could be posited, yet was not explicitly considered by the authors, it is shown in a lighter shade.

Chatterjee: neurological/cognitive model

We begin with the earliest model from the present group, and one which emphasizes early processing stages. This also makes a nice example of the present box and arrow design. This model was introduced by Chatterjee ( 2004 , 2009 , 2010 ; see Cela-Conde et al., 2011 for review), and has become a central tool for framing empirical assessments. It was designed to address cognitive and neuropsychological aspects, connecting processing stages to brain functioning. Chatterjee ( 2010 ) argues that visual interaction with art has multiple components and that experience emerges from a combination of responses to these elements. It draws its main theoretical emphasis from vision research (Chatterjee, 2004 , 2010 ). Thus, it focuses primarily on three stages which are argued to correspond to the rough functional division of “early,” “intermediate,” and “late” human visual recognition (e.g., Marr, 1982 ).

As shown in Figure ​ Figure1, 1 , where we have reproduced the original model, Chatterjee posits that visual attributes of art are first processed, like any other stimulus, by extracting simple components (location, color, shape, luminance, motion) from the visual environment, and processing these in different brain regions 1 . Early features are subsequently either segregated or, most often, grouped to form larger units in intermediate vision. Here, elements help to define the object and to “process and make sense of what would otherwise be a chaotic and overwhelming” array of information (Chatterjee, 2004 , p. 55). Late vision then involves selecting regions to scrutinize or to give attention, as well as evoking memories, attaching meaning, and assessing foci of specific evolutionary importance (e.g., faces, landscapes) 2 . Following recognition and assessment, evaluations are then evoked as well as emotions.

Chatterjee model adapted from original visual model in Chatterjee ( 2004 ) . Original elements shown in black. Additions not originally included in model shown in blue. If possible, original wording has been retained or adapted from model author's publications.

This model also provides an important basis for empirically approaching the role of the brain, with imaging studies having identified regions tied to its posited stages (Nadal et al., 2008 ). It affords a basis for making observations about how we progress in viewing, and how particular aspects—in relation to the way they are processed by the brain—impact judgments. For example, it suggests that one first perceives formal elements due to their importance in early and intermediate vision, while content is typically assessed in later vision (Chatterjee, 2010 ). Further, the model affords nuanced understanding of how processes may integrate. For example, the process of taking initially diverse perceptions from the first stage and grouping them within the second may explain satisfaction or interest often generated by complex art (Chatterjee, 2004 ), suggesting a “unity in diversity,” which itself is a central idea in aesthetics.

The model also highlights the transition from automatic to self-aware assessment. It is argued that the initial perception of many formal features (e.g., attractiveness, beauty), as well as intermediate grouping, occurs automatically (Chatterjee, 2010 ). This is followed by memory-dependent processing, where the perceiver's knowledge and background experiences are activated, and consequently, objects are identified, leading to experience-defining outcomes that result from often effortful and focused cognition, such as meaning-making and aesthetic judgments (Tinio, 2013 ). Thus, a general progression from bottom-up to top-down processing, and from low-level features to more complex higher-order assessments of art, is illustrated. This approach does not imply a strictly linear “sequence” (Chatterjee, 2004 ). Rather, processes may often run in parallel, and the individual may revisit or jump between stages (Nadal et al., 2008 ).

Model outputs

This model affords opportunity for discussion of several impacts from art (Zaidel et al., 2013 for similar review). First, the model first focuses on reward value, which is connected to numerous brain regions and specifically associated with the generation of pleasant feelings in anticipation and response to art (“ Affect ” in Figure ​ Figure1 1 ) 3 . High-level top-down processes are also involved in forming evaluative judgments and thus represent another vital component of aesthetic experiences ( Appraisal ) 4 . The model proposes a fluency or mastery-based assessment, where success in processing leads to positive responses. Due to its tie to brain function in reward and pleasure areas, the model could potentially also account for Negative responses here, which would presumably be linked to failing to place and group visual aspects, although this had not been described (we have made this addition in the Figure). The processing of objects, extraction of prototypes, connection to memory and final decision would also presumably connect to meaning-making or understanding ( Meaning ). Zaidel et al. ( 2013 , p. 104) also note that “neuroimaging studies have identified an enhancement of cortical sensory processing” 5 during aesthetic experiences. This would involve attention and may be tied to physical Action (eye movements), Physiology (relating to enhanced brain activity in certain regions), and changes in perception (enabling perception of new aspects or Novelty ). This process may also include self-awareness, monitoring of one's affective state or conflict resolution, which may play a role in bringing about final aesthetic emotion and judgment.

The above three aspects are also connected to the possibility for profound/ Aesthetic experience. If intermediate processing involves perceptions of specifically compelling or pleasing qualities of an object (e.g., symmetry, balance, as well as content) these qualities are argued to engage frontal-parietal attention circuits. These networks may continue to modulate processing, as an individual continues looking, within the ventral visual stream. Thus, “a feed forward system,” as might be seen in the arrow connecting early vision to attention, is established “in which the attributes of an aesthetic object engage attention, and attention further enhances the processing of these attributes” (Chatterjee, 2004 , p. 55), leading to heightened engagement and pleasure. This outcome may also be particularly unique for defining aesthetic experiences (Nadal et al., 2008 ). We have suggested this connection in our update to the model.

Chatterjee ( 2011 ) also suggests that the evolutionary or biological basis for human fascination with art may be tied to the interplay of three factors: (1) beauty, potentially linked to the evolutionary aspect of mate selection; (2) aesthetic attitude, or mental processes involved when apprehending objects, and which may connect with the idea of “prototypes” (presumably in early vision) which are preferred and may influence environmental navigation. Finally, (3) he notes cultural or socially-derived concepts of “making special” (e.g., Dissayanake, 2008 ), where ordinary objects are transformed by the artist and whereby the institutional frameworks that promote and display art may tie to adaptive importance in enhancing cooperation and continuity within human groups. This latter might then connect to more longitudinal impacts ( Social ).

Regarding inputs (primarily the blue arrows from the model left side), Tinio ( 2013 ), in his review, notes that the intermediary stage of vision should involve processing that recruits access to memory and processing that involves higher-order cognitions such as the perceiver's knowledge and background experiences, which may also influence the final stage of meaning-making. Chatterjee ( 2004 ), referencing Ramachandran and Hirstein ( 1999 ), also notes the importance of several artwork qualities. He suggests that neural structures that evolved to respond to specific visual stimuli respond more vigorously to primitives. This may be both based on previous experience, while also explaining the specific power of abstract art. In later theoretical work, he explained how other design cues might further impact the viewer. For example, artists might play with certain art-processing elements—violating physics of shadows, reflections, colors, and contours—thereby engendering specific brain responses (Chatterjee, 2010 ). Artists' use of complex interactions between visual components within art may also create a specifically powerful response by causing interplay between the dorsal (“where”) and ventral (“what”) vision systems within the first and second stages. Because the dorsal stream is sensitive to luminance differences, motion, and spatial location, while the ventral stream is sensitive to simple form and color, their interaction may lead to a shimmering quality of water or the sun's glow on the horizon, as in impressionist paintings (see also Livingstone, 2002 ).

Suggested additions

Finally, in regards to possible additions, besides those discussed above, the model is heavily influenced by both beauty and visual research, as well as philosophical ideas of (e.g., Kantian) disinterest (Vartanian and Nadal, 2007 ). While the emphasis on detached reception and visual pleasure may adhere to classical (pre-modern) art examples, it does not touch many aspects of modern art experience. Notably this includes a more robust or differentiated explanation for emotions, and negative evaluations. While the integrated nature of the model does allow for discussion of what brain areas may be tied to changes in perception/emotion, there is no explanation of the driving force that may bring these about. This is especially clear in Chatterjee's ( 2011 ) discussion of the evolutionary role of art. As he explains, focusing on liking or other aesthetic judgment as our sole focus would be maladaptive. If “the most profound …experiences involve a refined liking, often described as awe or feeling the sublime, in which wanting has been tossed aside, […and where] individuals lose themselves in the experience,” the individual would be rendered “vulnerable”—“Entering an aesthetic attitude is dangerous.” However, this does not take into account adaptations in the viewer. Most notably, we would recommend adding longitude changes (see box on far right), relating to making special or Social/Health . We would also suggest adding an indication of the “feed forward loop,” noted in the theoretical writing, and which appears to be placed between decision and attention stages, as well as contextual aspects such as perceiver and art qualities.

Locher et al.: early and intermediate visual processing

Locher et al. ( 2007 , 2010 ) also introduced a model, which deals with early/intermediate processing, primarily driven by empirical approaches to vision research. This model was conceived to describe the relationship between eye movements and scan patterns when processing visual art, 6 and takes a somewhat different approach to the model layout, centering on three overlapping elements. The “person context” relates to both the personality inputs and the internal processes of the viewer. “Artifact context” refers to the physical aspects of the art. The “interaction space” details the physical meeting of viewer and art, mainly pertaining to eye movement and other outputs regarding actions. For the purpose of unification with the other approaches, we have moved these inputs to the model's left side and moved the processing stages to the middle (Figure ​ (Figure2 2 ).

Locher model (adapted from Locher, 1996 ; Locher et al., 2010 ) .

The model involves two processing stages: First, similar to Chatterjee and following previous theory regarding vision (Marr, 1982 ; Rasche and Koch, 2002 ), Locher et al. argue that art viewing, like other perception, begins with a rapid survey of the global content of the pictorial field producing an initial “gist” impression (e.g., Locher, 2015 ) of global structural organization, composition and semantic meaning. This processing alone can activate memories, lead to emotion, and contribute to a first impression/evaluation. The detected gist information and resulting impression then drive the second stage, involving a more focused period of attention on form and functionality. This stage also involves focus on details or specific aspects of pictorial features in order to satisfy cognitive curiosity and to develop aesthetic appreciation. Information is gathered by moving the eyes over art in a sequence of rapid jumps, followed by fixations.

The authors posit that interaction in the second stage is also driven by the “Central Executive” (blue box inside “person context”)—consisting of “effortful control processes that direct voluntary attention” in a top-down, cognitively driven manner (Locher et al., 2010 , p. 71). This also forms the “crucial interface” between perception, memory, attention, and action (depicted in the model's box labeled “spatio-temporal aspects of encoding”), and performs four important executive processes (following Baddeley, 2007 ): focusing, dividing, or switching attention, and providing a link between working and long-term memory. Thus there is argued to be a continuous, dynamic bottom-up/top-down interaction inside the Central Executive, involving assessed properties (form) and functionality of the object, and “viewer sensory-motor-perceptual” (i.e., visual) processes, as well as viewer cognitive structure. “Thus, as an aesthetic experience progresses, the artifact presents continually changing, ‘action driven’ affordances” (Locher et al., 2010 , p. 71). These “influence the timing, rhythm, flow, and feel of the interaction.” Ultimately, “together the top-down and bottom-up component processes underlying thought and action create both meaning and aesthetic quality,” defining art experience. Like many of the other authors, Locher et al. note both automatic and more deliberate processing. Especially in the first phase, many aspects specific to a work—complexity, symmetry, organizational balance—are argued to be detected “automatically or pre-attentively by genetically determined, hard-wired” mechanisms (p. 73).

The model especially involves focus on eye movements ( Action ). The authors' research—using eye tracking, as well as museum based observations and participant descriptions—specifically shows evidence for the initial gist processing, relating to a movement of the eyes over a large visual area and showing attention to elements perceived as compositional units (Locher et al., 2007 ; see also Locher and Nodine, 1987 ; Locher, 1996 ; Nodine and Krupinski, 2003 ). They also showed a later switch to focus on details as well as expressiveness and style/form elements. This also gives new evidence for discussion of Appraisal and Meaning -making, which can result from this sequential looking. They note that the stage of early processing can itself play an important role in these outcomes. Further, within their most recent model discussion, the authors classify three channels of information that one might create. These are composed of functional or conceptual information, inherent information (via affordances communicated in the object), and augmented information, presumably that which is changed or developed through viewing ( Novelty ). These outcomes would most likely come through directed looking in the second stage. The authors also note that emotion ( Affect ) may be evoked throughout the viewing process, however, they do not address how.

The model notably argues for “two driving forces”: the “artifact itself” and a “person context that reflects the user's cognitive structures” (Locher et al., 2010 , p. 72). With respect to the artwork, the authors (2010, p. 73) cite research (e.g., Creusen and Schoormans, 2005 ), which suggests “at least six ways” in which appearance influences evaluation and choice, including conveying aesthetic and symbolic value, providing quality impression, functional characteristics and ease of use, drawing attention via novelty, and communicating “ease of categorization.”

Regarding the viewer, the authors note that this input “contains several types of [acquired] information (semantic, episodic, and strategic),” and is also the “repository of one's personality, motivations, and emotional state,” all of which influence, in a top-down fashion, how viewers “perceive,” and “evaluate” (Locher et al., 2010 , p. 73). They note that this might play a role in the second phase, where memory “spontaneously activates subsets of featural and semantic information in the user's knowledge base,” including the user's level of aesthetic sophistication, experience, tastes, education, culture, and personality. In addition, they note that “individuals are capable of rapidly detecting and categorizing learned properties of a stimulus,” for example characteristics of the artistic style and a composition's pleasantness and interestingness. “These responses occur by a rapid and direct match in activated memory between the structural features of an art object…and a viewer's knowledge” (p. 76). They also suggest that emotion itself may be an input. Locher ( 2015 ) also suggests that expertise of a viewer may play a particularly important role in the initial gist impression as well. For example, experts may give more importance to the initial impression and resulting affective reaction when appraising value or authenticity of artworks.

Locher et al. ( 2010 ) furthermore note importance of context. This includes social-cultural and socio-economic factors related to the object, its historical significance, symbolic associations and social value. These “contribute to a user's self-perception of his or her cultural taste” or aspirations (p. 78). These aspects are also argued to influence art interaction in a cognitively-driven, top-down fashion. However, the actual tie to outcomes is not discussed. Other mentioned factors include the environment, available time for viewing, and previous mood or exposures. For example, they cite studies in which individuals were primed by giving candy, resulting in better mood, which positively influenced evaluations, attention to details, and more balanced patterns of eye movement.

An integration of the discussion of action/eye-movement with emotion or evaluations would be useful. The authors also tend to place most aspects within the second stage and do not explain how possible sequences or patterns might lead to certain outputs within experience, nor how experience changes. This may also be a result of the lack of defined temporal flow in the model design. Interestingly, when Locher et al. ( 2007 ) gave individuals the opportunity to verbalize their initial gist reaction (roughly the first seven seconds), they did not find changes in the way individuals described artworks after this period, raising questions regarding the present delineation between stage one and two. They also do not consider longitudinal aspects. Better explanation of “augmented information”—one of the three channels of information argued to be created from looking in stage two—might give a point of entry for this. Further, in their empirical support for the model and its outputs, they note that their artworks were created by renowned artists “and are, therefore, presumably visually right” (Locher et al., 2007 , p. 74). However, this raises the question of what makes a work “right,” and how less visually-successful art might be processed.

Leder et al.: intermediate stages and aesthetic appreciation and judgments

A model that has its strengths in linking early and late processing, with focus on intermediate stages, is that of Leder and colleagues (Leder et al., 2004 ; updated in Leder, 2013 ; Leder and Nadal, 2014 ). This has also become perhaps the most prominent approach for empirical study (Vartanian and Nadal, 2007 ).

Based largely on the cognitive work of Kreitler, Kreitler, and Berlyne above (Leder et al., 2005 ), their model considers art experience as a series of information-processing stages, focusing largely on perceptual attunement to various formal factors in art. However, it also integrates this sensory information with “conceptual and abstracted” meaning (p. 12) as well as emotion and body responses. As shown in Figure ​ Figure3, 3 , after an initial pre-classification (most presumably regarding situational context), the model proposes five stages (Leder et al., 2004 ), occurring in sequence: (1) “perceptual analysis,” where an object is initially subjected to analysis of low-level visual features (e.g., shape, contrast); followed by (2) “implicit memory integration,” in which art is processed via previous experiences, expertise, and particular schema held by the viewer. This is followed by (3) an “explicit classification,” where one attunes to conceptual or formal/artistic factors, such as content and style, and (4) “cognitive mastering,” in which one creates and/or discovers meaning by making interpretations, associations, and links to existing knowledge. The process ends in (5) a stage of “evaluation,” where processing outcomes combine, culminating in both aesthetic judgment and the potential for “aesthetic emotions.” The model also makes a distinction between “explicit” and “implicit” processing (see timeline), with the first two (or possibly three) stages occurring automatically or with little conscious awareness (Tinio, 2013 ). In latter stages, there is then a component of self-aware or self-referential processing, where the perceiver “evaluates his affective state and uses this information to stop the processing once a satisfactory state is achieved” (Leder et al., 2004 , p. 502).

Leder model (adapted from Leder et al., 2004 ; Leder and Nadal, 2014 ) .

This model offers a number of advancements from previous work. Because all stages feed into a continuously updated state (Leder et al., 2004 ), it affords a more holistic understanding of how one comes to evaluations or responses. In addition it incorporates a number of factors—emotion, viewer experience, and formal aspects of artworks—to these stages, which partially influence final results. Thus, the model can be used for both a top-down, mechanism-based evaluation of the general processing of art, or for bottom-up, experience-based testing of hypotheses for specific sequences that may inform particular varieties of response (Vartanian and Nadal, 2007 ). Because of its emphasis on fundamental cognitive mechanisms, the model has also been used in a number of areas outside art—e.g., design, dance, and music (Leder, 2013 for review).

Primarily, this model proposes two outputs—aesthetic Appraisal and Affect . These are mainly explained as a result of successful visual/cognitive processing. The authors claim that part of the pleasure derived from looking is the feeling of having grasped the meaning, thus understanding an artwork results in reward-related brain activation. Looking at Figure ​ Figure3, 3 , emotion or assessment come about by moving through each stage, especially “cognitive mastery,” to a successful end. This argument is in keeping with a number of approaches—most notably Berlyne's concept of curiosity/interest and Bartlett's ( 1932 ) ( 1932 ; see Belke et al., 2010 ) “effort after meaning”—which stress importance of intellectual engagement or understanding as core dimensions of positive response. The model also notes meaning-making (Meaning) , suggesting that this comes through classification and implicit memory integration in which one connects a specific work to an interpretation. Finally, the model accounts for profound or Aesthetic experience. This is argued to derive from the natural extrapolation of the cognitive mastery process, whereby the more completely one can master a work, the more harmonious and pleasurable the outcome, occasionally to the extent that one experiences a pleasurable, “flow”-type experience (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990 ; Leder et al., 2004 ).

The model also mentions several inputs (left side, Figure ​ Figure1). 1 ). Primarily, the stages of implicit memory integration and explicit classification are argued to be influenced by previous art experience—determining whether one first sees, for example, a “post-impressionist work,” a “sunflower,” or a “Van Gogh” (Belke et al., 2010 ). Previous experience or expertise also impact assessments of prototypicality and fluency within the second stage—which influence positive/negative emotions and evaluations (Leder et al., 2004 , 2005 ). Explicit classification also involves processing of style and content, driven by personal viewer characteristics such as knowledge and taste (Leder et al., 2005 ; also Hager et al., 2012 ) and understanding of art historical context (e.g., see Bullot and Reber, 2013 ). More recently, an updated discussion of the model in regards to emotion (Leder et al., 2015 ) suggested that the switch between aesthetic or more pragmatic approaches in “explicit classification” may be driven by a check of one's desires for emotion or mood state. In cognitive mastering, where meaning is extracted, lay persons may also be more likely to draw on self-related interpretations like feelings, personal memories, or experience, while experts may rely more on art-specific style or concepts (Augustin and Leder, 2006 ; Hager et al., 2012 , p. 321). Leder ( 2013 ) extends this even to classifying objects as “Art.” He notes that top-down classification before the actual episode, may affect experience by engaging an aesthetic mode, regulating hedonic expectations, and thus modulating intensity of emotion or interest.

In regards to the actual outcome of viewing art, the exact relation of specific emotions or evaluations to certain given inputs largely remains unclear. As also noted by Leder ( 2013 ), there is need of a more integrated explanation of how emotion or other physiological responses might tie to processing experience. While the model notes the role of personality and experience as a driver of outcomes, and the specific stages where self components may have an impact, it does not consider how these aspects are actually integrated or acted upon within psychological experience (see also Silvia below) 7 . There is also need for more explanation of how art-viewing can alter perceptions or understanding within experience (Novelty, Transcendence, Self Adjustment). While acknowledging potential for such results, it remains unclear what must happen within specific encounters for a change of the next viewing moment or the next experience. Presumably, the process might follow our additions (far right: Figure ​ Figure3), 3 ), where specific mastery in one encounter (or even within one stage), mediated by positive feedback or emotion/evaluation, would allow one to add to memories/experiences, which would then modify the self. A related output might also be posited for art's longitudinal impacts (Social, Health).

Another issue involves disruptions. Recent work by Leder's group (Jakesch and Leder, 2009 ) has shown the importance of ambiguity or breakdowns in the mastery process. This is displayed in the “evaluation” stage, and may create a more intense experience by causing one to undergo another loop of the model. However, the specifics of how these arise and create intense vs., for example, negative reactions could be more fully addressed. As it stands, the model appears to afford only a one-way mechanism for improving mastery, which leads to pleasurable experience. This raises the question of how one overcomes difficulty or finds new interpretations (Leder, 2013 ). The model has also not been connected to specific negative outcomes or physical action. These could presumably be placed as one more component of affective state (bottom).

The late stages: Silvia et al.: appraisal theory and emotion with art

Several approaches also expand past the models above to consider in more detail later processing elements. First, the work of Silvia (e.g., Silvia, 2005a , b ) specifically builds on the ideas of Leder, emphasizing information processing and visual art. However, Silvia's approach focuses on the mechanisms for arriving at specific emotions and artwork assessments, while it simultaneously questions previous psychobiological, prototypicality, and processing fluency approaches.

Silvia (Silvia and Brown, 2007 ) argues that past processing theories had two major limitations: First, their use of fluency or typicality as a main determinate of positive or negative reactions leads to difficulties in explaining why specific emotions would arise beyond this basic affect. Specifically, previous theories could not discriminate between emotions. At best, they proposed an undifferentiated feeling of aversion or interest. Second, reactions to works could be both positive or negative, but this would depend on other contextual factors such as personality rather than just ability to fluently process. Further, it is especially “hard to derive” what feelings arise from not-fluent or non-prototypical interactions with art (Reber et al., 2004 ). In response, Silvia proposed an approach based in appraisal theory (e.g., Scherer et al., 2006 ) that connects reactions with the personal relationship between viewer and art. He argues that each emotion has a distinct appraisal structure or set of evaluations that evoke the response. These evaluations are inherently contextual and subjective, with the central assumption being that evaluations, not the object, are the local cause of experience.

As shown in Figure ​ Figure4, 4 , where we have produced a model based on his arguments, Silvia proposes that responses can be broken into two main components: (1) There is a “novelty check” (Silvia, 2005a , p. 122), which is connected to processing of “collative” factors (following Berlyne)—referring to the relative understandability, interestingness or uniqueness of art. This is also tied to the matching of object to the existing schema or expectations of the viewer, and might be further divided into both basic “congruence” and the relevance that the object or the act of matching has to one's goals or self (Silvia and Brown, 2007 ), with the output being a feeling of relative ease and understanding. (2) There is also “coping potential,” or estimate of relative control or efficacy within the situation itself (Silvia, 2005a ). Throughout his writing, he also includes a third factor, relating to (3) relative importance of the object/situation to the self.

Silvia model (created by the authors for this paper) .

For example, in the case of interest (Silvia, 2005a , 2006 ), the appraisal structure would consist of: (1) a judgment of high novelty/complexity (i.e., low schema congruence), combined with (2) high coping potential, and (3) low self relevance or little importance for one's goals or expectations and thus low perceived threat. In contrast, anger (Cooper and Silvia, 2009 ) would combine appraising an event as (1) inconsistent with one's schema (low schema congruence), but also (2) with low coping potential (e.g., as action beyond one's control) and (3) closely tied to one's goals/self. Because of this structure, Silvia concludes that in any situation, different people will have different responses to these processing checks, and thus different emotions to the same stimulus, or the same person may even have different emotions depending on context (Silvia, 2005a ). Like Leder, Silvia also emphasizes that responses need not require overt awareness.

This model also makes an important contribution, especially regarding art impact. The two main outcomes, as in the above models, are Affect and Appraisal . Silvia however adds to the previous models by proposing pathways for specific reactions (Silvia and Warburton, 2006 ), giving a frame for empirical assessment of experience. By assessing the processing checks noted above, typically via Likert-type assessments, 8 the model can explain why people have different emotions to the same event, and why different personality traits, skills, and values can predict responses (Silvia and Brown, 2007 ). This also enables movement beyond simple pleasure and preference, to surprise, confusion (Silvia and Nusbaum, 2011 ) as well as Negative responses such as anger, disgust, contempt (Silvia, 2009 ). As shown in Figure ​ Figure5, 5 , these are specifically explained as arising from low congruency and differences in relative coping and self relevance. Beyond emotion, Silvia also groups outputs into clusters (Cooper and Silvia, 2009 , p. 111), noting that appraisal theories “are componential theories,” which include facial, vocal, postural expressions or other Actions , as well as Physiological response.

Pelowski model (adapted from Pelowski and Akiba, 2011 ) .

The model also posits categories of responses that specifically tie to different self-art relations. He notes “knowledge emotions” (interest, confusion, surprise), which are tied to intellectual matching of stimuli to schema, typically in high coping contexts. “Hostile emotions” (anger, disgust, contempt), hinge on threat to goals/self. “Self-conscious” emotions (pride, shame, embarrassment) tie to appraising events as congruent or incongruent with one's goals, and are also viewed as being caused by oneself rather than external events (Silvia, 2009 ). In the knowledge emotion category, Silvia (2009, p. 49) also notes the role of meta-cognitive reflection on the self. These emotions “stem from people's appraisals of what they know, what they expect to happen, and what they think they can learn and understand.” With self-conscious emotions, “to experience feelings like pride, shame, guilt, regret…[we] must have a sense of self and the ability to reflect upon what the self has done” (p. 50). In both cases this reflection might act as a conduit to Adjustment /learning and/or creation of Meaning . Especially knowledge emotions may “motivate learning, thinking, and exploring, actions that foster the growth of knowledge” (Silvia, 2006 , p. 140), and would come about as an output of one model cycle. It is also presumably through the earlier matching of schema to art—or rather in mismatches, paired with acceptable levels of coping/relevance—that one encounters Novelty or changed perception.

In the discussion of hostile emotional responses, the role of the self relates to attack on identity or schema. Responses stem from a “deliberate trespass” (Silvia, 2009 , p. 49) against one's goals/values. These responses are tied to action that is often given as a means of maintaining or protecting the self, motivating aggression and self-assertion (Silvia, 2009 ). Finally, he notes potential longitudinal impact ( Self Adj .), claiming “a consistent finding …is that training in art affects people's emotional responses…[and] changes people's emotional responses by changing how they think about art” (Silvia, 2006 , p. 140). He links this especially to knowledge emotions experienced in the art processing experience.

Silvia also explicitly connects responses with inputs, specifically personality. He notes that perhaps the most important aspect is how events relate to important goals or values (Silvia and Brown, 2007 ). This was empirically considered, for example, in his finding of changes in correlation between complexity/coping and interest depending on other individual personality factors (Silvia, 2005a ). Elsewhere, in a study on chills and absorption, Silvia found that people high in “openness to experience” as well as art expertise reported more such responses (Silvia and Nusbaum, 2011 , p. 208).

Adjustments

Questions remain, especially regarding the ordering of the three assessment checks. Specifically, while previous writing tends to present them with only a rough order, one could argue that this would most likely not be the case. One might question whether there is a primacy of assessment for either schema congruence or self relevance. It could be argued that with low relevance, the outcome of the congruence check has little meaning. On the other hand, individuals may be predisposed to constant checks of congruence, relating to basic processing or self-preservation, and thus this assessment may often come first. Another question regards when and how we reflect on our experience. While Silvia does explain reactions in terms of self-related assessments, he does not detail exactly what kind of mechanism this would require. This is most clear in discussion of hostile reactions. Arguing against prior fluency or prototypicality approaches, Cooper and Silvia (2009, p. 113) claim “it seems unlikely” that people have hostile reactions to art “because they find it insufficiently pleasing, prototypical, meaningful.” Instead, “people appraise art in ways that evoke hostile emotions, …in short, some art makes some people mad.” However, this argument is rather circular. Therefore, it would be useful to go one step further, and visually articulate—within a model— why this might be so at the individual level. Similar discussions could also be made of specific actions or body responses. His approach also does not divide between automatic and more reflective experience. This question, he notes is “an intriguing, cutting-edge area of appraisal research” (Silvia, 2005b , p. 6). While noting that we might be changed from our experience and that emotional responses may change throughout art exposure, there is no explanation of how this might develop within experience itself (Silvia, 2006 ).

Pelowski et al.: discrepant and transformative reactions to art

The model of Pelowski (Pelowski and Akiba, 2009 , 2011 ) was also conceived as an extension of the Leder approach, with the addition of some appraisal theory elements, and attempts to refocus on the specific discussion of changes or evolutions in responses within the art interaction experience.

Pelowski et al. argue against a typical emphasis on harmony, fluency, or immediate understanding, and instead advocate a more labored process of discrepancy and subsequent adjustment. Pelowski and Akiba ( 2011 ) note that many past discussions of art experience—both theoretical and anecdotal—involve some means of disruption or break from the flow of everyday life experience. It is these untypical reactions that are argued to actually constitute the impact and importance of art, acting to disrupt a viewer's pre-expectations and forcing upon them a new means of perception or insight (see also Pelowski et al., 2012 ; Muth et al., 2015 for similar argument). Yet, these very qualities are often eliminated from the study of art perception. They further argue that models have come to “equate art perception to either an emotional/empathic alignment of viewer to artist or artwork” or to a cognitive “assessment of an artwork's …information” via matching of schema to the object of perception, leaving models “without a means of accounting for fundamental change within art experience” (Pelowski and Akiba, 2011 , p. 82). Like Silvia, they also argue that current approaches cannot describe how individuals arrive at specific reactions, limiting researchers' ability to unite cognitive, emotional, and evaluative reactions within experience.

Their model (Figure ​ (Figure5) 5 ) posits five stages, beginning with a specific conception of expectations or viewer identity. Pelowski and Akiba ( 2011 , p. 87) argues that viewers carry “fundamental meanings regarding themselves, other persons, objects, or behaviors—‘Who am I?’ ‘What is art?’ ‘How does art relate to me?”’ which collectively combine to form what they refer to as the “ideal self image.” Updating previous work by Carver ( 1996 ), Pelowski and Akiba ( 2011 ) specifically posit a theoretical construction for this self, which can be considered as a hierarchical pyramid with core traits (“be goals”) at the top, and branching down to expectations for general actions (“do goals”), and further subdivided into more specific schema. Through connection of low-level schema to core ideas of the self, all action (such as viewing art) then involves application of this structure. This occurs in tandem with human drives to protect the self image, through cognitive filters that lead attention away from potentially damaging information. Thus “success or failure in perception, as well as what individuals can [initially] perceive or understand, are a result of this postulate system” (pp. 85–87), and provide the mechanism for understanding reaction to art.

The authors then propose three main outcomes. First, individuals attempt to successfully match schema to art by classifying and understanding, coinciding with the “cognitive mastery” in the Leder model. They also acknowledge that this outcome is a general goal of most experience, and may induce pleasure, harmony, or even flow-type states. However, because this outcome marks a matching of schema to perception, mastery also would coincide with a “facile” reaction to art, reinforcing previous expectations and cutting off possibility for new perception or insight. Moving past this point, they argue, requires some “discrepancy” within experience. This can involve any number of aspects—e.g., between expectations for perception and art, between meaning and prior concepts, between bodily reactions and expectations for how one should act. In each case discrepancy acts to “bump” an individual out of their preconceived frame (Pelowski et al., 2014 , p. 4), forcing response or adjustment.

Upon discrepancy, the model then posits that individuals move to a “secondary control” stage in which they try to diminish or escape from the discrepant element. This is accompanied by actions—e.g., re-classifying art as bad or meaningless, diminishing importance of the encounter, or physically moving away—which avoid a questioning of higher-order aspects of the self image, and also explain the negative emotional or evaluative experiences sometimes had with art. On the other hand, if viewers persist, they may instead eventually alter their own schema in order to better approach the art. This is argued to be most likely when art-viewing has a fundamental tie to the self (representing a higher order goal) and one cannot easily escape (Pelowski and Akiba, 2011 ). This change also coincides with a shift from direct perception to a more meta-cognitive perspective, in which viewers give up previous attempts at control, acknowledge discrepancy, and eventually create new schema for viewing the art. They conclude that it is this process whereby one “transforms” the self, that can be connected to change, novelty, or insight, and coincides with highly positive emotion, and deepened or harmonious engagement.

This model is especially important for explaining both highly positive ( Aesthetic ), and Negative , as well as insightful or Novel and Transcendent reactions. The model also unites these within one progressive experience. It is argued that in order to arrive at the final outcome a viewer moves through all antecedent stages (Pelowski et al., 2012 ). In this vein, one of the model's key benefits is its division into specific stages, tied to application, protection or adjustment of the self. Thus the authors can attach general theory regarding various reactions noted for each of these events (see also Leder, 2013 ). Notably, they suggest emotion or Affect , which, following Silvia, would arise in specific clusters depending on the positive or negative experience of applying the self. They argue that empirical analysis of viewing art would be expected to show a progression from no emotion in the facile stage, to confusion, anxiety, and tension, followed by anger in secondary control, and finally self-awareness, epiphany, or happiness in the aesthetic stage. This division has also been supported by recent empirical evidence (Pelowski et al., 2012 ; Pelowski, 2015 ). Similar results are also tied to Physiology , specifically heart rate and skin conductance. They argue that the first stage should show little physiological response, while secondary control would lead to sympathetic (fight or flight), schema change to both parasympathetic and sympathetic, and the final stage to parasympathetic return to homeostasis. This final outcome was also recently tied to crying (Pelowski, 2015 ). They also suggest specific Action (need to leave) in the “secondary control” stage.

Regarding Appraisal , they also argue that evaluation ending in cognitive mastery may reveal appraisals that aid in ignoring or assimilating discrepancy (Pelowski and Akiba, 2011 ). On the other hand, in secondary control, self-protectionary strategies would manifest in negative hedonic appraisals, as well as lower “potency or activity” (e.g., Osgood et al., 1957 ). They further consider Meaning , dividing outcomes into three modes: (1) initial assessment for surface or mimetic qualities in cognitive mastery, (2) meaninglessness in secondary control, and (3) “a fundamental change in viewer-stimuli relation” in the last stages, where art meaning is tied to metacognitive reflection on its impact and the preceding psychological experience (Pelowski et al., 2012 , p. 249).

The model is also particularly unique in its explanation of changes or transformation with art. Recently, Pelowski et al. ( 2014 ) connected this outcome to goals of museum/art education, and pointed out its equivalence to discussions of insight or creativity. By breaking from the mastery process through the introduction of meta-cognitive assessment and schema-change, followed by re-engaging in final mastery with a new set of schema, they argue, “we introduce a means of explaining the transcendental quality of art” and of “connecting the existing conception of mastery to …novelty and personal growth” (Pelowski and Akiba, 2011 , p. 90). They also posit longitudinal impact, tied to changes in schema or the “hierarchical self.” Especially the aesthetic outcome may manifest in re-evaluation of a viewer's own self image, which may be detectible in paired self-evaluations before and after viewing ( Self Adj .). They also argue that both the abortive or transformative outcome may cause change in individual's relationship with the class of art or artists, involving hedonic and potency evaluations ( Social ), and may spur individuals to seek out/avoid other encounters.

Regarding inputs, the model considers the role of specific expectations or personality, and goes further to place these within a theory of the self. The authors note that “those who have a strong relationship to a stimulus, or high expectations for success…are [more] likely to find themselves in the intractable position” leading to aesthetic experience (Pelowski et al., 2012 , pp. 246–247). This might be tied to training in the arts, or might affect those who identify as art lovers, who have a high need to find meaning in artworks, or who have the general need for control. More recently, the authors have also taken into account the physical and social situation, noting that the environment, especially when one is among others who one considers more knowledgeable, may be likely to evoke facile or negative experience, tying to a need for protecting the self (Pelowski et al., 2014 ).

At the same time, the model has a conceptual focus, laying emphasis on schema and overlooking much of the way individuals might often respond to art (basic perceptions, mimetic evaluations, or pre-reflective experience). A recent review (Leder, 2013 ) also noted that it is “more descriptive than formalized,” requiring transformation into “more operative versions with process-based rules,” quantifying what feature of a representation at one stage affects latter stages.

Cupchik: detached/aesthetic and pragmatic approaches to art

Finally, the theories of Cupchik have also not yet been placed into a unified model, but have individually been instrumental in empirical art research. These also involve several themes which can be connected to form an understanding of art experience, 9 and thus were deemed an ideal target for this paper (Figure ​ (Figure6 6 ).

Cupchik model (created by the authors for this paper) .

Similar to other cognitive approaches, Cupchik views art experience as a meeting of object, environment, and personality factors (Cupchik and Gignac, 2007 ). In order to understand their interaction, a main theme regards two modes of responses (Cupchik, 2011 , p. 321): “everyday pragmatic” and “aesthetic.” The way that these modes are integrated, and often which of the two the viewer employs, determine the outcomes of experience. The pragmatic involves a predominantly cognitive, schema-based assessment, in which one assesses meaning and significance. The “aesthetic,” on the other hand, involves integrating context, memory, and physical/sensory qualities “associated with style and symbolic information” (p. 321). This involves a more reactive or “holistic” appraisal “in which specific codes for interpreting are bound with affective responses that map onto dimensions of pleasure or arousal.” Cupchik ( 2006 , 2013 ) also posits an alternative naming for this division, suggesting a contrast between “subjective engagement” and “objective detachment.” While subjective engagement is based on intense personal responses, objective detachment reflects a more intellectual treatment 10 .

In engaging art, one may switch between modes in response to different information or one's processing experience. Cupchik ( 2011 , 2013 ) notes that the two modes' “extreme conditions” can also lead to unwanted experience. This would involve either “underdistancing,” in which subject matter reminds us of troubling aspects of our personal lives, or causes unwanted emotion, or “overdistancing,” when design aspects push one too far away (as in some avant-garde art), with little emotional involvement (Kemp and Cupchik, 2007 ). The most pleasant responses may occur when individuals find an “aesthetic middle” (Fechner, 1978 ) between absorption and detachment—“utmost decrease of distance without its disappearance” (Cupchik, 2006 , p. 217). Cupchik ( 2013 ) also argued that one appeal of art is the opportunity at reconciliation between modes. While he argues that it is not possible to be in both modes at the same time, we can “shift rapidly between the two” (2011, p. 321). Thus, it is “the capacity of a work of art to be grasped, elaborated, and experienced in several systems” that makes it compelling (p. 294).

The model can further be articulated through its discussion of outputs. First is its discussion of Appraisal , which it connects to the aesthetic or reactive mode. Cupchik notes potential for Meaning making , via reflective and/or pragmatic processing. Affect is also noted. In an earlier publication, Cupchik ( 1993 , p. 179) suggested that two kinds of emotional processes might in fact be distinguished, which would coincide with either the analytical/schema-based or holistic/experiential processing modes. These can be termed “dimensional” and “category” reactions. The former are closely tied to bodily states of pleasure/arousal caused by a particular stimulus. The latter pertain “to primary emotions,” such as happiness, interest, surprise, fear, anger, and emphasizing spontaneity or empathic reaction to art. More recently, Cupchik ( 2011 , p. 321) suggested that the former affect type may accompany aesthetic experiences “from the first moment of perception,” giving as evidence studies involving displaying artworks of differing complexities or affective contents for very short durations, and where participants would avoid a second viewing based on their ability to detect lack of order or unwanted emotional valence 11 . In turn, the primary emotions are associated with longer exposure durations “that enable a person to situate the work in the context of life experiences” (Cupchik and Gignac, 2007 ). He also notes that this often touches the reflective mode of appraising, which is more closely related to emotions linked to the self (Cupchik, 2011 ). He suggests that both cases may lead to Negative affect. This would come from either: (1) difficulty in initially processing art, leading to hedonic aversion through the reactive/aesthetic mode, (2) “under-distancing,” where the work is too close to one's self and/or a troubling situation, or (3) negatively perceived content in art as processed in the reflective mode.

Cupchik ( 2011 , p. 321) also argues for adaptive impact from emotional art response ( Self Adj .), noting especially “primary emotions” have adaptive value, “because they link the person to meaningful situations.” In turn, the reflective mode (Cupchik, 2011 , p. 321) can be related to the principle of “emotional elaboration,” which implies that a person searches for underlying layers of meaning, in part due to the prompting from their affective experience, and might be connected to growth/self-adjustment (Kemp and Cupchik, 2007 ). Especially when individuals are able to find the proper emotional distance, they may enter a state in which they break from a “normal outlook” and achieve new points of view or approaches (Cupchik, 2006 , p. 216). He also suggests that this can lead to a state of consciousness involving “suspension in the experience of time—a frozen moment in which the person and the work become one” (Cupchik, 2013 , p. 85). This event then might be connected to Aesthetic experiences, as well as Novelty and Transformation . His idea of aesthetic engagement has the posited impact of returning an individual to homeostasis or harmonious interaction with the environment, which might serve as an avenue to longitudinal impact ( Health ).

At the same time, Cupchik and Wroblewski-Raya ( 1998 , p. 65) note that while art can be used for wish fulfillment or revelation, it can also evoke “ego-defense.” “The subject matter …might also resonate with unresolved issues and needs.” This might lead to a “defensive intellectualizing response” in which the individual escapes or avoids processing, by, for example, focusing on its style or other benign elements. This could also lead to an adaptive moment. “The artwork …mirrors the person's life and externalizes what has been a private concern,” thereby providing “tension release.” This may involve ability to adopt some distance, which “permits the person to experience the emotion without having to address its consequences.” 12 This too might connect to a change in perception ( Novelty ) or insight, while the former outcome may lead to Negative emotion/responses. Cupchik ( 2006 ) also notes that while one can of course employ a pragmatic approach, in order to appreciate art as “Art,” one must shift to an aesthetic frame.

Regarding inputs, Cupchik primarily notes personality. For example, in an empirical study (see Cupchik and Gignac, 2007 ) he showed the impact of previous experience when determining what aspects a viewer might attend to, concluding that art-naive viewers generally focus on subject matter because it is easier to discern than style. The latter is more likely to be attended to by experts, which he connects with a reflective mode and desire for challenge 13 . On the other hand, much like Leder, he discusses the importance of previous experience when adopting an “aesthetic” mode. Individuals “bring appropriate codes of interpretation and engagement. [One takes] this for granted until encountering a new form of artistic expression,” which individuals do not know how to respond to (Cupchik, 2013 , p. 73). Cupchik ( 2006 , p. 214) also notes the present and/or desired affective state may play a role in art selection and attention. “People can intentionally modulate their states of pleasure or arousal by selecting stimuli that possess a needed quality.” This “wish fulfillment” (Cupchik and Wroblewski-Raya, 1998 , p. 65) might itself be largely involved when we take a “reactive” mode of appraising art, allowing return to homeostasis (Cupchik, 2011 ). Finally, Cupchik ( 2013 , p. 85) notes the implicit role of personality in discussion of more profound or harmonious experiences. He suggests that proper distancing may come through cases where “a work expressively embodies a person's sense of identity.” One may alter the mode of appraisal to escape from implications raised by art. He showed this by confronting viewers, who identified as lonely, with paintings depicting lonely scenes, and who were more likely to focus on style than content (Cupchik and Wroblewski-Raya, 1998 ).

Unclear aspects regard the two modes of appraisal. Much of Cupchik's discussion implies that these modes might occur roughly in parallel, or that individuals can actively select which mode to employ. However, his research on short and long time sequences seems to imply that we immediately take a reactive approach to assess the basic object. This would seem to fit to the work of Leder, Chatterjee etc. This raises the question of whether one mode might influence the other or how this might occur. Even more, his discussion of under-distancing and its ability to lead to ego defense or learning and growth, might imply a switch between an initial reactive to a reflective mode, at a late stage of experience. It may be useful to parse what would be these outcomes' differences.

Discussion and conclusion

This paper had the goal of taking existing theoretical explanations of the psychological processing of art, and placing these into a unified visual basis for the purpose of articulating how, and if , they address specific outcomes from our art experience. These outcomes were also tied to inputs or contextual factors, and general processing stages. Through this review, we hoped to both provide a new tool for discussing the modeling of art, displaying how models may differ or overlap, and providing a more general window into the present state of art psychology research. We conclude with a short discussion of these models' synthesis, and suggestions or implications for future research.

The state of art modeling: some agreement on outputs; many paths for how they are achieved; many avenues for empirical investigation

First, concerning outputs or psychological implications, as noted in the introduction, these factors might be said to drive art's psychological interest, and are thus the prime targets for modeling itself. This was also a main contribution of our paper, which sought to identify a range of potential outputs and label these when they were considered in the specific models. For the purpose of quick comparison, all outputs are summarized in Table ​ Table1, 1 , which denotes whether or not they are explicitly or implicitly included in each of the reviewed models, or omitted. This table also provides a similar review for inputs. For more extensive comparison, we have also provided a brief synopsis of each model's specific explanations for outputs in Table ​ Table2 2 (Parts 1 and 2) .

Overview of explicitly mentioned inputs and outputs in models of art experience .

Circle (○) signifies explicit mention and discussion of Input/Output factor by author(s). Dot (•) signifies implicit mention. Dash (–) signifies no mention .

Models of art experience and noted Outputs .

Output descriptions based on authors' published models and related publications. Factors preceded by a question mark (?) were not specifically mentioned by the authors, but were proposed by the present paper.

Looking at this comparison, it is interesting to note that all models share some common factors. Notably, almost all authors consider emotion and evaluations as main outputs, and also make an explicit connection to meaning making. This itself may tell us something about current modeling, and the present state of understanding and focus in art research. While this review obviously could not consider all approaches important to art, it does suggest that these common outputs may constitute what investigators feel to be important for defining art interaction. These outputs also mark major factors in present empirical assessment. This probably stems from the present information processing focus. Most models also consider several basic inputs, which might be roughly divided into social, contextual, experiential, and personality-derived elements.

At the same time, the models also differ greatly in their explanations for how one arrives at these outputs, and connects these elements to different processing components. For example in the case of appraisal, as Table ​ Table2 2 Part 1 shows, descriptions range from: an emphasis on visual object identification (Chatterjee), integration of vision with memory (Locher), emphasis on intellectual processing experience and understanding of art (Leder), relative matching of schema and self (Silvia, Pelowski), to taking a pragmatic vs. aesthetic mode (Cupchik). This diversity highlights the presently undetermined nature of current art psychological approaches, and the need for more comprehensive and comparative analyses.

Importantly, this also highlights the potential contribution of this paper, and of visual modeling. As noted above, one of the benefits of a visual model approach is that it forces an author to make an explicit connection between processes and outputs, articulating connections where they might be otherwise obscured in written theory. By placing these same outputs in the visual models, tracing back through their processing descriptions, and comparing between approaches, we may create grounds for future empirical research. We have set up this paper to facilitate this approach. We suggest that the reader might use this review as a means of considering the pathways to the various outputs, and thus the underlying factors and processing sequences. These could then be considered in empirical approaches. This review may also contribute to a better understanding of the theories of these individual researchers.

It should also be noted that this review does not imply that one model is “better” in describing outcomes than others. Rather these models are all presumably describing different aspects of the art processing sequence. This also shows in the models' relative emphasis on different general stages (early, intermediate, and late), which lead to different answers regarding outputs. Future studies might use these different models to consider the differential contribution of the posited sequences for determining their relative impact on output factors.

Missing elements: physiology, health, negative and profound reactions to art

This comparison also highlights factors that appear to be largely missing in present modeling, and by extension psychological art research. When placed side-by-side, it becomes clear that present approaches largely avoid several outputs. Notably, there is a dearth of discussion of negative factors as well as of novelty, change, or transformation. Beyond the immediate processing components, there are other, long-term outputs that appear under-represented—notably art's role in general well-being or health. As noted by Stevenson-Taylor and Mansell ( 2012 , p. 105), “seldom is a rigorous exploration given to ascertaining the effects of psychological change in the long-term. When and how these changes occur is rarely addressed.” This does certainly seem to be the case here. Longitudinal aspects were not directly mentioned by any author. Similarly, social aspects and socio-cultural adjustments also appear under-represented, with the latter only directly mentioned by Silvia. Similarly under-explored are insight, changed perception, and—somewhat surprisingly—harmonious or aesthetic experience. While several authors theoretically note how this might occur (for example Leder argues that it would involve an act of cognitive mastery approaching perfectly fluent matching of schema to work), it occurs nowhere as a specific model output. This raises the question of how these outcomes might actually have a lasting impact. Only Pelowski and Akiba ( 2011 ) specifically note how this might occur.

This general omission of factors as well is quite illuminating, and can be traced into present empirical study, as well as needed targets for future research. It has been recently noted that especially the above negative or transformative factors are often overlooked (Silvia and Brown, 2007 ; Leder, 2013 ; Pelowski, 2015 ), and remain prime candidates for future empirical approaches. As well, there have been calls for assessments of art's health or positive benefits on the viewer (e.g., Cuypers et al., 2012 ). By extrapolating from these missing outputs, we might say that present models and theoretical discussion appear to be missing a large number of consequences that might define the importance of art for society or individuals, and thus why art should, for example, be supported by public resources. Models also appear to omit what might be called “second order outputs” or executive behavior consequences of viewing, such as when anger leads to iconoclasm, vandalism, or violence (c.f. Freedberg, 1989 ). It is also interesting to note that most of the models do not account for the viewer's body, movement, or physiological responses, which might also be considered (Tschacher et al., 2012 ). These aspects, we would argue, remain key targets for future modeling, which may then allow for better empirical assessments. Interestingly, as we have tried to show in the suggested additions and updated model figures, many outputs might actually be connected to present model approaches, raising again an avenue for future research and what we hope can be a contribution of this paper.

Regarding inputs, there are also areas for future development. Specific artwork-related aspects such as style are not included in several models (Chatterjee, Silvia, Pelowski). The same can be said for the artwork's historical context, which was also recently argued to be a key processing input (Bullot and Reber, 2013 ), but in the present review only operationalized as one aspect of the background knowledge of viewers (e.g., by Locher and Leder, but see Pelowski and Akiba, 2011 ). It also appears that only the models put forward by Leder and Cupchik account for the current psychophysiological and affective state of the viewer. These aspects should be incorporated into the other models and systematically included when setting up experiments. In addition, while most authors specifically note the importance of memory components for processing, and often mention this in their written theory, it is often omitted in the models. This begs for integration and elaboration.

The models' differing discussion of factors, and many of their omissions, are also probably a result of present emphasis on early and intermediate processing stages, and tied to the importance of vision and early neurological components of object recognition. This too suggests a potential fruitful target for future theoretical research. Those models that do focus on late processing (Pelowski, Silvia) are more likely to consider the omitted outputs. This again does not imply that certain models are more or less important: the models that focus on earlier processes may, for example, involve a more detailed consideration of the bottom-up processing of artwork qualities, whereas models with a later focus may concern primarily top-down contributions of the viewer. This speaks to a need for combining these discussions into one processing sequence. Future researchers might consider how the visual processes (e.g., as described by Locher and Chatterjee) feed into the cognitive processes described by Leder, and then lead to the top-down consequences described by the remaining authors. It may also be fruitful to look at the described processing sequences for each output and consider a best solution, given these, and other model's descriptions. While such a synthesis is beyond the aim of the present manuscript, we argue that this is a necessary next step for future research.

Box and arrow models: limitations and future developments

Finally, a few words should also be given regarding the nature of above models themselves. As noted, they are all box and arrow designs. This represents an important fact in cognitive psychology and discussion of art, because they specifically require theoretical links between inputs, outputs, and processes. At the same time, this method has several general limitations, which future researchers might consider.

It should be clear from this review that while the simple act of connecting inputs to processes to outputs is an important theoretical step for a better understanding of psychological events, the simple arrows that make up many aspects of the above models often do not sufficiently explain how this might actually be accomplished. Many models, especially when visualized, also reveal gaps or confusions in their design. More detail and consideration of individual and contextual factors is often warranted. Many approaches might benefit from more careful consideration of both specific decisions or factors, which can determine specific model sequences, and placement of outputs. While we did attempt to take the step of systematizing the broad components of each approach, we also made the decision to maintain fidelity to the original model interior organization, which in many cases only highlights such suboptimal arrangements. From this review, we would be the first to argue that the field of modeling in aesthetics itself could benefit from more attention to such aspects of visual communication. We hope that future research might consider this.

The linear nature of these models can also lead to a myopic, “false” and often one-dimensional understanding of psychological processes themselves. In reality, these might often occur in concert as complex networks of activation (Cela-Conde et al., 2013 ), or with individuals cycling back and forth between stages, constantly adjusting and updating expectations, which influences perception and experience. While these aspects were at least addressed in some of the reviewed models (e.g., Pelowski, Silvia, and the discussion by Leder), such complex approaches, require further emphasis, and become even more necessary when taking the next step of connecting sequences to activity in the brain. Further, it may be that future research should even move past the box and arrow design, considering for example novel paradigms such as Bayesian flow models, or predictive processing theory (Clark, 2013 , 2015 ) which posits that the brain operates based on comparisons with automatic predictions of the environment; both result in more complex probabilistic models of outputs or experience.

To conclude, we hope that this review may contribute to such future modeling, and serve as a useful basis for needed future comparative and hypothesis-driven research.

Author contributions

All authors listed, have made substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Esben Gröndal for his helpful comments and suggestions. The writing of this manuscript was supported by a grant to MP and HL by Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA-IF-2014-EF: Individual Fellowships, 655379).

1 For example, for early vision, Chatterjee ( 2004 ) argues that occipital cortex and frontal-parietal attentional circuits play the most emphasis.

2 Noted regions for late vision include: orbitofrontal cortex, insula, temporal pole, ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These are connected to the interaction between cognitive and emotional processes and monitoring of one's own affective state.

3 This impact is interpreted empirically from the involvement of subcortical components of the reward circuit in aesthetic experiences, notably anterior cingulate cortex.

4 The model connected emotion to the anterior medial temporal lobe, medial and orbitofrontal cortices, and subcortical structures which mediate emotion and reward systems. Chatterjee ( 2010 ) connected appraisal to a widely distributed network, most importantly the dorsolateral frontal and medial frontal cortices.

5 In bilateral fusiform gyri, angular gyrus, and the superior parietal cortex.

6 More recently, Locher et al. ( 2010 ) integrated this model with consideration of the tactile and sensual aspects of the handling of object and assessment of its use, geared toward discussion of commercial, design products. However, the present discussion will focus only on visual aspects.

7 Locher et al. ( 2007 , p. 76) also question some of this model's arguments regarding location of processing aspects within its stages. In a study where participants were asked to view paintings and give a running oral report of their processing, Locher et al. noted that some participants' “initial reactions to the artworks would be classified as occurring in stage 4 …involve[ing] deliberate (top-down) self-related interpretations.” Locher et al. argued that their findings suggest that reactions “may occur much more rapidly and automatically than predicted.…suggesting that [individuals] are able to make a rapid evaluation of a picture's content and aesthetic appeal.”

8 Silvia specifically identified a set of key evaluations for identifying congruency, coping, and self-relevance (preference, uncertainty, level of disruption, novelty, complexity, interest).

9 Cupchik himself made this acknowledgment and suggestion that his work might be fit into a cohesive model in a recent retrospective address concerning his body of research (2011, p. 320).

10 See also Cupchik ( 1995 ) in which he also uses the terms “reactive” and “reflective” approaches.

11 He goes on to argue that this “clearly showed that the interaction of cognitive and affective processes in aesthetic perception take place holistically within the first glance” and thus contradicts Zajonc's (e.g., Zajonc, 2000 ) assumption that preferences are often unmediated by cognitive processing (Cupchik, 2006 , p. 212–213). This is a debate for another paper.

12 Shown empirically by Kemp and Cupchik ( 2007 ) who presented viewers in a negative state with a range of positive and negative paintings, and who found that viewers wanted to see the paintings with negative themes a second time, primarily however, “because they evoked thoughts rather than feelings.”

13 He was specifically referring to literary experiences, however this would presumably also apply to visual art.

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250+ Research Paper Topics for Art Lovers and Curious Minds

Table of contents

• 1 Argumentative Art Topics for Research Papers
• 2 Fun Art Research Ideas for Professional Writers
• 3 Controversial Art Research Topics
• 4 Gendered Roles in Modern Art Research
• 5 Art Topics for Research Papers: The Impacts of Technology
• 6.1 Themes in 21st Century Paintings
• 7 Ancient Art History Research Paper Topics
• 8 Art Research Topics on Different Cultures
• 9 Greek Art Research Paper Topics
• 10 Art Topics during the Byzantine Period
• 11 Medieval Art History Research Paper Topics
• 12 Renaissance Paper Topics
• 13 Research Paper Topics on the Baroque Era
• 14 The Impressionist Artistic Movement
• 15 The Modern Art Talk about Romanticism
• 16 The Art Influence of Mannerism
• 17 The Post-impressionist Art Movement
• 18 Surrealism in Art History
• 19 The Highlights of Cubism
• 20 The Avant-garde Art Topics
• 21 The Expressionist Art Movement
• 22 Topics on Dadaism
• 23 Pop Art Debate Topics
• 24 Art Education Research Topics in the 16th Century
• 25 Cool Art Ideas during the 17th Century
• 26 Research Papers on Art Produced during the 18th Century
• 27 The 19th Century Artistic Styles
• 28 The 20th Century’s Artistic Characteristics
• 29 Contemporary Art History Topics
• 30 Mexican Revolutionary Art Research Paper Topics
• 31 Architecture Research Paper Topics
• 32 Theater Research Paper Ideas
• 33 The Study of Photography as Research about Art
• 34.1 Art Topics Ideas Base on the Artists of the 18th Century
• 34.2 Artists of the 19th Century

Art has been a significant aspect of human civilization for centuries. From the earliest cave paintings to modern-day installations, art has served as a means of expression and communication. The study of art encompasses a broad range of disciplines, including art history, aesthetics, philosophy, sociology, and psychology. As such, the best controversial research paper topics within the field of art can be explored. This article aims to provide a comprehensive list of 250+ art topics covering various aspects of the discipline, including famous artists and artworks, art movements, theories and concepts, and social and political influences. These topics intend to inspire students and researchers before even choosing their favorite paper writing service and delving deeper into the complex world of art.

Argumentative Art Topics for Research Papers

Art has always been a recurring topic of debate, with different interpretations and perspectives on what it represents and its hidden meanings. From discussions on censorship and freedom of expression to art’s political implications, explore other possibilities in art.

• Write a Critical Analysis of Censorship Issues and How They Can Limit Artistic Freedom.
• Argue for or against Using Public Funds to Support Art and Institutions.
• Discuss the Ethical Considerations Surrounding the Cultural Appropriation of Symbolisms.
• Delimitate the Boundaries of the Tension between Art Commercialization and Artistic Expression’s Authenticity.
• Study How the Relationship between Art and Identity Is Explored and How It Can Shape and Express Individual and Collective Identities.

Fun Art Research Ideas for Professional Writers

Even the most skilled professionals need help developing fresh inspiration for art-related topics and finding  research paper writing help . With this list, we want to inspire writers to explore new horizons, from unconventional art mediums to unusual artists.

• Graffiti Art: Exploring Its Significance and Evolution as a Legitimate Artistic Expression.
• The Impact of Street Photography and How Does It Capture the Essence of Modern Life.
• How Have Album Covers Influenced Popular Culture, and How Do They Reflect the Artistic Vision of Musicians and Artists?
• Analyzing the History and Wonders of Asian Art and Animation and Its Impact on Popular Culture.
• Find Out How Indigenous Art Explores Its Diverse Forms and How It Reflects on the Culture of Their Communities.

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Controversial Art Research Topics

Art has always been polarizing, sparking debates on various issues. Whether you’re an art student or an enthusiast, you’ll find excellent history research paper topics on this list.

• Examining the Limits of Expression through the Lenses of Artistic Freedom.
• The Power and Perils of Art Representing Marginalized Communities.
• What Responsibilities Do Collectors Have When Collecting Debatable Pieces?
• Reckoning with the past and the Controversial Legacy of Colonial Art.
• How Do Artists Navigate Appropriation through the Problematic Nature of Artistic Inspiration?
• Write an Argumentative Essay About the Use of Religious Imagery: Is It Blasphemy or Legitimate Creative Expression?
• Censorship: Protecting Public Morals or Inhibiting Creativity?

Gendered Roles in Modern Art Research

Historically male dominance in art has resulted in a limited representation of women. Few female artists are recognized for their contributions, bringing discussions on gendered roles in modern art to the forefront. Check out some fine arts research paper topics.

• Explore the Works of Frida Kahlo and Unravel Gendered Representations in Modern Art.
• The Impact on the Evolution of Feminist Art Generated by Tracey Emin’s Work.
• Research Marina Abramovic’s Pieces and Learn How She Pushed Boundaries on Gender and Performance Art.
• How to See beyond the Male Gaze through John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing” While Critiquing the Objectification of Fine Art.
• The Art of Challenging Conventional Female Roles by Agnes Martin.
• Take an in Depth Look at Cindy Sherman’s Gender and Identity Exploration in Contemporary Art.
• Defying Conservative Norms and Embracing the Body – The Visual Art of Kiki Smith.
• Learn More about the Rise of Women Artists in Modern Art Following the Artworks of Yayoi Kusama.

Art Topics for Research Papers: The Impacts of Technology

Technology has opened up several possibilities, from digital media and virtual reality installations to 3D printing, computer-generated imagery, or even an essay writing service . Look at some of the most interesting art topics that explore this relationship.

• Examine How Technology Has Enabled New Forms of Artistic Expression through Digital Art.
• Art Democratization: How Technology Has Made It Easier for Artists to Reach Wider Audiences.
• The Transformation of Experience and Interaction with Modern World Art through AR Technology.
• AI and New Art Forms: Potential to Challenge Traditional Notions of Creativity.
• Explore How New Social Media Platforms Have Transformed the Ways We Consume Art.
• How Can Digital Technology Preserve and Restore Deteriorating Works of True Art?

Interesting Modern and Contemporary Art Topics

From abstract Expressionism to Pop Art, contemporary artists have explored many creative avenues, resulting in thought-provoking works that challenge traditional notions of art. Check out some ideas for those who want to buy research papers about different epochs in Modern Art.

• Kandinsky, Pollock, and Rothko Pave the Path with the Force of Chaos and Calm.
• Artists like Banksy, Kruger and Weiwei Boldly Show Us How to Discuss Today’s Issues.
• Understand How Fairey, Botero, and Holzer Revolutionize the World through Art.
• Find Out Where Creativity Meets Technology with Arcangel, Utterback, and Lozano-Hemmer.
• Fashion and Art Become the Perfect Pairing: Warhol, Dali, and Haring Meet Saint Laurent, Schiaparelli, and Scott.
• Shattering Stereotypes – Chicago, Sherman, and Ono Challenge the Status Quo.
• Richter, Hirst, and Walker Demonstrate the Ongoing Relevance of Modern Art.

Themes in 21st Century Paintings

• Explore beyond the Representation of Identity in Kerry James Marshall’s “Untitled (Studio)” and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s “Mascara.”
• Use the Landscapes of David Hockney and Anselm Kiefer’s “The Field” to Reflect on Environmental Consciousness.
• Analyze the Works of Yinka Shonibare Mbe and Kara Walker’s “A Subtlety.” to Understand Global Visions and Cultural Exchange.
• Politics Occur in Street Art, Becoming Activism in Banksy’s Art and AI Weiwei’s “Sunflower Seeds.”
• Memory, Nostalgia, and Figurative Painting in the Works of Elizabeth Peyton and Lisa Yuskavage’s “Night.”
• “Untitled” by Cecily Brown and the Works of Gerhard Richter: Abstraction and Emotion.
• Technology in Contemporary Painting with Jenny Saville’s “Ancestors” and Stelarc’s “Third Hand.”
• Transcribed Gender and Sexuality in the Works of Nicole Eisenman’s “Procession” and John Currin’s “The Women of Franklin Street.”

Ancient Art History Research Paper Topics

The art of early civilizations is a testament to these societies’ creativity and cultural significance. Check out the best art topics for those interested in Ancient Rome, Mayan Culture, and African art.

• Explore the Development of Primordial Egyptian Art and Its Impact on Later Art Forms.
• The Significance of Art in Mesopotamian Civilization.
• Explore the Relevance of Ancient Chinese Art and Its Influence on the Following Centuries.
• Analyze the Evolution of Artworks in Old India and Their Relationship with Religion and Culture.
• The Role of Art in Mayan Society and Its Significance in Their Spirituality and Habits.
• The Development of Art in Mesoamerican Civilizations and Its Impact on Later Art Forms.
• Analyze the Symbolism of Motifs in Ancient Art and Its Historical Context.

Art Research Topics on Different Cultures

Each culture has unique artistic expressions that reflect its history and social norms. By delving into the art of various cultures, we can gain insights into how art shapes and reflects human experiences and choose exciting art history research topics.

• What Is the Role of Family and Community in Maori Art?
• The Tradition of African Art and Mask Making and Its Role in Identity Formation.
• Understanding the Symbolism and Meaning in Traditional Indian Textiles through the Colors of Culture.
• The Evolution of Japanese Woodblock Prints from Edo to Meiji Era.
• Try Looking for the Symbolism and Meaning in the Paintings of Raja Ravi Varma and Other Examples of Eastern Art.
• The Beauty of Symmetry: Geometry and Design in Islamic Art and Architecture.

Greek Art Research Paper Topics

Greek art is a rich and fascinating field of study that offers endless possibilities. Here is a list of art research paper topics exploring Greek artists’ diverse and complex world.

• Examine the Development of Sculptures from the Archaic to the Hellenistic Period.
• Analyze How Greek Artists Portrayed Gods, Goddesses, and Mythological Heroes.
• How Did Ceramics’ Significance in Daily Life Shape Pottery’s Role in Ancient Greece?
• Take an in Depth Look at the Use of Colour in Greek Sculpture, Painting, and Pottery.
• The Influence of Egypt on Greek Art and How It Impacted the Development of the Current Identity.
• Analyze How Women Were Represented and Their Role in Shaping the Cultural Context of the Time.
• Develop the Topic on the Symbolism and Representation of Animals in Greek Art and Mythology.
• Find Research Papers That Illustrate the Influence of Greece on Roman Art.

Art Topics during the Byzantine Period

Byzantine art illustrates the social context of that time, focusing on religious themes and having a close relationship between art and theology. Explore some of the most notable examples of Byzantine art, including mosaics and frescoes.

• A Study of the Architectural and Artistic Achievements of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I.
• Compare Your Personal Impressions on the Similarities and Differences between Byzantine Art and the Pieces Created during the Renaissance.
• What Was the Importance of Ivory Triptychs in Byzantine Art?
• To Understand Illumination, Research the Byzantine Manuscripts and Their Decorations.
• Compare the Artistic Styles of the Byzantine Art and the Romanesque Period.
• Learn More about the Revival of Classical Artistic Techniques in Byzantine Art.

Medieval Art History Research Paper Topics

Medieval art is characterized by intricate designs, elaborate ornamentation, and religious symbolism, reflecting the time’s beliefs. In writing a research paper on Medieval art history, choosing the right topic allows an in-depth exploration of various aspects of this period.

• Examine the Development in the Representation of Religious Figures and Scenes in Medieval Artworks.
• Analyze the Artistry and Significance of Illuminated Manuscripts in Europe.
• Explore the Influence of Islamic Art on the Development of Medieval Paintings.
• Examine the Meanings and Representation of Animals and Their Significance in That Time’s Worldview.
• Deep Dive into the Techniques and Symbolism Used in Stained Glass Windows in Medieval Churches.

Renaissance Paper Topics

The Renaissance Era was a period of profound cultural rebirth that had a lasting impact on the development of Western art. New growing ideas started a revolution in paintings and sculptures that saw the emergence of new techniques and forms of expression.

• Exploring the Ideals of Humanism and How They Were Reflected on Art at That Period.
• Analyze the Revival of Classical Motifs and Themes in Renaissance Art.
• Write about the Use of Perspective during the Renaissance Era and Its Impact on the Representation of Space and Depth.
• Analyze How Women Were Represented in Art and Their Role in Shaping the Cultural Context of That Time.
• Patronage System during Renaissance: Individual and Institutions Support of Art.
• Examine the Rise of Artists-Genius, Such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo, and How Society Perceived Them.
• Explore How Religious Themes Were Depicted in Renaissance Art.
• Start an Analysis of the Use of Allegory in Renaissance Art and Its Meaning in the Cultural Context of the Time.

Research Paper Topics on the Baroque Era

The Baroque era is known for its dramatic and ornate style, intricate ornamentation, and bold colours. In the following topics, we will explore some research paper key concepts related to the Baroque era.

• The Power of Light and Shade: A Study of Caravaggio’s Dramatic Use of Chiaroscuro.
• Carry an in Depth Analysis of the Religious Context of Baroque Art Presented in Murals and Paintings.
• The Triumph of Movement: An Analysis of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Sculpture and Its Dynamic Qualities.
• Study Female Portrayals by Artemisia Gentileschi and Judith Leyster and Learn More about the Role of Women in the Baroque Era.
• Baroque and Politics: The Relationship between Art and Power in 17th-Century Europe.
• Develop an Article about Trompe-L’œIl Painting in Baroque Art and Discover the Power of Illusion.

The Impressionist Artistic Movement

Impressionism is an art movement that emphasizes capturing the transient effects of light and colour in the natural world. By exploring the following art research paper topics, we will gain a deeper understanding of the significance of impressionism and its ongoing legacy.

• Understand Better the Concept of Time in Impressionist Paintings by Studying Some of Paul Cézanne’s Still Life.
• What’s the Relevance of Weather in Impressionist Work, and What Can We Learn from It?
• Discover the Importance of Motion in Impressionist Landscapes, According to Camille Pissarro.
• What Was the Reception of Impressionism in America, and How It Impacted Local Artists?
• Draw a Timeline of the Evolution of éDouard Manet’s Artistic Style.
• The Role of Race and Ethnicity in Degas’ Art: A Comparative Study of His Depictions of Black and Asian Figures.

The Modern Art Talk about Romanticism

Romanticism is an interesting topic characterized by a fascination with emotion, nature, and the individual. By examining the art nuances of Romanticism, we can better understand the cultural and historical context in which these works were created and appreciate its enduring influence.

• Evoking Awe and Terror in the Art of Caspar David Friedrich and J.M.W. Turner.
• Learn more about the occult in the works of Samuel Taylor coleridge and William Blake.
• Did the Portrayal of Femininity in the Works of Jane Austen, Eugène Delacroix, and William Blake Romanticize Women?
• Explore Turner and Wordsworth’s responses to the Industrial Revolution.
• Delacroix and the Impact of the French Revolution on the Romantic Movement.
• How Did Wordsworth and Goethe Portray Childhood?

The Art Influence of Mannerism

The Mannerist period followed the High Renaissance and preceded the Baroque era. Its highlights include the works of artists such as Michelangelo and Tintoretto, who created some of the era’s most beautiful and thought-provoking pieces.

• A Study of the Relationship between Artistic Style and Religious Change in Europe.
• Find Out More about Innovative Techniques and Styles Used by Mannerist Portraitists.
• Research about Michelangelo’s Influence on the Development of the Mannerist Style.
• Write an Article about the Innovations Employed by the Painter Bronzino.
• How Was the Relationship between Cellini and Michelangelo?
• A Comparative Study of Female Portrayals by Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana.
• Innovative Techniques Used by Mannerist Artists in Their Departure from Classical Tradition.

The Post-impressionist Art Movement

Post-impressionism was a reaction against the limitations of impressionism. They sought to expand the boundaries of art by exploring new techniques, emphasizing individual expression, and infusing their works with symbolic meaning.

• Examine How Post-Impressionist Painters Used Colour to Convey Emotion and Atmosphere.
• The Evolution of Pointillism from Seurat to Pissarro and Van Gogh.
• Discuss the Influence of Scientific Theories on the Development of Post-impressionist Painting Techniques.
• The Influence of Music on Gauguin and Kandinsky’s Post-impressionist Works.
• What Was the Legacy of Post-impressionism in the Paintings of Fauvists and Expressionists Such as Vlaminck and Nolde?

Surrealism in Art History

Surrealism sought to challenge the rationality and logic of Western thought, emphasizing the power of the unconscious mind. Surrealist artists sought to create works that blurred the lines between reality and fantasy.

• Breaking Barriers and Boundaries: Feminist Critique of Surrealist Art.
• How Did Surrealism Represent Sexuality and Desire in Its Artworks?
• Dreams and the Unconscious: Surrealism’s Gateway to the Psyche.
• What Was the Role of Surrealism in the Construction of Gender Identity?
• From Art to Advertising: Surrealist Techniques in Marketing.
• How Did Surrealism Represent the Non-human?

The Highlights of Cubism

Cubism is an art movement where Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque revolutionized traditional forms of representation by breaking down objects into geometric shapes. Here are some ideas of themes for your next art research paper regarding Cubism.

• Study the Impacts of Cubist Paintings on American Artists Such as Stuart Davis and Charles Demuth.
• The Role of Cubism in Modern Graphic Design: A Comparative Analysis of the Work of Cassandre and Moholy-Nagy.
• The Relationship between Cubist Art and Literature and How It Influenced the Trajectory of James Joyce and Gertrude Stein.
• A Comparative Study of the Depiction of Time in the Paintings of Picasso and Braque.
• Find Out How Jazz and African Rhythms Influenced the Development of Cubism.

The Avant-garde Art Topics

The Avant-garde art movement pushed art boundaries, experimenting with new techniques, materials, and subject matter. In these topics, college students can explore the critical characteristics of this art style.

• What Was the Role of Marcel Duchamp in Shaping the Avant-Garde Movement?
• Learn More about Kazimir Malevich’s “Black Square” Significance in Avant-Garde Art.
• How Did the Work of Francis Picabia Challenge Traditional Notions of Art and Beauty?
• Examine the Impact of Futurism on Avant-Garde Art through the Creation of Umberto Boccioni.
• Understand the Use of Technology in Avant-Garde Art through the Work of Nam June Paik.

The Expressionist Art Movement

Expressionist artists sought to convey intense emotions through their works, rejecting traditional forms of representation in favour of abstraction and distortion. This list will explore the critical characteristics of Expressionism, examining its cultural and historical context.

• What Was the Influence of Expressionism on Abstract Art: From the Work of Rothko and Newman.
• Nature in Expressionist Art: A Survey of the Creation of Emil Nolde and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
• Deep Dive into German Expressionism’s Impact on Modern Art Development.
• Expressionism and the Representation of War: A Comparative Analysis of Dix and Grosz’s Depictions of World War I.
• Analyze How Religion Existed in the Expressionist Movement, Englobing Marc Chagall’s Work and Its Relationship to Mysticism.

Topics on Dadaism

The Dadaist era was famous for its irreverent humour and rejection of logic and reason. By reviewing the Dadaist age, we can better understand how art can be used as a social and political critique.

• A Study of the Use of Humor in the Work of Duchamp and Ernst during Dadaism.
• How Was the National Identity Represented in Dadaism in the Work of Huelsenbeck and Grosz?
• Trace the Dadaist Roots in the Cultural and Political Context of the Early 20th Century.
• Analyze How Dadaists Turned Chance and Accident into Creative Tools.
• Examine How Artists Used Collage and Photomontage to Challenge Traditional Notions of Art during Dadaism.
• Trace the Journey of Francis Picabia’s Shifting Style in the Dada Movement.
• Marcel Duchamp’s Readymades and the Subversive Legacy of Dadaism.

Pop Art Debate Topics

Pop Art is a visual arts movement that appropriated popular cultural imagery and techniques, challenging traditional fine art concepts. With their lasting influence, these art epochs are exciting topics for research papers for college students.

• How Did Pop Art Reflect and Critique Consumer Culture and Consumerism?
• Analyze the Art and Influence of Andy Warhol and How He Contributed to the Development of the Movement.
• How Did Pop Art Appropriate and Recontextualize Advertising Imagery?
• Examine How Female Artists Contributed to Pop Art and How They Challenged Traditional Gender Roles.
• How Did Roy Lichtenstein Contribute to Developing Graphic Novel-Inspired Imagery in Pop Art?
• Analyze How Pop Art Has Influenced and Been Influenced by Digital Media.
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Art Education Research Topics in the 16th Century

• Discover the Artistic Innovations of Bruegel, Bosch, and Dürer in the Northern Renaissance.
• Why Was the Artistic Response to the Catholic Church’s Reforms Called Counter-Reformation Art?
• Venetian Renaissance: The Colorful and Opulent Art of Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese.
• Emphasize the Artistic Achievements of Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Hals.
• What Did the Spanish Golden Age Contribute through the Work of Velázquez, Murillo, and Zurbarán?
• Understand Mannerist Architecture and Its Ornate and Playful Buildings of Italy’s Palladio, Vignola, and Scamozzi.
• What Happened When Rococo’s Lavish and Ornamental Style Was Present in Boucher, Fragonard, and Watteau’s Work?

Cool Art Ideas during the 17th Century

• The Realistic and Genre Scenes of Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Hals in Dutch Baroque.
• The Theatrical Style of Poussin, Le Brun, and Lorrain of the Baroque Period in France.
• Naturalistic Art in the Flemish Baroque of Rubens, Van Dyck, and Jordaens in Flanders.
• The Emotive and Dramatic Style of Caravaggio, Bernini, and Borromini in the Italian Baroque.
• The Revival of Classical Antiquity in European Art and Design through Neoclassicism.
• The Mastery of Detail in the Dutch Still Life Paintings by Willem Kalf, Pieter Claesz, and Rachel Ruysch.
• Illustrating the Contrast of Light and Dark in the Paintings of Velázquez and Zurbarán.
• Flemish Still Life Painting: The Richness in the Works of Jan Davidsz de Heem, Clara Peeters, and Osias Beert.

Research Papers on Art Produced during the 18th Century

• The Ornate and Playful Rococo Art by Watteau, Boucher, and Fragonard in France.
• The Revival of Classical Antiquity in European Art, Architecture, and Design in the Rising of Neoclassicism.
• Depictions of Natural Beauty by Gainsborough, Constable, and Turner in 18th-Century British Landscape Paintings.
• The Development of a New Style in Portraiture, Landscape, and Still Life Painting in American Colonial Art.
• Intricacy and Elegance of Porcelain, Jade, and Lacquer Ware Developed during the Qing Dynasty in China.
• Discover Indian Miniature Painting through Its Colorful and Narrative Art of Mughal and Rajput Courts.
• The Use of the Contrast of Light and Dark in the Spanish Baroque, Illustrated by the Works of Velázquez and Zurbarán.
• Extravagant and Sensuous Italian Rococo Paintings by Tiepolo, Guardi, and Canaletto in Italy.

The 19th Century Artistic Styles

• Understand the Depiction of Everyday Life and Social Issues through the Realism of Courbet, Millet, and Daumier.
• The Curvilinear and Organic Designs of Art Nouveau in European Architecture and Decorative Arts.
• Find Out What Is behind the Mystical Art of Moreau, Redon, and Klimt.
• The Romantic and Medieval Style in Painting, Poetry, and Design in the Pre-raphaelite Period.
• Study the Hudson River School and the Landscape Painting Movement Focusing on Cole, Church, and Bierstadt.
• The Exotic and Colorful Japanese Woodblock Prints of Ukiyo-E, with Focus on Hokusai, Hiroshige, and Utamaro.
• Academic Classicism Focused on the Preservation of Traditional Techniques, Emphasizing on Bouguereau, Gérôme, and Leighton.
• The Bold and Vibrant Use of Color in Fauvism by Matisse, Derain, and Vlaminck.

The 20th Century’s Artistic Characteristics

• The Breaking Down of Reality and Perception in Cubism by Pablo Picasso and Braque.
• The Works of Munch, Kirchner, and Schiele Show the Emotion and Inner Feelings in Expressionism.
• The Celebration of Technology, Movement, and Modernity through Futurism by Boccioni and Balla.
• The Large-Scale and Gestural Art Movement by Jackson Pollock, Rothko, and de Kooning during Abstract Expressionism.
• The Simplification and Reduction of Form in Minimalism, with Focus on Judd, Flavin, and Andre.
• The Emphasis on Ideas over Aesthetics Inspired Conceptual Art Constructed by Kosuth, Weiner, and Acconci.
• The Return to Figurative and Emotional Art in Neo-Expressionism with Focus on Basquiat, Schnabel, and Kiefer.

Contemporary Art History Topics

• How the International Art Market Is Changing the Art Landscape through Globalization.
• Examine the Continuing Impact of Pop Art on Contemporary Art Practices.
• Explore the Relationship between Street Art and Mainstream Art Institutions.
• How Are Artists Using Their Work to Address Race, Gender, and Sexuality?
• Examine How Painters Incorporate New Technologies and Techniques into Their Work.
• Analyze How Performance Art Challenges Traditional Notions of Art and Audience Participation.
• Explore How Contemporary Artists Challenge the Status Quo and What Constitutes Art in the Last Centuries.

Mexican Revolutionary Art Research Paper Topics

The Mexican Revolution was a significant political change in Mexico. Revolutionary art emerged as a powerful tool for propaganda and expressed the hopes and aspirations of the Mexican people. These themes exemplify some of the most interesting paintings to write about.

• Art Contribution to the Mexican Revolutionary Movement.
• Analyze How Artists Portrayed Revolutionary Heroes Such as Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa.
• Examine How Muralists Such as Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Jose Clemente Orozco Used Art to Promote Social Change.
• Artists’ Representation of Indigenous People during the Revolutionary Period.
• Explore How Mexican Revolutionary Art Has Influenced and Inspired Artists in Mexico and Beyond.

Architecture Research Paper Topics

• An Analysis of Organic Forms and Materials in Santiago Calatrava’s Designs.
• Write a Critical Analysis of Zaha Hadid’s Visionary Designs.
• Examine How Shigeru Ban’s Designs Address Social and Environmental Challenges.
• Build a Historical Overview of the Green Building Movement and Its Influence on Contemporary Architecture.
• Analyze the Effects of Colonialism on the Built Environment of Former Colonies.

Theater Research Paper Ideas

• Carry an Examination of the Role of Emotion and Empathy in Theater Performance.
• Start a Comparative Study of Emerging Trends and Innovations in Contemporary Theater Production.
• Analyzing the Legacy of Ancient Dramaturgy on Modern Performance.
• What Are the Techniques and Styles of Julie Taymor and Her Impact on Modern Stagecraft?
• The Political Satire of George Bernard Shaw: An Examination of His Use of Humor and Wit in Social Critique.

The Study of Photography as Research about Art

• What Is the Relationship between Photography and Memory, and How Do Photographs Shape Our Perceptions of the Past?
• How Did Modern Society Revolutionize the Use of Photography in Advertising, and What Are the Effects on Consumer Behaviour?
• The Intersection of Photography and Architecture: How Photographers Capture the Urban Environment.
• Discover the Role of War Photography in Documenting and Promoting Social Justice.
• Analyze How Photos Can Be Used as a Tool for Scientific Research and New Technological Discoveries.
• The Rise of Digital Photography and Its Effects on the Field.
• Explore How Photographers Portray and Challenge Traditional Gender Roles and Identities in Contemporary Photography.

Artist Biography Ideas

• Vincent Van Gogh: The Tragic Life of a Misunderstood Artist.
• A Biography of the Groundbreaking American Impressionist Painter, Mary Cassatt.
• Diego Rivera: The Life and Work of the Revolutionary Mexican Muralist.
• Learn More about the History and Art of the Bold and Trailblazing Baroque Painter Artemisia Gentileschi.
• AI Weiwei: The Activism of the Contemporary Chinese Artist and Dissident.
• The Artistic Legacy of Gustav Klimt, the Austrian Symbolist Painter.
• Frida Kahlo: The Work of the Iconic Mexican Surrealist Artist.
• What Are the Most Interesting Parts of the American Neo-Expressionist Painter Jean-Michel Basquiat Journey?

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Art Topics Ideas Base on the Artists of the 18th Century

• Explore the Satirical Art of the British Painter and Printmaker William Hogarth.
• How Was the Life of Rococo and French Artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard?
• Thomas Gainsborough: The Artistic Legacy of the English Portrait Painter.
• What Were the Achievements of the Swiss-English Neoclassical Artist Angelica Kauffman?
• Understand How the French Revolution Was Seen through the Artistic Vision of the Painter Jacques-Louis David.
• The Hidden Meanings behind the English Portrait Painter Joshua Reynolds.
• What Was the Artistic Legacy of the Pioneering French Portrait Painter éLisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun?

Artists of the 19th Century

• Gustave Courbet: The Artistic Vision of the French Realist Painter.
• The Sculptures of Auguste Rodin and His Legacy in 19th-Century France.
• What Were the Artistic Achievements of the American Portrait Painter John Singer Sargent?
• Get a Grasp of the Legacy of One of the Most Iconic French Modernist Painters, éDouard Manet.
• How Was Impressionism Present in the Body of Work from French Impressionist Painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir?
• Mary Cassatt: The Artistic Contributions of the American Impressionist Painter.
• Find Out More about the History behind the Evolution of the French Post-impressionist Painter Paul Gauguin.

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Ajanta paintings: A revolution inside cave

“Revolutions are the great turning points of history. A revolution is a tumultuous and transformative event that attempts to change a nation, a region or society – and, in some cases, even the world. Revolutions vary in their motives and their aims. In a short time, often just a few years, a revolution can bring about significant change and upheaval. All revolutions are unique to their times, locations and conditions. They do not follow a single plan or model. Despite this, several revolutions have followed a similar course: they have unfolded and developed in stages or phases. Ideas play a critical part in all revolutions. Those who seek change are motivated by new ideas about politics, economics or society”.

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The present paper deals with the period of India's greatest cultural fluorescence, The Golden Age. A lively intellectual debate has been going on among historians and archaeologists on the subject of the chronology of the caves at Ajanta. The study shows addition of many iconographic styles from Ajanta to Bagh caves and vice-versa due to movement of skilled workers and craftsmen between these two Buddhist sites. Many iconographic figures were added / deleted depending on the local condition of rock at both the sites. The art and architecture of these sites reflects India's great materials culture. The Ajanta paintings are not just a milestone in the history of development of world art but they also convey unique insights about the life of ancient Indians and their culture. This paper outlines some of the architectural features introduced from Ajanta into the other cultures. Furthermore, structural conservation measures and scientific methodology adopted for the preservation of Ajanta murals have also been highlighted.

Parul Pandya Dhar (ed.), Indian Art History: Changing Perspectives

Mandira Sharma

Laura Giuliano

The Itihaslogy Journal

Jahanvi Jha

Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies

Lisa N Owen

Suzie Nimmo

Since they were 'rediscovered' by the West in 1819, the painted Buddhist caves at Ajanta have attracted a great deal of attention. Yet this interest has tended to focus on the narrative scenes of kingship and courtship. This essay shifts the gaze upwards to examine a kaleidoscope of the weird and wonderful - flying celestial figures, dwarves, aquatic and mythical creatures, verdant foliage, blossoming flowers and decorative meander patterns - inhabiting the ceiling of Cave 1. Such motifs also existed in the visual traditions of the diverse cultures early Buddhist art came into contact with, from Ancient Greece to Egypt and Persia. However, a delicately rendered white elephant surrounded by lotus flowers, found on an unremarkable border of the ceiling, appears to be a uniquely Indian motif. It serves to demonstrate the ceiling of cave 1 was not simply a decorative composite pastiche of non-Buddhist forms, as has been suggested, but a deliberate appropriation of these within a Buddhist framework. Links between the Buddha and the white elephant are revealed through textual evidence found in the Mahayana scriptures and supported with visual analysis of other Buddhist iconography found at the site and throughout India. The elephant panel, whose meaning has long been lost and since rewritten for cultural, social and economic benefits, is used here to reinstate the religiosity of cave 1’s ceiling. This essay argues that, contrary to prevailing wisdom, the seemingly strange and miscellaneous paintings we find here had great significance within the Buddhist practice flourishing at Ajanta in the fifth century CE. The ceiling subtly guided the viewer towards higher states of mind, and in the direction of the most important part of the cave: the shrine of the Buddha.

Agnieszka Golda

Religions 13(9): 771, 2022

Nicolas Revire

Following the apparent chaos that ensued at Ajaṇṭā during the so-called “period of disruption” in the wake of King Hariṣeṇa’s death (ca. 478–480 CE), local monks and residents in the caves continued to sponsor the donation of what we term “intrusive” images after the late Walter Spink. These new donations consisted of hundreds of Buddha images, a few of which retain today painted or incised dedicatory inscriptions in Sanskrit. Many of these images represent the Buddha preaching and seated in the “auspicious pose” (bhadrāsana) on the conventional lion throne with his legs down. In this article, the author focuses on the images accompanied by inscriptions since they provide a better understanding of the reuse of consecrated caves, and of the nature of this new and brief iconographic development implemented by local Buddhist residents. The sudden appearance of Bhadrāsana Buddhas seems indeed to correlate with a rise to prevalence of Mahāyāna Buddhist practices at Ajaṇṭā during the late Middle Period.

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150+ Captivating Art Research Paper Topics Ideas

Updated 20 Jun 2024

Choosing the right topic for an art research paper is crucial for your academic success. If you pick one you’re passionate about, you can showcase your knowledge, creativity, and critical thinking and provide a unique perspective on the subject matter. You can engage and entice the reader and ensure your research stays viable in the future. Exploring unique art research paper topics can be daunting, but if you're short on time, you might opt to pay someone to write my paper for a well-researched and insightful piece.

People have been creating art for centuries, so there are countless art research paper topics to choose from. To pick the right one, you should:

• Choose an art branch - There are literature, music, film, performing (e.g., theater and dance) and visual arts (e.g., painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, etc.), other branches to choose from.
• Select a specific aspect - You can opt for an artistic movement, a specific period, a particular artist, or decide to analyze a specific work of art.
• Come up with several ideas - Brainstorm different ideas you’re interested in analyzing and conduct research to find relevant information on each. That way, you’ll discover numerous art research topics to use as inspiration. Make sure there are enough credible sources to support your research.
• Narrow down your topic - Lock in on one or two ideas that will help you write a detailed, thought-provoking, and engaging research paper.

To help you narrow down the list, we’ve rounded up some of the most interesting art topics for research papers. Read on to get some inspiration for your writing assignment.

Riveting Modern Art Research Paper Topics

Modern art brings innovation in movements, forms, and styles, replacing conservative values in the spirit of experimenting with shapes, lines, and colors. Check out some of the most enticing topic ideas.

• Breaking Away from Conventions: The Unique Style of Modern Art
• Impressionism vs. Cubism: The Elements of Time and Light
• The Rise of Digital Arts
• Graffiti: Vandalism or Art?
• Urban Street Art: The Mystery of Banksy
• The Eclectic Style of “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt
• The Influence of Modern European Art on American Artists
• The Impact on Japanese Art on Van Gogh’s Paintings
• Art and Feminism: Contemporary Themes Driving the Movement
• Printmaking in the 21st century
• The Evolution of Abstract Expressionism in Contemporary Art
• The Role of Feminism in Shaping Modern Art Movements
• The Intersection of Art and Artificial Intelligence: Creative Collaborations
• Political Activism Through Modern Art: Case Studies and Analysis
• Minimalism in Modern Art: Philosophical Underpinnings and Aesthetic Principles

Most Interesting Art History Research Paper Topics

Art history teaches you to analyze the visual and textual evidence in various artworks to understand how different artists saw the world and expressed their emotions. Here are some of the most exciting topics.

• Artistic Freedom vs. Censorship: Art in Nazi Germany
• From Canvas to Camera: Photography as Art
• Gothic Art in Medieval England
• The Death of the Author: Barthes’s Theory Debunked
• The History of Abstract Expressionism
• Art and Culture: An Intellectual History
• Expressionism in Western Europe
• Hidden Messages in Famous Works of Art
• Art as Propaganda in France and America
• Wartime Art: A Visual History of Warfare
• A History of Neoclassical Art
• Victorian Beauty Standards in Art
• Constructivism: The Birth of the Russian Avant-Garde
• Gothic Culture: History, Literature, and Visual Arts
• The Rise of Sequential Art: The History of Comics and Graphic Novels

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Art Topics on Ancient Civilizations

Artworks dating back millennia reveal a lot about different ancient civilizations. Their artistic contributions are still significant today, especially in modern architecture. If you want to analyze their artwork, here are some of the best art research topics you can use.

• Symbolism in Ancient Egyptian Art
• The Art History of Ancient Rome
• Ancient Greek Sculpture: The Art of Classical Greece
• Primeval Musical Instruments in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt
• Ancient Roman vs. Classical Greek Art
• The Impact of the Mayan Civilization on Ancient Art and Culture
• The Influence of Mayan Culture in Modern Architecture
• Egyptian Pyramids vs. Mayan Pyramids: Is There a Hidden Connection?
• Ancient Art History: The Origins and Purpose of Writing
• The Impact of Ancient Civilizations on Art History
• The Incas and Their Influence on Modern Art
• The Role of Religion and Culture in Aztec Art
• Ancient Chinese Art: The Role of Chinese Philosophy and Religion
• Chinese Ritual Bronzes: Understanding the Ancient Ritual Vessels
• Mythology in the Artworks of Ancient Civilizations

Engrossing Art Research Paper Topics on Artist Biography

Analyzing the life and work of a particular artist can help you understand them better and uncover the symbolism and hidden meanings in their work. Let’s go over some engaging art topics for research papers, covering some of the most influential artists in history.

18th century:

• William Blake: A Misunderstood Artist, Poet, and Visionary
• Francisco de Goya: Changing the World Through Art
• Eugène Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art
• Madame Tussaud and Her Lasting Impact on Art
• The Life and Career of William Turner
• Ludwig van Beethoven: The Mystic Principles in Romantic Art, Literature, and Music
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Life and Work of the Musical Genius
• The Artistic Journey of Jean-Honoré Fragonard
• The Influence of Neoclassicism on Jacques-Louis David's Works
• The Portraiture Legacy of Thomas Gainsborough

19th century:

• Vincent Van Gogh: The Misunderstood Genius Ahead of His Time
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Innovative Elements and Principles of Art
• Gustav Klimt: The Master of Symbolism
• Claude Monet and His Vision of Light and Color
• Edgar Degas: A Storyteller of Modern Parisian Life
• Paul Cézanne: The Father of Modern Art
• The Romantic Imagination of William Blake
• The Innovations of Eugène Delacroix in Color and Form
• Gustave Courbet: Realism and Rebellion in 19th Century Art
• The Mystical Landscapes of John Constable

20th century:

• Pablo Picasso: The Father of Cubism
• Frida Kahlo: Surrealism Through Magical Realism
• The Surreal World of Salvador Dalí
• Andy Warhol: The American Pop Art King
• Jackson Pollock: The Face of Abstract Expressionism
• Georgia O’Keeffe: The Mother of American Modernism
• Louise Bourgeois: A Revolutionary in Abstract Sculpture and Installation Art
• The Evolution of Pablo Picasso's Artistic Style
• The Role of Surrealism in Salvador Dalí's Career
• The Abstract Expressions of Jackson Pollock

Thought-Provoking Art Research Topics on Different Epochs

Every creative epoch brought something new to the art world. If you focus on a specific creative epoch in art history, you can explore a whole world of unique artistic and literary styles, techniques, themes, and all the influential artists that used them. Here are some of the epochs and related topics to choose from.

• The Dramatic Use of Light and Shadow in Caravaggio's Paintings
• The Influence of the Counter-Reformation on Baroque Art
• The Architectural Innovations of Gian Lorenzo Bernini
• The Emotional Expression in Peter Paul Rubens' Works
• The Role of Allegory in Baroque Sculpture

Romanticism

• The Depiction of Nature in the Works of Caspar David Friedrich
• The Romantic Hero in the Paintings of Eugène Delacroix
• The Influence of Literature on Romantic Art
• The Exploration of the Sublime in J.M.W. Turner's Landscapes
• The Representation of National Identity in Francisco Goya's Art

Impressionism

• The Influence of Japanese Woodblock Prints on Impressionist Artists
• The Role of Urbanization in the Works of Edgar Degas
• The Use of Light and Color in Claude Monet's Paintings
• The Everyday Life in the Art of Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• The Evolution of Outdoor Painting in the Impressionist Movement

Post-impressionism

• The Symbolic Use of Color in Vincent van Gogh's Works
• The Exploration of Pointillism by Georges Seurat
• The Influence of Primitivism on Paul Gauguin's Art
• The Structural Innovations in Paul Cézanne's Paintings
• The Emotional Depth in the Art of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
• The Analytical Cubism of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque
• The Influence of African Art on Cubist Works
• The Evolution of Synthetic Cubism
• The Impact of Cubism on Modern Sculpture
• The Role of Fragmentation in Cubist Art
• The Exploration of the Unconscious in Salvador Dalí's Art
• The Influence of Freud's Theories on Surrealist Artists
• The Role of Automatism in Surrealist Painting
• The Use of Symbolism in René Magritte's Works
• The Intersection of Surrealism and Literature in the Works of Max Ernst

Compelling Renaissance Essay Topics

Marking the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern world, the Renaissance was a period of cultural and artistic rebirth. If you’re looking for compelling art essay topics on this fervent era, here are some ideas for inspiration.

• Humanism and Naturalism in Renaissance Art
• Religious Symbolism in Renaissance Art
• Leonardo da Vinci and His Influence on Renaissance Art
• Michelangelo’s David: An Icon of the Italian Renaissance
• The Sistine Chapel: Michelangelo’s Immortal Masterpiece
• The Transcendent Influence of Raphael’s Paintings
• “The Birth of Venus” by Botticelli: Mythology and Realism
• The Influence of Science on Renaissance Art and Culture
• The Harlem Renaissance: Driving Social Change Through Art
• The Unity of Art and Music in the Renaissance Era
• The Role of Patronage in the Development of Renaissance Art
• The Influence of Classical Antiquity on Renaissance Humanism
• The Architectural Innovations of Filippo Brunelleschi
• The Impact of the Printing Press on Renaissance Literature and Art
• The Evolution of Portraiture in the Italian Renaissance

Fascinating Photography Topics Ideas

As a type of visual art, photography has the power to evoke emotions, change perspectives, and transform the viewer’s knowledge and perception of art. If you want to dig deeper into photography, here are some cool art essay topics to start with.

• The History of Photography
• Camera Obscura: The Ancestor of the Modern Photography
• The Significance and Social Impact of War Photography
• The Mystery of Vivian Maier and Her Secret Street Photography
• The Role of Ansel Adams on Establishing Photography Among the Fine Arts
• Architectural Photography in the Modern Age
• The Role of Photography in the Film Industry
• How Digital Technology Has Changed Photography
• Self-Portrait Photography: The Art of Selfies
• The Psychological Impact of Photography
• The Evolution of Documentary Photography in the 20th Century
• The Role of Photography in Social Justice Movements
• The Influence of Digital Technology on Contemporary Photography
• Exploring the Ethics of Photojournalism
• The Intersection of Fine Art and Commercial Photography

Best Architecture Research Paper Topics

Architecture is an ever-evolving art form that shapes the world and allows for both practical and expressive designs. Check out some of the best art topics for research papers on architecture.

• The Influence of Roman Architecture on Modern Design
• Gothic Architecture: Key Elements of the Iconic Style
• Art Nouveau vs. Art Deco: A Comparison of the Modern Art Movements
• Rococo Architecture: The Characteristics of Late Baroque
• Constructivism in Art and Architecture
• Sustainability in African Architecture
• The Influence of Eastern Art on Western Architecture
• The Egyptian Pyramids: The Mystery Behind the Construction
• The Influence of Art and Literature on Design and Architecture
• The Marriage of Art and Architecture in Contemporary Design
• Urban Architecture: The Internet of Things and Smart City Design
• Architectural Wonders: Famous Architects and Their Masterpieces
• The Relationship Between Ancient and Modern Architecture
• Innovative Design Styles Shaping the Future of Architecture
• Islamic Architecture and Its Influence on Western Art

Theater Research Paper Topics

Theater helps us see different perspectives, understand different cultures, and dig deeper into our humanity. Thanks to actors’ dramatic performances that make the characters come alive before our eyes, we can experience stories in an attention-grabbing way. Find inspiration for your story in the following topics.

• The History of Greek Theater
• The Influence of Ancient Greek Theater on Modern Theater
• Samuel Beckett and the Theater of the Absurd
• The Cultural Evolution of Theater
• Theater as Art: A Force for Social and Cultural Change
• William Shakespeare and His Contribution to English Drama and Theater
• Elizabethan Theater vs. Modern Theater
• The History of Broadway
• The Role of Music in Theater
• Improvisation and Expression in Contemporary Theater
• The Evolution of Tragedy from Ancient Greece to Modern Theater
• The Role of Women in Shakespearean Plays
• The Influence of Bertolt Brecht's Epic Theater on Contemporary Performance
• The Impact of Technology on Modern Theater Productions
• The Significance of Ritual and Tradition in Indigenous Theatrical Practices

Intriguing Art Research Topics on Different Cultures

Every culture is unique, being an ensemble of different social norms, values, beliefs, and material traits. As such, it influences unique art forms that represent people’s emotions, experiences, and worldviews. If you want to analyze how different cultures influence art, check out these interesting topics.

• The Role of Cultural Identity in the Creation of Art
• The Pop Art Movement and Its Influence on American Culture
• Hollywood vs. Bollywood: Similarities and Differences
• Japanese Calligraphy: The Fine Art of Writing
• Traditional Dance Forms: Understanding Different Cultures Through Dance
• The Influence of Chinese Traditional Clothing on Japanese Culture
• Ancient Egyptian Culture: Art Principles and Traditions
• Poetic Realism in the Iranian Cinema
• French vs. American Artists: Cultural Differences Impacting Their Work
• Asian and African Tribal Art and Their Effects on Modern Art Movements
• The Symbolism in Traditional African Masks and Sculptures
• The Role of Calligraphy in Islamic Art
• The Influence of Native American Art on Contemporary Design
• The Evolution of Ukiyo-e and its Impact on Western Art
• The Significance of Color and Patterns in Indian Textile Art

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