Evaluation of paintings: Effects of lectures

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of lectures about the Renaissance and abstract art on ratings of paintings from these two periods in art history. The study included two sessions. In the first, 72 naive participants rated the representational and abstract paintings. In the second session participants were divided into three groups: one received a lecture on Renaissance art, one attended a lecture on abstract art, and one group attended no lecture. Afterwards, the three groups rated a new, parallel set of paintings. Three first-order factors were extracted: Aesthetic experience, Relaxation tone, and Arousal. However, the higher order General Aesthetic Experience factor explained a much higher amount of variance than the first-order factors, indicating its strong and generalized influence on naïve participants' experience with artworks. After the lecture on abstract art the participants rated paintings, especially abstract, as more aesthetically pleasing than the participants who attended the lecture on Renaissance art or the group without a lecture. Proposed explanation for this is that the naïve observers' ratings of abstract paintings are more susceptible to the influence of style-related information. When rating abstract artwork naïve observers may be significantly influenced by additional information gathered outside of the artwork.