Edited by: Silvio Ionta, University Hospital Center (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland
Reviewed by: Alissa Fourkas, National Institutes of Health, USA; Luis Carlo Bulnes, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
*Correspondence: Luca F. Ticini, School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Manchester, Zochonis Building, Brunswick Street, Manchester M13 9PL, UK e-mail:
This article was submitted to the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
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The creation of an artwork requires motor activity. To what extent is art appreciation divorced from that activity and to what extent is it linked to it? That is the question which we set out to answer. We presented participants with pointillist-style paintings featuring discernible brushstrokes and asked them to rate their liking of each canvas when it was preceded by images priming a motor act either compatible or incompatible with the simulation of the artist's movements. We show that action priming, when congruent with the artist's painting style, enhanced aesthetic preference. These results support the hypothesis that involuntary covert painting simulation contributes to aesthetic appreciation during passive observation of artwork.
Perceptual, cognitive, and affective evaluations contributes to the aesthetic experience of a work of art (Cela-Conde et al.,
We recorded the preference of naïve individuals for 90 high quality reproductions of pointillist-style paintings presented under conditions specifically designed either to be compatible or not with the actions required to produce them (as established in associative training conducted beforehand, see Materials and Methods). Each painting was preceded by a supraliminal priming consisting of a static image depicting a hand either holding a paintbrush with a precision (Compatible) or a power grip (Incompatible). A hand resting palm down on a table was used as baseline (Control). We hypothesized that if action simulation is causally involved in the affective response to art, subjects would like the artwork in the Compatible condition more than in the other two conditions.
Twenty naïve healthy right-handed individuals (13 females; mean = 24 years) participated in the study. They were all naïve to the purpose of the investigation and with normal or corrected-to-normal vision.
Stimuli consisted of 90 high quality color images of pointillist-style paintings (Table
Marevna | Oб |
Signac | Paul | Pine Tree at Saint-Tropez | |
Cross | Henri-Edmond | A Venetian Canal | Matisse | Henri | Le Cap Layet |
Franco | Angelo | Blooming Tree | Matisse | Henri | Luxe, Calme et Volupté |
Ferrigno | Andrea | Divide and Conquer | Matisse | Henri | Still Life |
Franco | Angelo | Abstract Forest IV | Matisse | Henri | Still Life with Purro II |
Zeniuk | Jerry | Untitled | Metzinger | Jean | Bathers, Two Nudes in an Exotic Landscape |
Dellavallée | Henri | Farmyard | Metzinger | Jean | Bord de Mer |
Dellavallée | Henri | La Rue au Soleil à Port-Manech | Metzinger | Jean | Femme Assise au Bouquet de Feuilage |
Holton | William | Garden | Metzinger | Jean | Le Château de Clisson |
Holton | William | Attractor | Metzinger | Jean | Nature Morte |
Franco | Angelo | Forest Abstraction | Metzinger | Jean | Paysage au Deux Cypres |
Franco | Angelo | Forest Abstraction #6 | Metzinger | Jean | Paysage Neo-Impressiste |
Franco | Angelo | Forest of Love | Metzinger | Jean | Matin au Parc Montsouris |
Holton | William | Indra | Metzinger | Jean | Parc Monceau |
Franco | Angelo | Virginia Forest Abstraction 1 | Klee | Paul | Croix et Colonnes |
Franco | Angelo | Floral Abstraction Verdant | Picabia | Francis | View of St. Tropez from the Citadel |
Franco | Angelo | Manhattan Pidgeon | Picasso | Pablo | Le Retour du Bapteme, d'apres le Nain |
Franco | Angelo | November Bouquet | Pissarro | Camille | Children on a Farm |
Franco | Angelo | Nude Abstraction | Signac | Paul | Palais des Papes Avignon |
Franco | Angelo | Portrait of a Hill | Franco | Sean | Bouquet in Ochre |
Franco | Angelo | Rare Bird | Segal | Arthur | Marseille |
Angrand | Charles | In the Garden | Seurat | Georges | The Maria—Honfleur |
Angrand | Charles | Couple dans la Rue | Signac | Paul | The Port of Saint-Tropez |
Balla | Giacomo | Girl Running on a Balcony | Signac | Paul | River's Edge—the Seine at Herblay |
Cross | Henri-Edmond | The Golden Isles | Seurat | Georges | Port-en-Bessin—Avant-Port Marée Haute |
Holton | William | Fallout | Seurat | Georges | Port-en-Bessin—Entrance to the Harbor |
Cross | Henri-Edmond | Sunset on the Lagoon Venice | Signac | Paul | Les Andelys—the Riverbank |
Signac | Paul | Saint-Tropez—the Storm | Seurat | Georges | Gravelines Annonciade |
Cross | Henri-Edmond | Undergrowth | Lemmen | Georges | Factories on the Thames |
Cross | Henri-Edmond | La Chaine des Maures | Goldstein | Leonard | Going Home in Black and White #1 |
Cross | Henri-Edmond | The Scarab | van Rysselberghe | Théo | Pointe Saint-Pierre at Saint-Tropez |
Cross | Henri-Edmond | The Wood | Goldstein | Leonard | Shield of Moie |
Cross | Henri-Edmond | Cypresses at Cagnes | Goldstein | Leonard | Flower Nebular #2 |
Dali | Salvador | Madrid, Architecture and Poplars | Luce | Maximilien | The Seine at Herblay |
Dali | Salvador | Dawn, Noon, Sunset and Dusk | Luce | Maximilien | Montmartre—de la Rue Cortot, Vue vers Saint-Denis |
Dali | Salvador | Bathers of Llane | Luce | Maximilien | Morning Interior |
Derain | André | Boats at Collioure | van Rysselberghe | Théo | Sailboats and Estuary |
Dubois | Louis | La Marne à l'Aube | Malevich | Kazimir | Landscape |
Biggi | Gastone | Apalachi | van Dongen | Kees | Le Moulin de la Galette |
Signac | Paul | Saint-Tropez—the Storm | Marevna | Flower Still Life | |
Biggi | Gastone | Odessa Chant | Kusama | Yayoi | Sunlight |
Signac | Paul | View of Saint-Tropez | Lacombe | Georges | In the Forest |
Vuillard | Edouard | My Grandmother | Lemmen | Georges | Beach at Heist |
Biggi | Gastone | Attraversamenti | Lemmen | Georges | Heyst No.3 High Tide |
Hofmann | Hans | Self Portrait | Lemmen | Georges | View of the Thames |
We first established an association between the participants' own movements and the creation of pointillist-style or stroke-style paintings. To achieve this, we presented the participants with one out of three right gloved-hand images (Figure
The image of the hand holding a paintbrush with a precision grip instructed the participants to paint dots by executing stippling movements while holding the paintbrush with the precision grip (Figure
After the visuomotor training, participants observed the 90 pointillist-style paintings preceded by one of the three images (700–1000 ms, randomly presented) depicting a right gloved-hand holding a paintbrush with a grip that supraliminally primed actions (for studies investigating how hand images prime actions see Borghi et al.,
Upon completion of the experiment, the participants were debriefed to assess their familiarity with art by using an art questionnaire adapted from Chatterjee et al. (
1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
2 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2 |
3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
5 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
6 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2 |
7 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 2 |
8 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 2 |
9 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 17 | 2 |
10 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
11 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
13 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
15 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 16 | 2 |
16 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 2 |
17 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
18 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 2 |
To asses whether covert painting simulation modulated the liking rating, we entered the ratings in a 3 (Condition: Compatible, Incompatible, Control; within subjects) × 2 (Group: art-familiar, art-unfamiliar; between subjects) ANOVA. A significance threshold of
The main factor Group [
Correlations between each condition and individuals' sum of experience ratings (see Table
In this behavioral study we show that the aesthetic appreciation for pointillist-style paintings is enhanced by presenting supraliminal action priming images that are congruent (Compatible condition) with the style required to create those paintings. How can the priming modulate liking ratings of passively observed canvases? We believe that the congruent priming facilitated the covert simulation of the brushstrokes present in the paintings, thus yielding to higher ratings. This interpretation is consistent with the hypothesis that motor structures have a role in aesthetic and particularly that involuntary painting simulation contributes to aesthetic appreciation (Freedberg and Gallese,
What is the mechanisms involved in simulating brushstrokes? The concept of covert action simulation has acquired a new interest with the work conducted on the mirror neuron mechanism in the non-human and human primate brain (Rizzolatti and Sinigaglia,
These results could be also explained by alternative mechanisms not necessarily involving painting simulation. For instance, it is plausible that the implicit knowledge about the correct action needed to manipulate the paintbrush (see Buxbaum and Kalenine,
In conclusion, we here provide empirical evidence that, beyond other factors such as upbringing, historical context and nature of the artistic stimuli, covert painting simulation may influence affective responses to art (Freedberg and Gallese,
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.
The authors wish to thank A. Berthoz, H. Leder, M. Nadal, and the reviewers for their insightful comments. This work was supported by the French National Research Agency (ANR-10-CREA-005).