Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 30, 2025

Applying Hyperspectral Reflectance Imaging to Investigate the Palettes and the Techniques of Painters
Published on: June 18, 2021
Universality and superiority in preference for chromatic composition of art paintings
Shigeki Nakauchi1, Taisei Kondo2, Yuya Kinzuka2
1Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Toyohashi, 441-8580, Japan. nakauchi@tut.jp.
Abstract:
Color composition in paintings is a critical factor affecting observers' aesthetic judgments. We examined observers' preferences for the color composition of Japanese and Occidental paintings when their color gamut was rotated. In the experiment, observers were asked to select their preferred image from original and three hue-rotated images in a four-alternative forced choice paradigm. Despite observers' being unfamiliar with the presented artwork, the original paintings (0 degrees) were preferred more frequently than the hue-rotated ones. Furthermore, the original paintings' superiority was observed when the images were divided into small square pieces and their positions randomized (Scrambled condition), and when the images were composed of square pieces collected from different art paintings and composed as patchwork images (Patchwork condition). Therefore, the original paintings' superiority regarding preference was quite robust, and the specific objects in the paintings associated with a particular color played only a limited role. Rather, the original paintings' general trend in color statistics influenced hue-angle preference. Art paintings likely share common statistical regulations in color distributions, which may be the basis for the universality and superiority of the preference for original paintings.
Related Concept Videos
Gestalt Principles of Perception
Color Vision
Perceptual Constancy
Size constancy is the recognition that an object remains the same size, even when its image on the retina changes. For instance, a bus is perceived to be large enough to carry people, even if it looks tiny from...
Testing a Claim about Population Proportion
There are two methods of testing a claim about a population proportion: (1) Using the sample proportion from the data where a binomial distribution is approximated to the normal distribution and (2) Using the binomial probabilities calculated from the data.
The first method uses normal distribution as an approximation to the binomial distribution. The requirements are as follows: sample size is large...
Mate Choice
UV–Vis Spectroscopy of Conjugated Systems
One of the factors influencing λmax is the extent...

