Is The Beauty Of A Sculpture In The Brain Of The Beholder?

ScienceDaily (Nov. 24, 2007) — Is there an objective biological basis for the experience of beauty in art? Or is aesthetic experience entirely subjective? This question has been addressed in a new article by Cinzia Di Dio, Emiliano Macaluso and Giacomo Rizzolatti. The researchers used MRI scans to study the neural activity in subjects with no knowledge of art criticism, who were shown images of Classical and Renaissance sculptures.

[ Feeling and Form by Susanne K. Langer ( buy it used! )

With the rise of postmodern theory she is now largely neglected, but she was an important figure in mid-20th century American philosophy. A primary thrust of her main corpus (New Key, Feeling and Form, Mind) was to establish a sound and systematic basis for an understanding of art - one which would reveal causes behind its creation, its value for human consciousness, and sketches of a foundation upon which individual works might be judged and evaluated. Source: wikipedia

Her efforts to examine art focused in large part upon a rigorous examination of its symbolic structure, chiefly through comparisons of its symbolic workings to those with 'discursive forms' such as language and mathematics. Perhaps most notably, she sought to examine the symbolic forms of art in relationship to natural forms, including those embodied within biological processes.]

The 'objective' perspective was examined by contrasting images of Classical and Renaissance sculptures of canonical proportions, with images of the same sculptures whose proportions were altered to create a comparable degraded aesthetic value. In terms of brain activations, this comparison showed that the presence of the "golden ratio" in the original material activated specific sets of cortical neurons as well as (crucially) the insula, a structure mediating emotions. This response was particularly apparent when participants were only required to observe the stimuli; that is, when the brain reacted most spontaneously to the images presented.

The 'subjective' perspective was evaluated by contrasting beautiful vs. ugly sculptures, this time as judged by each participant who decided whether or not the sculpture was aesthetic. The images judged to be beautiful selectively activated the right amygdala, a structure that responds tolearned incoming information laden with emotional value.

These results indicate that, in observers naïve to art criticism, the sense of beauty is mediated by two non-mutually exclusive processes: one is based on a joint activation of sets of cortical neurons, triggered by parameters intrinsic to the stimuli, and the insula (objective beauty); the other is based on the activation of the amygdala, driven by one's own emotional experiences (subjective beauty). The researchers conclude that both objective and subjective factors intervene in determining our appreciation of an artwork.

The history of art is replete with the constant tension between objective values and subjective judgments. This tension is deepened when artists discover new aesthetic parameters that may appeal for various reasons, be they related to our biological heritage, or simply to fashion or novelty. Still, the central question remains: when the fashion and novelty expire, could their work ever become a permanent patrimony of humankind without a resonance induced by some biologically inherent parameters?

Citation: Di Dio C, Macaluso E, Rizzolatti G (2007) The Golden Beauty: Brain Response to Classical and Renaissance Sculptures. PLoS One 2(11): e1201. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001201