A Comparison of the Perceived Pictorial and Aesthetic Qualities of Original Paintings and Their Postcard Images

Abstract

Art trained and untrained participants evaluated postcard images of nine paintings by renowned artists on 16 measures of the compositions' physical and structural characteristics, novelty of content, and aesthetic qualities. These ratings were compared to those obtained by Locher et al. (2001) from individuals experiencing the original paintings in the galleries of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and from viewers of slide-projected and computer-generated images of the set of art stimuli. Analyses revealed significant differences in the judged hedonic properties of the originals as compared to the postcard images, whereas the pictorial qualities of the artworks were comparable for these two format conditions. This was the case for both art trained and untrained participants. Additionally, ratings on all measures were found not to differ reliably across the three reproduction formats (viz., postcard, slide, and computer images). Findings are discussed in terms of Locher et al.'s facsimile-accommodation hypothesis of picture perception.

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