Reliable Top-Left Light Convention Starts With Early Renaissance: An Extensive Approach Comprising 10k Artworks

Art history claims that Western art shows light from the top left, which has been repeatedly shown with narrow image sets and simplistic research methods. Here we employed a set of 10,000 pictures for which participants estimated the direction of light plus their confidence of estimation. From 1420...

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Main Authors:	Claus-Christian Carbon, Alexander Pastukhov
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-04-01
Series:	Frontiers in Psychology
Subjects:	empirical aesthetics light source renaissance artworks art history laterality
Online Access:	http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00454/full

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spelling	doaj-f7d2bbc4a7a3481e9fad07a25bbbf1bd2020-11-25T00:59:19ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782018-04-01910.3389/fpsyg.2018.00454343322Reliable Top-Left Light Convention Starts With Early Renaissance: An Extensive Approach Comprising 10k ArtworksClaus-Christian Carbon0Claus-Christian Carbon1Alexander Pastukhov2Alexander Pastukhov3Department of General Psychology and Methodology, University of Bamberg, Bamberg, GermanyForschungsgruppe Ergonomics, Psychological Æsthetics, Gestalt, Bamberg, GermanyDepartment of General Psychology and Methodology, University of Bamberg, Bamberg, GermanyForschungsgruppe Ergonomics, Psychological Æsthetics, Gestalt, Bamberg, GermanyArt history claims that Western art shows light from the top left, which has been repeatedly shown with narrow image sets and simplistic research methods. Here we employed a set of 10,000 pictures for which participants estimated the direction of light plus their confidence of estimation. From 1420 A.D., the onset of Early Renaissance, until 1900 A.D., we revealed a clear preference for painting light from the top left—within the same period, we observed the highest confidence in such estimations of the light source.One sentence summaryThis study demonstrates a robust preference for painting light from the top left for Western art history, starting from Early Renaissance until 1900.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00454/fullempirical aestheticslight sourcerenaissanceartworksart historylaterality
collection	DOAJ
language	English
format	Article
sources	DOAJ
author	Claus-Christian Carbon Claus-Christian Carbon Alexander Pastukhov Alexander Pastukhov
spellingShingle	Claus-Christian Carbon Claus-Christian Carbon Alexander Pastukhov Alexander Pastukhov Reliable Top-Left Light Convention Starts With Early Renaissance: An Extensive Approach Comprising 10k Artworks Frontiers in Psychology empirical aesthetics light source renaissance artworks art history laterality
author_facet	Claus-Christian Carbon Claus-Christian Carbon Alexander Pastukhov Alexander Pastukhov
author_sort	Claus-Christian Carbon
title	Reliable Top-Left Light Convention Starts With Early Renaissance: An Extensive Approach Comprising 10k Artworks
title_short	Reliable Top-Left Light Convention Starts With Early Renaissance: An Extensive Approach Comprising 10k Artworks
title_full	Reliable Top-Left Light Convention Starts With Early Renaissance: An Extensive Approach Comprising 10k Artworks
title_fullStr	Reliable Top-Left Light Convention Starts With Early Renaissance: An Extensive Approach Comprising 10k Artworks
title_full_unstemmed	Reliable Top-Left Light Convention Starts With Early Renaissance: An Extensive Approach Comprising 10k Artworks
title_sort	reliable top-left light convention starts with early renaissance: an extensive approach comprising 10k artworks
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
series	Frontiers in Psychology
issn	1664-1078
publishDate	2018-04-01
description	Art history claims that Western art shows light from the top left, which has been repeatedly shown with narrow image sets and simplistic research methods. Here we employed a set of 10,000 pictures for which participants estimated the direction of light plus their confidence of estimation. From 1420 A.D., the onset of Early Renaissance, until 1900 A.D., we revealed a clear preference for painting light from the top left—within the same period, we observed the highest confidence in such estimations of the light source.One sentence summaryThis study demonstrates a robust preference for painting light from the top left for Western art history, starting from Early Renaissance until 1900.
topic	empirical aesthetics light source renaissance artworks art history laterality
url	http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00454/full
work_keys_str_mv	AT clauschristiancarbon reliabletopleftlightconventionstartswithearlyrenaissanceanextensiveapproachcomprising10kartworks AT clauschristiancarbon reliabletopleftlightconventionstartswithearlyrenaissanceanextensiveapproachcomprising10kartworks AT alexanderpastukhov reliabletopleftlightconventionstartswithearlyrenaissanceanextensiveapproachcomprising10kartworks AT alexanderpastukhov reliabletopleftlightconventionstartswithearlyrenaissanceanextensiveapproachcomprising10kartworks
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Reliable Top-Left Light Convention Starts With Early Renaissance: An Extensive Approach Comprising 10k Artworks

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