New Study Sheds Light on Human Perception of Time in Artwork
Paintings whisper the time of day Color & brightness subconsciously tell our brains dawn from dusk, across 3 centuries & diverse styles. Study reveals artists tap into our built-in “daylight decoder,” deepening our understanding of art & visual perception.
By Richard Cole · January 17, 2024
A recent study by Newcastle University in the UK and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, published in January’s Journal of Vision, has revealed that people use a combination of color and brightness in paintings to predict the time of day depicted in the images.
The study found that participants were able to establish the timing of a wide range of paintings over three centuries, regardless of the exact content or style of the painting, purely based on the selection of shades used. In an online behavioral experiment, 51 individuals rated 104 mostly little-known landscape paintings as depicting morning, noon, afternoon, evening, or night. Surprisingly, the time of day ratings given to the paintings were remarkably consistent, despite the diverse artists and the paintings’ origins spanning the 17th to 20th century.
Anya Hurlbert, Professor of Visual Neuroscience at Newcastle University, who led the study, emphasized the significance of the findings, stating that the research shows that painters tap into fundamental processes of visual perception that adults possess. They appear to subconsciously understand how the human brain has learned over evolution to interpret changes in daylight, adding to our understanding of visual perception.
The study also highlighted the impact of natural daylight on color perception. Daylight, comprising direct sunlight and diffuse skylight, undergoes subtle color changes over the course of a day, offering cues that most people interpreted consistently. At dawn, daylight transitions rapidly from dark blue to brighter yellow or neutral hues, while at dusk, it shifts in the opposite direction, becoming bluer as it darkens. Additionally, during morning and evening when the sun is close to the horizon, daylight is dimmer than at midday, which people were able to discern from the paintings.
The experiment, conducted both online and in the lab, confirmed that paintings serve as a rich source of information for scientists to comprehend the workings of visual perception.
"Therefore, paintings make a rich source of information for scientists to understand how visual perception works."
This study provides valuable insight into the intricate relationship between color, brightness, and the human perception of time, with implications reaching beyond the realms of art and into the fundamental understanding of visual cognition. The findings not only deepen our appreciation for the skill and intuition of painters but also offer valuable knowledge for scientists seeking to unravel the complexities of human visual perception.