University of Virginia Library

Preface

This book is a mixture of psychology and art history. The
psychology is based on the large body of research on perception
in general and on picture perception in particular.
The art history is based on the vast literature on fifteenth-century
Italian painting in general and on the development
of perspective in particular.

The special character of the book comes from its intention
to clarify certain aspects of Renaissance painting by
applying some analytic tools of experimental psychology
to the paintings of some of its greatest exponents. Since
one cannot fruitfully do experiments using these paintings,
one must reason by analogy in analyzing these works; thus
the style of the book is not in line with most works written
by experimental psychologists. It also differs from most
works written by art historians, who do not often venture
outside the realm of historical documents; when they turn
to psychology, they are more likely to appeal to psychoanalysis
than to the experimental psychology of perception.
The most notable exception is Sir Ernst Gombrich,
whose writings are a model to all those who might wish
to use the insights of perceptual research to better understand
visual art.

The text does not assume any prior knowledge of art
history, perceptual theory, or geometry. When I deal with
an issue on a level more appropriate to the specialist, the
text is set off in brackets:

Polemical material I usually relegate to footnotes, unless
it is germane to the main thrust of my argument.

I wish to express my gratitude to friends and colleagues
for their help in various phases of this project: to Wendell
R. Garner, who got the ball rolling by suggesting that I
teach a course on the psychology of art at Yale; to Miri
Kubovy, who introduced me to art history and was enthusiastic
about this project in all its stages; to Samuel Y.
Edgerton, Jr., Reni and Marcel Franciscono, Wendell R.
Garner, Martin J. Kemp, Miri Kubovy, William and Claire
McGuire, Irvin Rock, and Michael Sukale, who made many
important, and sometimes crucial, suggestions; to Catherine
Randazzo, for her unflagging enthusiasm in dealing
with essential technical matters such as permissions; and
to Itamar Kubovy, for his excellent technical assistance and
for suggesting the best title for the book (which is not the
current one). I wish also to acknowledge the support of
the U.S. Public Health Service (grants to Yale and to Rutgers
universities on “Attention and Pre-Attention in Audition
and Vision”), Rutgers University Research Council
(grants on “Apparent and Mental Rotation of Three-Dimensional
Bodies” and “Dimensions of Similarity and
Grouping”), Rutgers University Johanna Busch Memorial
Fund (grant on “Attention and Pre-Attention in Audition
and Vision”), and to the National Science Foundation (grant
on “Visual Imagery, Space, and Pictorial Representation”).