Scientist decodes secret of Rembrandt’s appeal

TORONTO - Rembrandt may have pioneered a technique that guides the viewer’s gaze around a portrait, creating a “calmer” viewing experience, says a new study.

Renaissance artists used various techniques to engage viewers, many incorporating new scientific knowledge on lighting, spatial layout and perspectives.

To isolate factors that contribute to the “magic” of Rembrandt, Steve DiPaola, University of British Columbia (UBC) researcher, used computer-rendering programs to recreate four of the artist’s most famous portraits from photographs of himself and other models.

Replicating Rembrandt’s techniques, he placed a sharper focus on specific areas of the model’s face, such as the eyes.

Working with a team from the Vision Lab in UBC’s Department of Psychology, DiPaola then tracked the viewers’ eye movements while they examined the original photographs and the Rembrandt-like portraits.

“When viewing the Rembrandt-like portraits, viewers fixated on the detailed eye faster and stayed there for longer periods of time, resulting in calmer eye movements,” says DiPaola, also an associate professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University (SFU).

“The transition from sharp to blurry edges, known as ‘lost and found edges,’ also directed the viewers eyes around the portrait in a sort of narrative.”

The study is the first to scientifically verify the impact of these “eye guiding” techniques on viewers and to attribute its origin to Rembrandt.

The viewers also preferred portraits with this “eye guiding narrative” to the original photographs with uniform details across the tableau, said an UBC release.

“Through these techniques, Rembrandt is essentially playing tour guide to his viewers hundreds of years after his death, creating a unique narrative by guiding the viewers’ eye,” says DiPaola. “This may explain why people appreciate portraiture as an art form.

These findings were published in the current issue of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s arts and sciences journal Leonardo.

Other study authors are James Enns, professor at the UBC and Caitlin Riebe of SFU.