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The
real “eye” of the beholder is the brain itself.
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In addition to our built-in visual processes, each
of us brings to a work of art our acquired memories: we remember other works of art that we have seen. We remember scenes
and people that have meaning to us and relate the work of art to those memories. In order to see what is painted on a canvas,
we have to know beforehand what we might see in a painting. These insights into perception served as a bridge between the
visual perception of art and the biology of the brain.
So how does our brain respond to portraiture? As we look
at a portrait, our brain calls on several interacting systems to analyze contours, form a representation of the face and of
the body, analyze the body’s motion, experience emotion, and perhaps, empathy. Along with these instantaneous responses,
we form a theory of the subject’s state of mind.
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