The Perceptual and Aesthetic Aspects of the Music-Paintings Congruence

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of congruence between music and paintings on the aesthetic preference of paintings. Congruence was specified as the similarity in perceived regularity and the complexity of jazz compositions and abstract paintings (the ratings of regularity and complexity in both sets of stimuli were obtained in the pilot study). In the main experiment, 32 participants rated the aesthetic pleasantness of paintings with congruent, incongruent, and no music background. In addition, they rated the music-paintings matching (how well the music goes with the painting). The results show no effect of congruence on aesthetic pleasantness ratings. The effect on the perceived matching was significant; matching is higher in the congruent compared to the incongruent condition. These findings suggest that congruency has a strong effect on the perceptual aspect of the music-paintings compatibility (visuo-auditory similarity) and no effect on the aesthetic aspect (liking).

Cross-Modal Perceptual Organization in Works of Art

“…This partial diversity between the two phases of the experiment may reveal a structural difference between the linguistic and the perceptual mediums adopted in the evaluations, which is important to bear in mind in the debate among synesthesia, cross-modality, and ideasthesia. This result suggests that the semantic differential methods, also used in other related studies (e.g., Rančić & Marković, 2019 ), might be insufficient to fully account for cross-modal correspondences, in particular for multimodal Gestalt effects.…”

Wikipedia and Shostakovich Meets Goya: Elaborative Narration and Music Enhance Affect Derived From Art

“…Braun Janzen et al (2022) observed that in a genuine museum setting, both the valence of music and how pleasant it was for participants affected their appreciation for paintings. On the contrary, Rančić and Marković (2019) found no appreciation effect even when participants were able to identify the valence congruency between music and paintings. It is likely that these art-music interactions are colored by the widely discussed contextual and genuineness effects as well.…”

The effect of background music on the aesthetic experience of a visual artwork in a naturalistic environment

“…Crossmodal correspondence refers to the natural tendency to associate sensory features of a stimulus in one modality with a sensory feature in another modality, such as color/sound and shape/sound (Chen & Spence, 2017; Spence, 2011, 2020; Spence & Deroy, 2013). Stylistic congruences between music and visual artwork have been examined, with findings suggesting that stylistic music-painting matching relies primarily on judgments of stimuli complexity (Albertazzi et al, 2015; Marin et al, 2016; Marin & Leder, 2013; Rančić & Marković, 2019). Nevertheless, recent research suggests that stylistic congruence does not seem to impact the aesthetic experience (Rančić & Marković, 2019).…”

“…Stylistic congruences between music and visual artwork have been examined, with findings suggesting that stylistic music-painting matching relies primarily on judgments of stimuli complexity (Albertazzi et al, 2015; Marin et al, 2016; Marin & Leder, 2013; Rančić & Marković, 2019). Nevertheless, recent research suggests that stylistic congruence does not seem to impact the aesthetic experience (Rančić & Marković, 2019). Crossmodal correspondences between sound/music and other sensory modalities have also been reported, with findings suggesting that musical emotions can modulate consumers’ hedonic judgment of foods and beverages (Kantono et al, 2019; Reinoso-Carvalho et al, 2019; Spence et al, 2019; Wang et al, 2015).…”