Material perception across different media—comparing perceived attributes in oil paintings and engravings

Abstract

We investigated the influence of the medium on the perception of depicted objects and materials. Oil paintings and their reproductions in engravings were chosen because they are vastly distinctive media while having completely identical content. A total of 15 pairs were collected, consisting of 88 fragments depicting different materials, including fabric, skin, wood and metal. Besides the original condition, we created three manipulations to understand the effect of colour (a greyscale version) and contrast (equalised histograms towards both painting and engraving). We performed rating experiments on five attributes: three-dimensionality, glossiness, convincingness, smoothness and softness. An average of 25 participants finished each of the 20 online experimental sessions (five attributes X four conditions). Besides clear correlations between the two media, the differences mainly show in their means (different levels of perceived attributes) and standard deviations (perceived range). In most sessions, paintings depict a wider range than engravings. In addition, it was the histogram equalisation (global contrast) that made the most impact on perceived attributes, rather than colour removal. This suggests that engravers compensated for the lack of colour by exploiting the possibilities of local contrast.