Why Are Paintings Painted as They Are? The Place of Children’s Drawings in Vision and Art

Abstract

This work explores phenomenologically a new research perspective, whose purpose is to answer the question ‘why are paintings painted as they are?’. This perspective is based on the pictorial reproduction task aimed to reveal how subjects of different ages copy/paint what they perceived and how they organize the visual raw material. The results demonstrated the emergence of visual singularities organized in at least four stages going from 4 to 18 years of age reflecting different artistic styles and accomplishments appeared during the history of art. These outcomes entail that the answer to the previous basic question is: ‘we paint what and the way we paint because we perceive what and the way we perceive’ (painting–perception coupling). On the basis of these results, it is suggested that children’s drawings can significantly contribute to the comprehension and explanation of the painting–perception coupling.