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Science for Sapiens A year in research (2024)

ow do we look at art? The panel de-
picting hell attracts more and more in-
tensely the gaze of those who contem-
plate ‘The Garden of Delights’, one of
the most iconic works of El Bosco and
which is exhibited in Room 56A in the
Museo Nacional del Prado. This is the
Hmain conclusion of the scientific study
carried out jointly by the Institute for Bioengineering of the
University Miguel Hernández of Elche (UMH) and the Mu-
seo Nacional del Prado.

The research involved 52 people, from Spain, Italy, France,
Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Australia and the Uni- The UMH study has made it possible to generate a ‘heat map’ that reflects the parts
ted States. The study has been carried out by the Group for of the painting that most attract the attention of observers
Biomedical Neuroengineering of the UMH, directed by Pro-
fessor Eduardo Fernández Jover, and it has applied advan-
ced technologies to delve into how people behave in front
of the painting.
The study has allowed
How we look at art
The study of the UMH has allowed to generate a ‘heatmap’ to generate a ‘heatmap’
showing the parts of the picture that most attract the atten- showing the parts of the
tion of each of the observers.
picture that most attract
The technology used in the study allowed to record the po- the attention of each of
sition of the subjects in the room, measure the time each
person looked at the panel and what part of the work they the observers
paid attention to. This technique also allowed registering,
simultaneously with observation, the size of pupils, which
provides relevant information on emotional responses.
Thus, collected the data and put in a comparable magnitu- Another of the most illustrative results of the study has been
de (seconds per square meter), since the three panels do to obtain the type route that each of the 52 people analysed
not have the same size, the results indicate that the average has carried out with their eyes when observing the triptych.
time of observation of the panel of Hell was 33.2 seconds For this purpose, eye-tracking glasses have been used,
per square meter, compared to the 26 sec/m2 of the central which, connected to a computer, independently recorded
panel and the 16 sec/m2 of Paradise. This difference is also head direction, eye direction and saccadic movements (tho-
clearly seen in the time of observation per panel. The visitor se fast and simultaneous movements performed by both
spends 30.9 sec/m2 with the Hell panel, compared to the eyes when they are observing), as well as the size of each
21.6 sec/m2 of the central panel and the 12.6 sec/m2 of the of the pupils. It has also been very revealing to see that this
left panel, corresponding to Paradise. visual tour starts – in 46% of the cases – from the left panel
of the work, then continuing to the central one and ending
One of the latest theories developed from Art History about with the right panel.
this triptych, painted around 1,500, conceives it as a piece
for conversation. Apparently, already in the Nassau Palace As a complement to all this, the study has also established
in Brussels (Belgium), the first destination of the triptych, its an iconographic measurement, according to the time of ob-
owners showed it to the elite of the time and talked about it, servation of more concrete elements within the work such
something that happens daily in the room where it is usually as the fountains, some birds or the mysterious self-portrait
exhibited in the Prado, the room registering the highest data of the painter; the only one that differs in scale from the rest
in terms of the number and time of visits. The study has mea- of the characters. This has allowed to generate a ‘heatmap’
sured, for the first time, what the average duration of public showing the parts of the picture that most attract the atten-
observation is, which is 04:08 minutes. tion of each of the observers.

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