{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,30]],"date-time":"2026-06-30T11:48:18Z","timestamp":1782820098154,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2007,2,1]],"date-time":"2007-02-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1170288000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Perception"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2007,2]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Tyler (1998 Nature392 877) proposed that \u2018painters centre one eye in portraits\u2019, and that this is a hidden aesthetic principle used implicitly by artists and by viewers of portraits. We assess that hypothesis in three related studies: a Monte-Carlo analysis of eye placement in synthetic faces randomly placed within a frame; a survey of eye position in 786 painted portraits from Western art of the past six centuries; and an experimental study in which fifty subjects were asked which of two versions of 60 pairs of portraits they preferred, in only one of which the eye was precisely centred. Taken together, the three studies showed no evidence to support Tyler's hypothesis, and in particular there was no evidence for subjects having an aesthetic preference for a centred eye in portraits. We conclude that one eye tends to be relatively close to the vertical midline because of geometric constraints on the placing of a relatively large object, the head, within a pictorial frame.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1068\/p5578","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2007,2,16]],"date-time":"2007-02-16T06:21:14Z","timestamp":1171606874000},"page":"167-182","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Eye Centring in Portraits: A Theoretical and Empirical Evaluation"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"36","author":[{"given":"I Christopher","family":"McManus","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peter","family":"Thomas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2007,2,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-p5578","volume-title":"Art: A World History","author":"Anonymous","year":"1997"},{"key":"bibr2-p5578","volume-title":"The Power of the Center: A Study of Composition in the Visual Arts","author":"Arnheim R.","year":"1982"},{"key":"bibr3-p5578","volume-title":"In the Eye of the Beholder: The Science of Face Perception","author":"Bruce V.","year":"1998"},{"key":"bibr4-p5578","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2190\/DVKG-VX7R-08DQ-49L0"},{"key":"bibr5-p5578","volume-title":"The World of Art","author":"Forty S.","year":"2000"},{"key":"bibr6-p5578","first-page":"29","volume":"36","author":"Furnham A.","year":"2004","journal-title":"Higher Education Review"},{"key":"bibr7-p5578","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2752\/089279303786992260"},{"key":"bibr8-p5578","volume-title":"Five Hundred Self-Portraits: From Antique Times to the Present Day in Sculpture, Painting, Drawing and Engraving","author":"Goldscheider L.","year":"1937"},{"key":"bibr9-p5578","volume-title":"The Golden Age: Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century","author":"Haak R.","year":"1984"},{"key":"bibr10-p5578","volume-title":"The National Gallery London","author":"Hendy P.","year":"1955"},{"key":"bibr11-p5578","volume-title":"Portrait of the Artist: Artists' Portraits Published by Art News & Review\u2019 1949 \u2013 1960","author":"Jenkins D F","year":"1989"},{"key":"bibr12-p5578","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0028-3932(99)00045-7"},{"key":"bibr13-p5578","volume-title":"The Self-Portrait: A Modern View","author":"Lucie-Smith E.","year":"1987"},{"key":"bibr14-p5578","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S1355617701003137"},{"key":"bibr15-p5578","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2190\/5NM6-FV42-X38A-F3VP"},{"key":"bibr16-p5578","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2190\/HXR4-VU9A-P5D9-BPQQ"},{"key":"bibr17-p5578","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1348\/000712606X101088"},{"key":"bibr18-p5578","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/1741-7015-2-29"},{"key":"bibr19-p5578","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2190\/66DJ-GVVJ-A33U-X7AT"},{"key":"bibr20-p5578","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2190\/WWCR-VWHV-2Y2W-91EE"},{"key":"bibr21-p5578","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0028-3932(98)00074-8"},{"key":"bibr22-p5578","volume-title":"Hanging the Head: Portraiture and Social Formation in Eighteenth-century England","author":"Pointon M.","year":"1993"},{"key":"bibr23-p5578","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0028-3932(01)00082-3"},{"key":"bibr24-p5578","volume-title":"The Art of the Portrait: Masterpieces of European Portrait-painting, 1420 \u2013 1670","author":"Schneider N.","year":"1994"},{"key":"bibr25-p5578","volume-title":"The Portrait in Britain and America: With a Biographical Dictionary of Portrait Painters, 1680 \u2013 1914","author":"Simon R.","year":"1987"},{"key":"bibr26-p5578","unstructured":"Tyler C W, 1998a An Eye-Placement Principle in 500 Years of Portraits http:\/\/www.ski.org\/CWTyler_lab\/CWTyler\/PrePublications\/ARVO\/1998\/Portraits\/. Accessed 10 January 2006."},{"key":"bibr27-p5578","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tyler C W, 1998b \u201cPainters centre one eye in portraits\u201d Nature 392 877.","DOI":"10.1038\/31833"},{"key":"bibr28-p5578","unstructured":"Tyler C W, 2000 The Human Expression of Symmetry: Art and Neuroscience, 22nd International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences, Seoul, Korea, 9\u201313 February 2000 http:\/\/www.ski.org\/CWTyler_lab\/CWTyler\/Art%20Investigations\/Symmetry\/Symmetry.html. Accessed 10 January 2006."},{"key":"bibr29-p5578","unstructured":"Tyler C W, 2006 Eye Placement Principles in Portraits and Figure Studies over the Past Two Millennia (undated). http:\/\/www.ski.org\/CWTyler_lab\/CWTyler\/Art%20Investigations\/AncientEyePlacement\/AncientEyeCenterSPIE.html. Accessed 10 January 2006."},{"key":"bibr30-p5578","volume-title":"The French Portrait: 1550 \u2013 1850","author":"Wintermute A.","year":"1996"}],"container-title":["Perception"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1068\/p5578","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1068\/p5578","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,30]],"date-time":"2026-04-30T22:19:21Z","timestamp":1777587561000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1068\/p5578"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2007,2]]},"references-count":30,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2007,2]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1068\/p5578"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1068\/p5578","relation":{},"ISSN":["0301-0066","1468-4233"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0301-0066","type":"print"},{"value":"1468-4233","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2007,2]]}}}