{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,31]],"date-time":"2026-03-31T11:40:25Z","timestamp":1774957225244,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,26]],"date-time":"2020-01-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1579996800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>To compose art, artists rely on a set of sensory evaluations performed fluently by the brain. The outcome of these evaluations, which we call neuroaesthetic variables, helps to compose art with high aesthetic value. In this study, we probed whether these variables varied across art periods despite relatively unvaried neural function. We measured several neuroaesthetic variables in portrait paintings from the Early and High Renaissance, and from Mannerism. The variables included symmetry, balance, and contrast (chiaroscuro), as well as intensity and spatial complexities measured by two forms of normalized entropy. The results showed that the degree of symmetry remained relatively constant during the Renaissance. However, the balance of portraits decayed abruptly at the end of the Early Renaissance, that is, at the closing of the 15th century. Intensity and spatial complexities, and thus entropies, of portraits also fell in such manner around the same time. Our data also showed that the decline of complexity and entropy could be attributed to the rise of chiaroscuro. With few exceptions, the values of aesthetic variables from the top of artists of the Renaissance resembled those of their peers. We conclude that neuroaesthetic variables have flexibility to change in brains of artists (and observers).<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e22020146","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,27]],"date-time":"2020-01-27T07:41:11Z","timestamp":1580110871000},"page":"146","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":18,"title":["Evolution of Neuroaesthetic Variables in Portrait Paintings throughout the Renaissance"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"given":"Ivan","family":"Correa-Herran","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA"},{"name":"Facultad de Artes, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogot\u00e1 110111, Colombia"}]},{"given":"Hassan","family":"Aleem","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA"}]},{"given":"Norberto","family":"Grzywacz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA"},{"name":"Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA"},{"name":"Department of Physics, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA"},{"name":"Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, USA"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"383","DOI":"10.2298\/PSI1703383B","article-title":"A cross-cultural comparison for preference for symmetry: Comparing British and Egyptians non-experts","volume":"50","author":"Bode","year":"2017","journal-title":"Psihologija"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"611","DOI":"10.1068\/p3123","article-title":"Attractiveness of facial averageness and symmetry in non-Western cultures: In search of biologically based standards of beauty","volume":"30","author":"Rhodes","year":"2001","journal-title":"Perception"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gray, R.M. 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