Modes of Vision between Subject and Form: Investigating Twofoldness in Painting Perception

2025

Doctoral thesis, superivised by Prof. Raphael Rosenberg and reviewed by Prof. Johan Wagemans and Prof. Christoph Wagner.

This project delineates a historical discourse of “twofoldness”; or the conceptualization of two distinct abilities involved in the perception of painting: one, formalist, the other, interpretative.

The reviewed historical literature is compared with current research on perception, to understand whether its definitions can be supported by any empirical findings on perceptual processes.

The thesis argues for an understanding twofoldness as a historically and culturally developed model, which can be employed to successfully describe different experienced dimensions of painting perception.