Data and stimuli of the experiment: Facial expressions in Nativity and Pieta paintings from 1037 to 1840

DOI:10.4121/361c5050-9c49-4832-994c-116b4282a062.v1
The DOI displayed above is for this specific version of this dataset, which is currently the latest. Newer versions may be published in the future. For a link that will always point to the latest version, please use
DOI: 10.4121/361c5050-9c49-4832-994c-116b4282a062

Datacite citation style

Mino, Erin; M.W.A. (Maarten) Wijntjes (2025): Data and stimuli of the experiment: Facial expressions in Nativity and Pieta paintings from 1037 to 1840. Version 1. 4TU.ResearchData. dataset. https://doi.org/10.4121/361c5050-9c49-4832-994c-116b4282a062.v1
Other citation styles (APA, Harvard, MLA, Vancouver, Chicago, IEEE) available at Datacite

Dataset

This study explores the development of depicting facial expressions in historical paintings depicting pivotal religious scenes: the Nativity (Birth of Christ) and the Pietà (Death of Christ). By examining artworks spanning the 11th to the 19th century, we assessed how do depictions evolve over time in terms of polarity, agreeability and ambiguity of individual faces and compared these with the perceived emotional intensity of overall pictorial scene.

A total of 56 paintings were randomly selected for evaluation by 150 participants. Each participant categorized all visible faces into one of ten emotion categories—ranging from joy and love to sadness and anger—and then rated the painting’s overall emotional intensity. We quantified the degree of viewer agreement (agreeability), calculated a polarity measure (positive vs. negative emotion balance) and ambiguity (amount of chosen categories) at the face level. We also measured how participants perceived each painting’s emotional intensity.

History

  • 2025-09-11 first online, published, posted

Publisher

4TU.ResearchData

Organizations

TU Delft, Faculty of Industrial Engineering, Department of Human-Centered Design

DATA

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