Another Slant on the Oblique Effect in Drawings and Paintings

Abstract

Latto and Russell-Duff (2002) showed that artists used more horizontal and vertical than oblique lines in museum paintings, concluding that this preference was a reflection of the traditional (presumably neurogically mediated) “oblique effect.” Alternative explanations, however, could be that oblique orientations have a unique status as a result of artistic training and tradition, and/or that a quadrilateral frame may induce such preferences, and/or that most of the paintings were representational, and the real world is more horizontal and vertical than oblique. Sixty-three undergraduates drew two pictures, one representational and the other abstract, on circular sheets of paper. Fewer oblique than horizontal or vertical lines were used in representational drawings. However, for abstract pictures there was no difference among the three orientations. Similar results occurred for line length. The average extent to which line angles departed from oblique was significantly less for abstract than representational pictures. It was concluded that the “oblique effect” reported by Latto and Russell-Duff could have been at least in part a reflection of the subject matter of the paintings rather than an inherent preference for horizontal and vertical orientations.