Fine art under low illuminance: Gamut and tint

Museum conservation guidelines restrict illuminance for sensitive artwork to levels that can cause objects to be perceived as less colourful, a phenomenon known as the Hunt effect. Previous colour rendering research identified red saturating gamuts that consistently increased perceived saturation and personal preference. A study was conducted to evaluate the visual experience of fine art illuminated by a red saturating gamut family constrained to be uniquely identified by their TM-30 gamut scores (denoted as R g * ) and position above or below the blackbody locus (Duv). R g * and Duv were systematically varied according to response surface methodology, designed to map second-order terms and interactions, with 96 ⩽ R g * ⩽ 124 and −0.0212 ⩽ Duv ⩽ 0.0036, all at 3000 K and 50 lx. Thirty-one naïve participants each evaluated a pair of paintings in a mock art gallery under nine independently presented scenes along semantic scales corresponding to preference, saturation and naturalness. The study identified a response surface for preference that maps an interaction between R g * and Duv, predicting Duv = −0.013 was preferred at R g * = 100 and Duv = −0.005 was preferred at R g * = 120 . Increasing R g * consistently increased both personal preference and perceived saturation.