Ernst Gombrich and the concept of ‘ill-defined area’: perception and filling-in

Abstract

This essay analyses the concept of ‘ill-defined area’ that Ernst Gombrich (1909–2001) coined in Art & Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation (1960). Gombrich’s insights, seen in light of recent advances in the fields of experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience, open up new perspectives in the study of images: the biological implications of image perception. Under examination are two specific types of images: partially visible figures and unfinished works of art, that is, open-ended images that distinguish themselves in their inclusion of a significant absence (hence, ‘ill-defined area’), suggested by incomplete forms. These images offer important indications about the role that the beholder’s imagination plays in aesthetic response. In addressing this issue, this study focuses on the representation of human figures that either have features covered or no faces. In the second case, Gombrich talks about the ‘egg shape formula’, and tackles the way beholders perceive it. Considering the neuroscientific research on face perception and filling-in, this paper explores the neural process through which beholders may complete in their minds the blank spaces present in incomplete figures. My argument is that it is possible to find the neural underpinning of imagination, which is at the base of the aesthetic experience of beholders when perceiving figures that are not entirely visible.