Abstract

The paper examines the most recent results obtained by research in the field of visual perception and neuroaesthetics. In particular, Zekian brain-based theory of beauty considers the function of art as a search for the “essential”, which constitutes an extension of the function of the “visual brain”. Zeki describes the existence of multiple “aesthetic senses”, each one connected to the activity of a particular visual processing system, characterized by a functional specialization called “node”. In its final part, the text will propose an epistemological overcoming of the Zekian modular and localistic approach by using non-linear models of biological self-organization.