Abstract
What degree of art appreciation ability should pupils possess when viewing Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window in order to be able to move beyond the work's literary qualities and savor its qualities as a painting? To get to the heart of this question, pupils were asked also to view The Milkmaid, a work in which literary factors do not come into play. Their experiences of viewing the two paintings were then contrasted. As the chosen research methodology, the aspect of receptiveness to aesthetic properties was posited as a measure of sensory ability. Different rankings in ability were found to lead pupils to grasp the theme of the pictures in painting or literary terms, and to determine the degree of connection between receptiveness to aesthetic properties and theme.
