The present study investigated the effect of public art on affective appraisals of urban landscapes based on pleasing and arousing qualities that are suggested by Russell as basic dimensions of environmental evaluation and collative-arousal model proposed by Berlyne that explains the relation between pleasing and arousing qualities. Thirty-six undergraduate and graduate students viewed 20 stimuli of urban scenes with public artworks on screen and rated each one for the affective appraisals --- pleasant and arousal --- and the degree of fitness between each public artwork and its background. Though ANOVAs showed the significant interactions both on pleasantness and arousal ratings, the effect sizes suggested that the public artworks themselves dominantly influenced on the appraisals of the landscapes over the interactions between the public artworks and their backgrounds did. Furthermore, the results of the multiple comparisons implied that the desirable affective appraisals of urban landscapes could be manipulated by the selection of public artworks. On the other hand, the correlation coefficient between pleasant and fitting was moderate. That is, the degree of fitness between each public artworks and its background landscape should have a certain positive effect on the pleasantness of landscape as well as the quality of the public artwork itself. Finally, the limitations of the present study were discussed.

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