When the painting meets its musical inspiration: The impact of multimodal art experience on aesthetic enjoyment and subjective well-being in the museum

It is assumed that multimodal experiences of art (e.g., listening to music while viewing a painting) can improve aesthetic experience as the two modalities can complement each other. In the current museum study, we tested whether the multimodal experience of works of art—where the artwork is inspired by the musical piece—can enhance aesthetic experience, leading to better well-being benefits. For this, we used a mixed design to compare people who viewed Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze painting in the Secession Museum (Vienna, Austria) either on its own (n= 111) or while listening to its musical inspiration (n= 129), excerpts of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. For all visitors, a short museum visit (M= 14.3, SD= 6.6 min) reduced anxiety, stress, and negative mood, as well as improved positive mood. Furthermore, this effect was larger for those who also heard the music and perceived it as pleasant and congruent with the artwork. Additionally, these two factors slightly enhanced aesthetic experience and made people less distracted by the other things, and resulted in longer viewing times. Finally, those who knew more about art, who were more interested in art, or more aesthetically responsive enjoyed the art more, understood it better, and their mood improved more in the museum. Overall, our results highlight the role of subjective experience and indicate that qualitatively better art experiences lead to higher well-being gains.