EXPERIMENT FINDS GREAT ART CAN BE GOOD FOR YOU

Enjoying great art is not just uplifting for the soul but beneficial to the health, an experiment conducted in Italy has found. A group of 100 volunteers was led up to the cupola of a vast basilica in the Piedmont region of northern Italy, where they spent two hours admiring the cherubs and bearded prophets of an 18th century fresco. The Basilica of Vicoforte, near the town of Cuneo, has the largest elliptical cupola in the world and is a place of pilgrimage for Catholics. Before the volunteers climbed the 240 steps to the top of the church, researchers took samples of their saliva and measured levels of cortisol, a hormone that is produced in response to stress. After viewing the fresco, the volunteers’ cortisol levels were found to have drastically dropped, suggesting viewing the art had a soothing effect.