Researchers at the University of Bari, Italy have determined that beautiful art reduces the perception of pain. Dr Marina de Tommaso and a team fired stinging laser pulses at people looking at art and asked them to rate their hurt. People looking at Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and The Birth of Venus by Botticelli felt less pain, others, looking at Pablo Picasso, Antonio Bueno and Fernando Botero experienced more.
