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The pleasure one gets from the perception of a painting derives from two sources, the subject matter and the form. The aspects of form in art are several: the colors, shapes, lines, and their arrangements considered both abstractly and in relation to the subject matter, and the manner of presentation such as the use of perspective, three dimensional form and the like.
Freud, in his discussion of art, analyzes the effects of the subject matter but has little to say of the formal aspects of painting. He does say, however, that formal beauty in some way affects the spectator so that he may more readily receive the pleasure offered by the subject matter. In his book on wit, Freud makes an analogous statement concerning the function of formal wit techniques, viz., they often allow the emergence of pleasurable sexual or aggressive tendencies which could not otherwise be expressed. His discussion of wit contains many hints for the understanding of art—hints which will be utilized throughout this paper.
An analysis of children's designs may serve as a starting point in establishing a connection between wit and art. Compare these somewhat similar designs: