Fine Art research and the tyranny of the scientific model

Fine art is – of course - an activity that is the subject of academic research.

However, it strikes me the idea that science methodology as the only acceptable form of inquiry misses the point.  Perhaps it’s a lack of confidence in qualitative research that undermines art research? 

Prior to the eighteenth century, ‘art’ and ‘science’ were often considered complimentary, rather than opposite, expressions of human culture. They often shared concerns through comparable curiosity, knowledge and observation of the world.

Outside the physical sciences, many subjects now seem to have a hard time establishing themselves as viable for research in their own terms. So what's going on?

Natural science depicted