![]() ![]() ![]() This selectivity makes his book unconventional in today’s egalitarian and multicultural tide. He includes all such things as part of this history, without respect to where they took place or at what time, but he focuses on the history of art in the West. And the rewards are plenty.īy the history of art, Gombrich means “the history of buildings, of picture-making, and of statue-making” (p. He takes us on a journey through the history of art. In the chapters that follow, Gombrich takes us on a voyage into much more than a single picture. But to look at a picture with fresh eyes and to venture on a voyage of discovery into it is a far more difficult but also a much more rewarding task. To talk cleverly about art is not very difficult, because the words critics use have been employed in so many different contexts that they have lost all precision. I should like to help to open eyes, not to loosen tongues. Gombrich aims to steer readers clear of this trap. They may have heard that Rembrandt was famous for his chiaroscuro-which is the Italian technical term for light and shade-so they nod wisely when they see a Rembrandt, mumble “wonderful chiaroscuro,” and wander on to the next picture. When they see a work of art they do not stay to look at it, but rather search their memory for the appropriate label. Gombrich speaks of a trap that some people fall into after studying art history: In his introduction to The Story of Art, E. ![]()
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