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The Story of Art

By Ernst Hans Gombrich

(53)

| Hardcover | 9780714822761

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5 Reviews

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This is the classic of classic. Some people compare this book to bible, and definitely a highly infulential book on fine art.
The author explain the origin of fine art. It was not a casual hobby for interest. The ancient people thought they will get super-antural power through drawing. So, whe ... (continue)

This is the classic of classic. Some people compare this book to bible, and definitely a highly infulential book on fine art.
The author explain the origin of fine art. It was not a casual hobby for interest. The ancient people thought they will get super-antural power through drawing. So, when they draw the vivid hunting scenes, they expect to get really good gain because of the drawing.
Yes, drawing are very powerful. I am a very serious Budhist myself, but when I watch the drawing and status of Christianity... I am moved. The sacretness and sincerity of the artworks are soooo moving that, make me feel that, Christinaity must be a very good religion (although my mind and actual history tell me otherwise). I now understand why the Popes willing to pay so much money and attention on artworks!
And, I made a rediscovery of Rembrant. I know his works before, but never really like or understand him. You know, he is not colorful, pretty type. But, when you see his self-protrait, when you look at his eye, you can see that this is a great artist with a soul. Even lived a hard life, Rembrant still insist on his own believe, and he is soooo full of passion and also compassion of human kinds. He had such a deep understandings on humans that, he remained to be totally true, but also full of pity and acceptance.
But, when you finishe Impressionism and go to the chapter of "Modern Art", this is not a pleasant chapter to read. The modern world is so full of confusion, the artists are aimless, and probably soul-less. Once upon a time, the artist, though with few money and low status, they are full of passion on their religion, they believe that they are creating life out of their artworks, they don't really concern about how much they are going to sell of a painting.... But now, artist can only search for something NEW, something never done before, or tackling some "new" problems in art.
This sounds like a dead-end to me.
I am not convinced that "Modern Art" is of the same value and status as Rembrant, or the Medieval art, or the powerful "primitive" art.

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Samsara said on Jun 29, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

A Great Introduction, Heavy on the Medieval Ages and Renaissance

Just a dozen or so pages into this book, I knew that it was one I wish I would have had access to when I was first seriously exposed to art. While in many respects, it is a conservative textbook (being first published in 1950), it is fundamentally meant for someone who has little to no previous form ... (continue)

Just a dozen or so pages into this book, I knew that it was one I wish I would have had access to when I was first seriously exposed to art. While in many respects, it is a conservative textbook (being first published in 1950), it is fundamentally meant for someone who has little to no previous formal contact with art history. Of course, if you have some, this can make you seriously engage some of your previously held assumptions about what you like and why you like it, but I got the distinct impression while reading that it was meant to initiate a teenager - a teenager who very much reminded of me of myself - into a whole new world.
The inclusions and exclusions of certain artists are, of course, always arbitrary. However, Gombrich's choices do not deviate too much from a standard art history text. What particularly drew me to the book was what I perceived to be its inordinate focus on medieval and especially Renaissance art. Of the twenty-eight chapters included in the book, about five mostly focus on Western medieval images (6 and 8-11). Another six chapters (13-18) focus on the art of the Western Renaissance. Most surveys of art history to which I had been previously exposed paid scant attention to medieval art and they sometimes did not give the Renaissance the space that I felt it deserved. There is no doubt the medieval and Renaissance art Gombrich's pet periods here (and, admittedly, they're mine, too.)
What makes it so special is that, instead of spending the first chapter in an abstract exercise of thinking about what "Art" is, he forces you over and over again to take the art on its own terms. While discussing the various visual perspectives painted by the artist of "The Garden of Nebamun," he says: "To us reliefs and wall-paintings provide an extraordinarily vivid picture of life as it was lived in Egypt thousands of years ago. And yet, looking at them for the first time, one may find them rather bewildering. The reason is that the Egyptian painters had a very different way from ours of representing real life. Perhaps this is connected with the different purpose their paintings had to serve. What mattered most was not prettiness but completeness. It was the artists' task to preserve everything as clearly and permanently as possible. So they did not set out to sketch nature as it appeared to them from any fortuitous angle" (p. 60). It is the occasional insight like this that makes the book most worthwhile for a neophyte. After all, how many of us have measured something we saw by the standards of our particular narrow time and place? He really drives home the point that thinking about art seriously means thinking about other perspectives (both literally and figuratively), other preoccupations, and other aesthetic modus operandi. This is a lesson that should be lost on none of us, about art, or about anything else.

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Kant1066 said on Dec 1, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

VERY GOOD START

It is a very good book to lay the fundations of the history of art. As it was written in the 50's a large part of contemporary art is missing but the author's perception and final chapter leaves the door open for what is to come, exposing quite well what were the first traces of the problems that ar ... (continue)

It is a very good book to lay the fundations of the history of art. As it was written in the 50's a large part of contemporary art is missing but the author's perception and final chapter leaves the door open for what is to come, exposing quite well what were the first traces of the problems that are virulently ailing the art world now. Recommended to those who want to start somewhere to understand why art developed the way it did and the reasons why we find so difficult to appreciate some aspects of contemporary art.

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Ignominia said on Feb 2, 2011 | Add your feedback