The Story of Art

This text is the 16th revised and updated edition of this introduction to art,rom the earliest cave paintings to experimental art. Eight new artists fromhe modern period have been introduced. They are: Corot, Kollwitz, Nolde, dehirico, Brancussi, Magritte, Nicolson and Morandi. A sequence of new "ndings" have been added, and the captions are now fuller, including theedium and dimension of the works illustrated. Six fold-outs present selectedarge-scale works. They are: Van Eyck's "Ghent Altarpiece", Leonardo's "Lastupper", Botticelli's "Birth of Venus", Jackson Pollock's "One (Number 31,950)", Van der Weyden's "Descent from the Cross" and Michelangelo's Sistinehapel ceiling.

"

Ernst Gombrich was one of the greatest and least conventional art historians of his age, achieving fame and distinction in three separate spheres: as a scholar, as a popularizer of art, and as a pioneer of the application of the psychology of perception to the study of art. His best-known book, The Story of Art – first published 50 years ago and now in its sixteenth edition – is one of the most influential books ever written about art. His books further include The Sense of Order (1979) and The Preference for the Primitive (2002), as well as a total of 11 volumes of collected essays and reviews.

Gombrich was born in Vienna in 1909 and died in London in November 2001. He came to London in 1936 to work at the Warburg Institute, where he eventually became Director from 1959 until his retirement in 1976. He won numerous international honors, including a knighthood, the Order of Merit and the Goethe, Hegel and Erasmus prizes.

Gifted with a powerful mind and prodigious memory, he was also an outstanding communicator, with a clear and forceful prose style. His works are models of good art‐historical writing, and reflect his humanism and his deep and abiding concern with the standards and values of our cultural heritage.

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Preface

7

(8)

Introduction

On art and artists

15

(24)

Strange Beginnings

Prehistoric and primitive peoples; Ancient America

39

(16)

Art for Eternity

Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete

55

(20)

The Great Awakening

Greece, seventh to fifth century BC

75

(24)

The Realm of Beauty

Greece and the Greek world, fourth century BC to first century AD

99

(18)

World Conquerors

Romans, Buddhists, Jews and Christians, first to fourth century AD

117

(16)

A Parting of Ways

Rome and Byzantium, fifth to thirteenth century

133

(10)

Looking Eastwards

Islam, China, second to thirteenth century

143

(14)

Western Art in the Melting Pot

Europe, sixth to eleventh century

157

(14)

The Church Militant

The twelfth century

171

(14)

The Church Triumphant

The thirteenth century

185

(22)

Courtiers and Burghers

The fourteenth century

207

(16)

The Conquest of Reality

The early fifteenth century

223

(24)

Tradition and Innovation I

The later fifteenth century in Italy

247

(22)

Tradition and Innovation II

The fifteenth century in the North

269

(18)

Harmony Attained

Tuscany and Rome, early sixteenth century

287

(38)

Light and Colour

Venice and northern Italy, early sixteenth century

325

(16)

The New Learning Spreads

Germany and the Netherlands, early sixteenth century

341

(20)

A Crisis of Art

Europe, later sixteenth century

361

(26)

Vision and Visions

Catholic Europe, first half of the seventeenth century

387

(26)

The Mirror of Nature

Holland, seventeenth century

413

(22)

Power and Glory I

Italy, later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

435

(12)

Power and Glory II

France, Germany and Austria, late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries

447

(10)

The Age of Reason

England and France, eighteenth century

457

(18)

The Break in Tradition

England, America and France, late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries

475

(24)

Permanent Revolution

The nineteenth century

499

(36)

In Search of New Standards

The late nineteenth century

535

(22)

Experimental Art

The first half of the twentieth century

557

(42)

A Story Without End

The triumph of Modernism

599

(19)

Another turning of the tide

618

(8)

The changing past

626

(12)

A note on art books

638

(17)

Chronological charts

655

(9)

Maps

664

(6)

List of illustrations by location

670

(4)

Index and glossary

674

(13)

Acknowledgements

687

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials