Product Description
This book, the last to be completed by the author, is a study of a recurring phenomenon in the history of changing taste in the visual arts, namely the feeling that older and less sophisticated (i.e. 'primitive') works are somehow morally and aesthetically superior to later works that have become soft and decadent. In his first narrative work for over twenty years, Gombrich traces this idea back to classical antiquity and links it both with Cicero's observation that over-indulgence of the senses leads to a feeling of disgust, and with the profoundly influential metaphor comparing the development of art to that of a living organism. Like an organism, art grows to maturity, then decays and dies, and successive generations of artists and critics have preferred the strength, nobility and sincerity of earlier styles to the more refined later styles with their corrupting and meretricious appeal to the senses.Summing up more than forty years of study and reflection on this theme, the book presents a closely argued narrative supported by extensive quotations that document with precision the role of authors, critics and artists in shaping and changing opinion. After reviewing the classical authors whose writings largely set the terms of the debate, Gombrich then charts its progress from its revival in the eighteenth century, documenting the often subtle shifts of taste and judgement that frequently focus on the pivotal role of Raphael in the history of taste. In the final chapters he turns to the truly revolutionary primitivism of the twentieth century, analysing the momentous shifts of taste of which he was himself an eyewitness.Important both as a personal testament and as a documentary anthology, this long-awaited book fittingly provides a deep and revealing insight into the history and psychology of taste.
About the Author
Born in Vienna in 1909, Professor Sir Ernst Gombrich, OM, CBE, was one of the greatest of a remarkable generation of art historians. Joining the staff of the Warburg Institute in London in 1936, he became its director from 1959 to 1976. He was the author of The Story of Art, Art and Illusion, The Sense of Order and 11 volumes of collected essays and reviews, all published by Phaidon. Sadly, Professor Gombrich died in November 2001, having already completed the writing and revision of the text, and having made the final selection of illustrations. It has therefore been possible to proceed with the final stages of making the book fully in accord with the author's wishes, and it is now being published as a fitting tribute to one of the greatest scholars of all time.
