The Story of Art

Last updated

Cover of the first edition, 1950 TheStoryOfArt.jpg
Cover of the first edition, 1950

The Story of Art, by E. H. Gombrich, is a survey of the history of art from ancient times to the modern era. [1]

Contents

First published in 1950 by Phaidon, the book is widely regarded both as a seminal work of criticism and as one of the most accessible introductions to the visual arts. It was originally intended for younger readers. [2] Over eight million copies have been sold, and it has been translated into more than 30 languages. [3] As of 2022, The Story of Art is in its 16th edition. [3]

Background

The art historian Ernst Gombrich had experience with book production before The Story of Art; he collaborated with Ernst Kris on an unpublished book on the history of caricature and published his first book on the history of the world for children in 1936. [4] That same year, Gombrich relocated to London from Vienna for a job synthesising the late Aby Warburg's notes for publication at the Warburg Institute. [5] However, with the rise of the Second World War, Gombrich was sent to work as a broadcast translator at a BBC listening post in Evesham. [5] There he met Béla Horovitz, founder of Phaidon Press, who was lacking materials to publish due to the war and was in search of new material. [5] Gombrich, having already written a few chapters of an art history book for children while in Vienna, offered the work and was given an advance for the work that became The Story of Art, first published by Phaidon in 1950. [5]

Summary

The book is divided into a preface, introduction, and 27 chapters that each deal with art within a defined time period and geographical context. A 28th chapter summarises the latest developments in visual arts.

The chapters in the 15th edition are listed as follows:

  1. "Strange beginnings: Prehistoric and primitive peoples; Ancient America"
  2. "Art for eternity: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete"
  3. "The great awakening: Greece, seventh to fifth century BC"
  4. "The realm of beauty: Greece and the Greek world, fourth century BC to first century AD"
  5. "World conquerors: Romans, Buddhists, Jews and Christians, first to fourth century AD"
  6. "A parting of ways: Rome and Byzantium, fifth to thirteenth century"
  7. "Looking eastwards: Islam, China, second to thirteenth century"
  8. "Western art in the melting pot: Europe, sixth to eleventh century"
  9. "The Church militant: The twelfth century"
  10. "The Church triumphant: The thirteenth century"
  11. "Courtiers and burghers: The fourteenth century"
  12. "The conquest of reality: The early fifteenth century"
  13. "Tradition and innovation: The later fifteenth century in Italy"
  14. "Tradition and innovation: The fifteenth century in the North"
  15. "Harmony attained: Tuscany and Rome, early sixteenth century"
  16. "Light and colour: Venice and northern Italy, early sixteenth century"
  17. "The new learning spreads: Germany and the Netherlands, early sixteenth century"
  18. "A crisis of art: Europe, later sixteenth century"
  19. "Vision and visions: Catholic Europe, first half of the seventeenth century"
  20. "The mirror of nature: Holland, seventeenth century"
  21. "Power and glory: Italy, later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries"
  22. "Power and glory: France, Germany and Austria, late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries"
  23. "The age of reason: England and France, eighteenth century"
  24. "The break in tradition: England, America, and France, late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries"
  25. "Permanent revolution: The nineteenth century"
  26. "In search of new standards: The late nineteenth century"
  27. "Experimental art: The first half of the twentieth century"
  28. "A story without end: The triumph of Modernism / An altered mood / The changing past" [6]

Each chapter discusses a selection of works from the defined period, and all of the works discussed are accompanied by illustrations. More than half of the book's pages are devoted to colour photographs of paintings, drawings, architecture and sculptures. In the preface, Gombrich explains that it has been his intention not to mention any work of art that he could not also include as an illustration.

Style

The Story of Art is often described as a work that provides an accessible introduction to the subject of art history. [4] [7] [8] [5] The art historian T. S. R. Boase, writing in The Times Literary Supplement, observed that Gombrich "writes conversationally and intimately". [7] Gombrich himself notes in the preface of the book that he intends to use "plain language" and to keep use of "the art historian's conventional terms" to a minimum. [9]

Reception

First published by Phaidon Press in 1950 and in its 16th edition as of 2022, The Story of Art has been a global bestseller with more than 8 million copies sold; it has been translated into more than 30 languages. [3] It is included in Time magazine's list of 100 best nonfiction books of all time. [10] The first two sentences of the book have become famous: "There really is no such thing as Art. There are only artists". [2] Gombrich later elaborated on this statement by saying that he defines "art" based on its Latin root, meaning "skill", and that there is "no disembodied skill". [11]

Upon its release, The Story of Art was noted for its pedagogical potential [8] [12] despite Gombrich's intentions of producing a pleasure read for teenagers. [12] The artist and art history professor H. W. Janson, reviewing the book for College Art Journal, remarked that it was "undoubtedly destined for a most successful career in the classroom". [8] He praised the book for its accessible language and selections free from Gombrich's own preferences, measuring the book against scholarly standards. [8] In his discussion of the book in The Burlington Magazine, the artist and writer Wilfrid Blunt noted that The Story of Art reads like a lecture. [12] Though he believed the lecture-like tone would lead masters to prefer the book rather than students, he declared that The Story of Art "fully deserve[s] a place in any educational library". [12]

Criticism has also emerged since the book's release. One stream of criticism addresses Gombrich's treatment of contemporary art. [5] [13] [14] In a 1989 review for Art Journal of the book’s 14th edition, the art history professor Bradford R. Collins criticised the work for its lack of depth in its discussion of contemporary art. [13] Collins indicated that Gombrich's commentary on 20th-century art was brief and often dismissive. [13] Elly Miller, daughter of Béla Horovitz, revealed in an interview that Gombrich had not originally intended to include an additional chapter on contemporary art and that "he really didn't come to terms with what he called modern art". [5] The art curator Karen Wilkin made similar comments for The Hudson Review , remarking of The Story of Art that "[Gombrich] was never really at ease with anything but illusionistic painting and sculpture". [14]

Gombrich's omission of non-Western and female artists has also been the subject of criticism, [15] [16] [17] with no women having been included in the first The Story of Art and just one included in the 16th edition. [15] With the intention of offsetting the emphasis on white, male, and Western works in Gombrich's globally influential book, the curator and art historian Katy Hessel responded to the lack of diverse representation by creating a book of works by a range of international female artists titled The Story of Art Without Men, published in 2022. [18] [15]

Related Research Articles

A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's goals and methods. Although the two activities are closely related, literary critics are not always, and have not always been, theorists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Style (visual arts)</span> Visual appearance of a creative work, shared with other works of the same movement or school

In the visual arts, style is a "... distinctive manner which permits the grouping of works into related categories" or "... any distinctive, and therefore recognizable, way in which an act is performed or an artifact made or ought to be performed and made". Style refers to the visual appearance of a work of art that relates to other works with similar aesthetic roots, by the same artist, or from the same period, training, location, "school", art movement or archaeological culture: "The notion of style has long been historian's principal mode of classifying works of art".

Bundling, or tarrying, is the traditional practice of wrapping a couple together in a bed sometimes with a board between the two of them, usually as a part of courting behavior. The tradition is thought to have originated either in the Netherlands or in the British Isles and later became common in colonial United States, especially in Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Bundling is associated with the Amish as a form of courtship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst Gombrich</span> Austrian-British art historian (1909–2001)

Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich was an Austrian-born art historian who, after settling in England in 1936, became a naturalised British citizen in 1947 and spent most of his working life in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phaidon Press</span> British book publisher

Phaidon Press is a global publisher of books on art, architecture, design, fashion, photography, and popular culture, as well as cookbooks, children's books, and travel books. The company is based in London and New York City, with additional offices in Paris and Berlin. With over 1,500 titles in print, Phaidon books are sold in over 100 countries and are printed in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Mandarin, and dozens of other languages. Since the publisher's founding in Vienna in 1923, Phaidon has sold almost 50 million books worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst Kantorowicz</span> German-American historian (1895–1963)

Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz was a German historian of medieval political and intellectual history and art, known for his 1927 book Kaiser Friedrich der Zweite on Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, and The King's Two Bodies (1957) on medieval and early modern ideologies of monarchy and the state. He was an elected member of both the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

<i>Portrait of Innocent X</i> Oil painting by Spanish painter Diego Velázquez

Portrait of Pope Innocent X is an oil on canvas portrait by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez, created during a trip to Italy around 1650. Many artists and art critics consider it the finest portrait ever created. It is housed in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome. A smaller version is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and a study is on display at Apsley House in London. The painting is noted for its realism as an unflinching portrait of a highly intelligent, shrewd, and aging man. He is dressed in linen vestments, and the quality of the work is evident in the rich reds of his upper clothing, head-dress, and the hanging curtains.

<i>The Analysis of Beauty</i> 1753 book by William Hogarth

The Analysis of Beauty is a book written by the 18th-century artist and writer William Hogarth, published in 1753, which describes Hogarth's theories of visual beauty and grace in a manner accessible to the common man of his day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Gombrich</span> British Indologist (born 1937)

Richard Francis Gombrich is a British Indologist and scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli, and Buddhist studies. He was the Boden Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Oxford from 1976 to 2004. He is currently Founder-President of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies. He is a past president of the Pali Text Society (1994–2002) and general editor emeritus of the Clay Sanskrit Library.

<i>Art and Illusion</i> Art theory and history book

Art and Illusion, A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation, is a 1960 book of art theory and history by Ernst Gombrich, derived from the 1956 A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts. The book had a wide impact in art history, but also in history, aesthetics, semiotics, and music psychology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islamic ornament</span> Decorative forms and patterns in Islamic art and architecture

Islamic ornament is the use of decorative forms and patterns in Islamic art and Islamic architecture. Its elements can be broadly divided into the arabesque, using curving plant-based elements, geometric patterns with straight lines or regular curves, and calligraphy, consisting of religious texts with stylized appearance, used both decoratively and to convey meaning. All three often involve elaborate interlacing in various mediums.

<i>Schilder-boeck</i> Book by Karel van Mander

Het Schilder-Boeck or Schilderboek is a book written by the Flemish writer and painter Karel van Mander first published in 1604 in Haarlem in the Dutch Republic, where van Mander resided. The book is written in 17th-century Dutch and its title is commonly translated into English as 'The Book of Painters' or 'The Book of Painting' and sometimes as 'The Book on Picturing'. Het Schilder-Boeck consists of six parts and is considered one of the principal sources on the history of art and art theory in the 15th and 16th century Low Countries. The book was very well received and sold well. Karel van Mander died two years after its publication. A second posthumous edition, which included a brief, anonymous biography of van Mander was published in 1618. This second edition was translated by Hessel Miedema into English and published in 1994-1997 together with a facsimile of the original and five volumes of notes on the text.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julius von Schlosser</span> Austrian art historian

Julius Alwin Franz Georg Andreas Ritter von Schlosser was an Austrian art historian and an important member of the Vienna School of Art History. According to Ernst Gombrich, he was "One of the most distinguished personalities of art history".

<i>The Lives of the Artists</i> (Bellori) Book by Gian Pietro Bellori

The Lives of the Modern Painters, Sculptors, and Architects or Le vite de' pittori, scultori et architetti moderni is a series of artist biographies written by Gian Pietro Bellori (1613–96), whom Julius von Schlosser called "the most important historiographer of art not only of Rome, but all Italy, even of Europe, in the seventeenth century". It is one of the foundational texts of the history and criticism of European art.

<i>The Hispanic American Historical Review</i> Academic journal

The Hispanic American Historical Review is a quarterly, peer-reviewed, scholarly journal of Latin American history, the official publication of the Conference on Latin American History, the professional organization of Latin American historians. Founded in 1916, HAHR is the oldest journal of Latin American history, and, since 1926, published by Duke University Press. On July 1, 2017, editorial responsibility shifted from Duke University to Penn State for the 2017–2022 term.

Robert Edward Norton is an American cultural and intellectual historian who specializes in European, and especially German, history and thought from the Enlightenment to the early twentieth century.

Elizabeth Senior was an art historian and Assistant Keeper in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum. She was also a book editor for Penguin Books.

This is a select bibliography of post World War II English language books and journal articles about the history of Russia and its borderlands from the Mongol invasions until 1613. Book entries may have references to reviews published in academic journals or major newspapers when these could be considered helpful.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hilda L. Smith</span> American historian (1941–2023)

Hilda L. Smith was an American historian who specialized in the gender analysis of political theory and intellectual history. She was a faculty member at the University of Cincinnati.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katy Hessel</span> British art historian, broadcaster, writer and curator

Katy Hessel is a British art historian, broadcaster, writer and curator, living in London, whose work is concerned with women artists.

References

  1. ↑ E. H. Gombrich (2006), The Story of Art, London: Phaidon Press, 978-0-7148-324-70
  2. 1 2 Gombrich, E. H. (1984). The Story of Art (14th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. p. 4. ISBN   0-13-850066-5.
  3. 1 2 3 "The Story of Art | Art | Store | Phaidon". www.phaidon.com. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  4. 1 2 Hope, Charles. "Obituary: Sir Ernst Gombrich: [FOREIGN Edition]." The Independent, 6 November 2001, pp. 6. ProQuest.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Peaker, Carol (29 July 2000). "The story of The Story of Art: Fifty years ago this fall, the world's best-selling art book was born: [National Edition]". National Post.
  6. ↑ Gombrich, E. H. (Ernst Hans) (1990). The Story of Art (15th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. ISBN   0-13-849894-6. OCLC   21295847.
  7. 1 2 Boase, Thomas Sherrer Ross. "The History of Art." The Times Literary Supplement, no. 2504, 27 January 1950, p. 51. The Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Janson, H. W. (1950). "Review of The Story of Art". College Art Journal. 9 (4): 429–430. doi:10.2307/773706. ISSN   1543-6322. JSTOR   773706.
  9. ↑ Gombrich, E. H. (1950). The Story of Art (3rd ed.). London: Phaidon Press.
  10. ↑ Lacayo, Richard (18 August 2011). "Is The Story of Art one of the All-TIME 100 Best Nonfiction Books? TIME thinks so. Check it out". Time. ISSN   0040-781X . Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  11. ↑ Carrier, David (Summer 1996). "Gombrich and Danto on Defining Art". The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 54 (3): 279–281. doi:10.2307/431629. JSTOR   431629.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Blunt, Wilfrid (1950). Gombrich, E. H.; Upjohn, Everard M.; Wingert, Paul S.; Mahler, Jane Gaston (eds.). "Art History and the Public Schools". The Burlington Magazine. 92 (565): 117–118. ISSN   0007-6287. JSTOR   870280.
  13. 1 2 3 Collins, Bradford R. (1989). "History of Art/ The Story of Art (Book Review)". Art Journal. 48 (1): 90. doi:10.2307/776926. JSTOR   776926.
  14. 1 2 Wilkin, Karen (Spring 2003). "A preference for the primitive: Gombrich's legacy". The Hudson Review. 56 (1): 217–222, 224. doi:10.2307/3852939. JSTOR   3852939.
  15. 1 2 3 Bidisha, Mamata (11 September 2022). "The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel review – putting women back in the picture". The Observer.
  16. ↑ Mullins, Charlotte (26 April 2022). "The lesser-known histories of art: Until now, the story of art has been represented as a single narrative, mostly featuring white males. But there is a whole other side". The Irish Times.
  17. ↑ "Review | Female artists have been overlooked and ignored. This book wants to correct that". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  18. ↑ Mamata, Bidisha (11 September 2022). "The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel review – putting women back in the picture". The Observer. ISSN   0029-7712 . Retrieved 8 August 2023.

The Story of Art on Internet Archive

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.