E. H. Gombrich

Meditations on a hobby horse : and other essays on the theory of art

Prompted by modern critical discussions, the fourteen papers, lectures and articles assembled in this volume revolve around issues raised by twentieth-century art and theory.

Aby Warburg : an intellectual biography

This book introduces the reader to the ideas and the personality of a scholar who exerted a major influence on the course of art-historical studies through his publications, through the Institute which bears his name, and through his disciples, who include some of the most eminent people in the field.

The heritage of Apelles

The third volume of E H Gombrichs seminal essays on the Renaissance has the classical tradition as its central theme. Apelles, the most famous painter of ancient Greece, was said to have combined perfect beauty with supreme skill in imitating the appearances of nature. These twin ideals of perfect beauty and perfect imitation of nature, which were inherited from classical antiquity and remained unchallenged as the cornerstone of art until the twentieth century, form the starting-point for these learned and always stimulating essays. Whether discussing the rendering of light and lustre, the working methods of Leonardo da Vinci or the principles of criticism, the authors analyses and interpretations are underpinned by a deep conviction that, despite the apparent abandonment of the Renaissance ideals in the twentieth century, questions about traditions, values and standards are still of fundamental importance. This wider concern gives these essays a continuing vitality, not only for students but also for anyone interested in art and culture.

The Museum: Past, Present and Future

Under the sponsorship of the British Museum and the American Assembly a group of museum directors, curators, trustees and other interested parties from the United States, Canada, Great Britain and continental Europe met at Ditchely Park, Oxfordshire, England, in October 1975 to continue discussions begun a year earlier at Arden House, Harriman, New York, at the Forty-sixth American Assembly. The address printed below in a slightly revised form was given on the invitation of the chairman of the symposium, Sir John Pope-Hennessy.

Canons and Values in the Visual Arts: A Correspondence

EDITORIAL NOTE.---In private conversation and through his Romanes Lecture, Sir Ernst Gombrich made us aware of the cultural importance of the existence of an accepted canon of the arts and of the critical questions raised by varying convictions about and attitudes toward such a canon. Those questions have major implications for criticism, history, and evaluation in all of the arts. To introduce these matters in our pages and to announce that they will in the future receive special attention in Critical Inquiry, we had initially planned to ask Quentin Bell and E. H. Gombrich to express their differing views in formalized essays to be published simultaneously. We quickly came to realize, however, that the informal correspondence between the two was far better for our purposes. For us critical exploration seems intensified by the dramatic form of an exchange of ideas, and the very tentativeness of the conclusions reached in the correspondence seemed a special virtue in dealing with problems so rich and complex. E. H. Gombrich has sent us the following summary of the argument which gave rise to this correspondence:

Art and Scholarship

The following article is reprinted with the kind permission of the Publications Officer of University College, London, where it was published as a separate pamphlet under the same title and is obtainable from H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd., 136 Gower Street, London, W.C. 1. (2s. 6d. net.) This was the Inaugural Lecture which Professor Gombrich delivered at University College, London on 14 February, 1957, upon succeeding Professor Rudolf Wittkower as Durning-Lawrence Professor of the History of Art, a chair closely linked with the Slade School of Art. In granting our request to reprint it in CAJ, Professor Gombrich asks our readers to bear in mind that it was written for a particular day and place. Since there was no opportunity for discussion after this lecture, the author feels that if its appearance here were to start a debate on some of the points raised, a real purpose would be served.

Art History and Psychology in Vienna Fifty Years Ago

This is a translation by the author of his contribution to the XXVth International Congress for the History of Art held in Vienna in September 1983, presented under the chairmanship of Professor L.D. Ettlinger in the section “Vienna and the Development of Art Historical Methodology” under the title “Kunstwissenschaft und Psychologie vor funfzig Jahren.” It will be published in the Acts of the Congress. Thanks are due to Professor Hermann Fillitz for his permitting publication of the present English version.

The Wit of Saul Steinberg

The dedication which Saul Steinberg wrote and drew for me when he sent me his volume The New World (Fig. 1) may not seem to fit into a series of articles devoted to the theme of caricature. Yet it is not only personal vanity which prompts me to take it as a starting point for this brief discussion of the artists wit. Look at the drawing more carefully and you will see that it does not “work out.” What appears at first sight as a sequence of stacked oblongs, superimposed or stuck into one another, turns out to be so cunningly devised that it would be impossible to construct such a configuration in real space. It so happens that I owe this generous gift to the words which I devoted to the artist in my book on Art and Illusion: “There is perhaps no artist alive who knows more about the philosophy of representation.” The tribute, incorporated in an article by Harold Rosenberg, was quoted to my delight on the dust cover of Steinbergs next book; hence his present, which illustrates and confirms my words with ...