New Releases by E. H. Gombrich

Surprising, questioning, challenging, enriching: the Pocket Perspectives series celebrates writers and thinkers who have helped shape the conversation across the arts. Mixing classic and contemporary texts, reissues and abridgements, these are bite-sized, fully illustrated reads in an attractive, affordable and highly collectable package.

A groundbreaking account of perception and art, from one of the twentieth century’s most important art historians E. H. Gombrich is widely considered to be one of the most influential art historians of the twentieth century, and Art and Illusion is generally agreed to be his most important book. Bridging science and the humanities, this classic work examines the history and psychology of pictorial representation in light of modern theories of information and learning in visual perception. Searching for a rational explanation of the changing styles of art, Gombrich reexamines ideas about the imitation of nature and the function of tradition. In testing his arguments, he ranges over the history of art, from the ancient Greeks, Leonardo, and Rembrandt to the impressionists and the cubists. But the triumphant originality of Art and Illusion is that Gombrich is less concerned with the artists than with the psychological experience of the viewers of their work. Please note: All images in this ebook are presented in black and white and have been reduced in size.

In this intriguing book, E.H. Gombrich, who was one of the world’s foremost art historians, traces how cast shadows have been depicted in Western art through the centuries. Gombrich discusses the way shadows were represented—or ignored—by artists from the Renaissance to the 17th century and then describes how Romantic, Impressionist, and Surrealist artists exploited the device of the cast shadow to enhance the illusion of realism or drama in their representations. First published to accompany an exhibition at the National Gallery, London, in 1995, it is reissued here with additional color illustrations and a new introduction by esteemed scholar Nicholas Penny. It is also now available as an enhanced eBook, with zoomable images and accompanying film footage.

E. H. Gombrich''s Little History of the World, though written in 1935, has become one of the treasures of historical writing since its first publication in English in 2005. The Yale edition alone has now sold over half a million copies, and the book is available worldwide in almost thirty languages. Gombrich was of course the best-known art historian of his time, and his text suggests illustrations on every page. This illustrated edition of the Little History brings together the pellucid humanity of his narrative with the images that may well have been in his mind''s eye as he wrote the book. The two hundred illustrations—most of them in full color—are not simple embellishments, though they are beautiful. They emerge from the text, enrich the author''s intention, and deepen the pleasure of reading this remarkable work. For this edition the text is reset in a spacious format, flowing around illustrations that range from paintings to line drawings, emblems, motifs, and symbols. The book incorporates freshly drawn maps, a revised preface, and a new index. Blending high-grade design, fine paper, and classic binding, this is both a sumptuous gift book and an enhanced edition of a timeless account of human history.

Tres enfoques distintos confluyen en este libro: historia y psicología del arte (Sir Ernst Gombrich), psicología (Julian Hochberg) y filosofía (Max Black). Estos tres distinguidos autores examinan en los tres ensayos recogidos en este volumen el problema de las percepciones de las imágenes y, en particular, de la pintura y la fotografía. Tal confrontación de ideas es ciertamente inédita en la bibliografía en lengua castellana sobre la imagen. Fundándose en experiencias sustancialmente diferentes, los tres ensayos solicitan la reflexión y la profundización de temas ya de por sí sugerentes: el tiempo, la verosimilitud, la escena espacial y otros conceptos, como los de empatía, capacidad de información de la imagen y niveles de atención. De un modo particular, el intercambio de opiniones entre Gombrich y Hochberg abre un debate rico en consecuencias de permanente interés entre especialistas. Al mismo tiempo, las constantes referencias al plano cognitivo de la imagen abren nuevas posibilidades para la investigación de la imagen a partir de la pragmática moderna.

Explores questions relating to the nature of representation in art. It asks how we recognize likeness in caricatures or portraits, for instance, and presents the conflicting arguments and opinions of an art historian, a psychologist and a philosopher.