Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation - Millennium Edition

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.


About the Author
E. H. Gombrich (1909-2001) was director of the Warburg Institute and Professor of the History of the Classical Tradition at the University of London. His best-known book, The Story of Art, has been translated into many languages, and he was also the author of A Little History of the World.