THE STORY OF ART

Lovely book, a delight to read.I am doing an art course online and this was a recommended reading. I have enjoyed reading it so far. The book arrived after almost a month but it was in a great condition

Don't know why I picked "The story of art" so late in life. What enrichment and enlightenment- unbelievable how lucidly Gombrich chronicles art history. It also helps that I love renaissance art and particularly Da Vinci - The book has positive bias on both and I don't mind it. A must possess and must read!

An excellent work.

The most popular art book in history. Gombrich examines the technical and aesthetic problems confronted by artists since the dawn of time

It's been a visual treat with the thoughtfully selected images of the paintings been spoken about. And the content is shared in an easy flowing manner making the understanding of history of art joyous

Le langage distingue l'espèce humaine, et l'Art est la forme suprême du langage. C'est ce langage que ce livre donne à apprendre et à comprendre sur une échelle de temps et d'espace qui permettent de mettre l'art en perspective. Une expérience fascinante, comme la découverte d'un ressort secret de ce qui nous fait ce que nous sommes

本書は英語で読める西洋美術の通史としては、もっとも人気があり、かつ、もっとも評価の高いものだろう。本書の著者E. H. Gombrich（1909-2001）は20世紀を代表する美術史家だ。彼の邦訳書も多く、本書も『美術の歩み』（1972）、『美術の物語』（2007）と二度にわたって翻訳されている。 本書の流れは、ラスコーやアルタミラの洞窟壁画から始まり、古代エジプト、メソポタミア、古代ギリシャ・ローマを経てヨーロッパに続き、その後は「西欧」を中心に年代記的に記述されていく。ときに中国、近世に入れば日本などについて章が割かれているとはいえ、西洋的な進歩史観を引きずっているのではないかと思われる方もいるかもしれない。しかし著者はそれを承知のうえで “わかりやすさ” を優先し、あえて単線的な美術史の流れを提示しているのだ。 また、本書は11版（1966）から15版（1989）にいたるまで、版を重ねるごとに著者自身により加筆訂正されている。そのため初版が1950年でありながら、ジャクソン・ポロック（1912-1956）やジョルジョ・モランディ（1890-1964）の後期作品など、「現代アート」の部類に括られる芸術家まで射程に入れられている。 まえがきで著者が十代の読者を想定したと述べる通り、本文はやさしい文法と語彙で書かれており、美術史家にありがちな回りくどいレトリックもない。くわえて地味にすごいのは、数千年におよぶ美術史が本書に掲載されている図版だけで説明されていること。限られた数（全413点）の作品だけで、これほど過不足なく解説できるのは偉業というほかないだろう。はじめて美術史を勉強するのなら、間違いなくおすすめできるテクストだ。 ハードカバー版であれば、かさばる分、文章と図版が同一ページに掲載されているので、絵を見ながら文字を追うことができる（ポケット・エディションは、本文ページと図版ページが分かれている）。 以下は目次。 Introduction - On art and artists 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 I - The later fifteenth century in Italy 14. Tradition and Innovation II - 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 I - Italy, later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 22. Power and Glory II - 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 century 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

Astonishing printing quality, richness of content and super useful apendixes(tables).

If you have to buy just 1 book about art history, buy this one.

This renowned volume is a compelling and fascinating tour through history (and pre-history) of how Art got to be Art. It has sold 8 million copies and in its 16th edition so that tells you just how good it is! But my review is really about choosing (see above photo for size difference) between the glossy, big format edition and the 2001 pocket format. I bought the pocket edition first. I loved it so much that I thought I would treat myself to this full size version. I’m glad I did. The full size version is for the coffee table or sitting up and reading at a desk. It’s a beautiful book with every art work mentioned shown in very high quality photographs alined with the relevant text. Ie in contrast to the pocket edition, there’s no need to flip pages to a separate part of the book to get to the matching illustration. ✅✅ worth the extra cost. But it’s not a book that I could read in bed as the glossy paper and size means that it’s a rather heavy handful. So I’m very glad I also have both editions. However if I had to get only 1 then I would choose the pocket version. All the text and all the colour illustrations and cleverly managed with much less weight.