Little Shop of Knowledge

Gombrich opens his book by explaining how through a story it is easier to learn what actually happened, as opposed to simply a memorization of facts & images.

 

+”No such thing as Art: there are only artists”

+There are no wrong reasons for liking a piece of art. Simply wrong reasons for disliking one.

 

“The beauty of a picture foes not really lie in the beauty of its subject”

 

2 things we should think whenever we find fault with accuracy of a picture:

(1) Whether the artist may or may nor have had his reasons for changing the appearance of what he saw.

(2) We should never condemn a work for being incorrectly drawn unless we have made quise sure that we are right and the painter is wrong.

 

“We may find that things are apt to have the most surprising colors.”

 

+ There’s no greater obstacle than unwillingness to discard habits & prejudices. Taste can be developed as taste with Tea, Wine, Beer, or anything else, except that taste in art is “infinitely more complex”.

 

“To enjoy these works he must have a fresh mind.” Warning about danger of half-knowledge & snobbery “Open eyes, not loosen tongues”

 

“But to look at a picture with Fresh Eyes and to Venture on a Voyage of Discovery into it is a far more difficult but also a much more rewarding task. There is no telling what one might bring home from such a journey”

 

CHAPTER 1: Strange Beginnings: Prehistoric and Primitive Peoples: Ancient America Tribes, Bison, Caves in Spain & France, Use of the power of the image.

 

“It is not their standard of craftsmanship which is different from ours, but their ideas.” It is not the story of progress in technical proficienty, but the story of changing ideas and requirements.

 

CHAPTER 2: Art for Eternity: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete Master – Pupil – Admirer / CopyistLinks art from Egyptians to Us. Pyramids, Real Slaves Buried à Replaced by drawings. Perspective to show “the good side” of things. Everything is good & beautiful (1000 years) Egyptian Art wanted to conserve the body for the afterlife. IN the valley between Euphrates & Tigris river they didn’t believe in this (or hold this custom) and they had little rocks to work with.

 

CHAPTER 3: The Great Awakening: Greece, Seventh to Fifth Century B.C. This is a chapter about the revolution in art brought about by the Greeks when they stopped basing their creations merely on their KNOWLEDGE and began working based on their observations & feelings, and started experimenting with new & better ways to represent the human body & life. There were Greek masterpieces that were lost, however we were able to preserve some illustration of it based on the imitations that the romans realized.

 

CHAPTERS 4, 5 & 6: The Realm of Beauty. Romans, Buddhists, Jews & Christians. Rome and Byzantium (5th to 13th century)

+Hellenistic art; Impressive

+How can group/religion have their onw art, adapted from previous groups & had different attitudes & impacts derived from this art.

+ Catholicism and State unite and force that images be only paintings for teaching the gospel. No statues because they wanted to represent the invisible God made to a greater image different from the worshipping & idolatry of the pagans. Then they thought they could workship THROUGH these images.