The Story of Art

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

About a year ago, I suddenly decided that it was about time I learned something about art history. After reading all the reviews about this book, I decided that this was the book for me. And so it was. I would never have imagined that it could be so entertaining to read about art history. A previous reviewer called this a simplified historical description of art from the perspective of an authoritarian male, white, european. Maybe it is simplified. So what! That's excactly what I needed at the time I bought this book. It has always been quite clear to me that this book was only an introduction to art. Since it was so entertaining I was able to finish it, and I have finally learnt to appreciate art. Because of this my second visit to Louvre in Paris was a lot more fun than my first visit there. I guess it's true that the author was a white, european male. What does this have to do with anything? The book is mainly about western art, so I don't see why it matters that he's european. And in the history of western art, how many non-white or female artists are there? I guess there are some from the previous century, but that is quite a small part of the book. So the author was a white, european male, like most of the artists in the history of western art. Some people have pointed to the fact that the book is a bit biased. Well, that is probably one of the things that makes it such an entertaining read. I highly recommend this book if you need an introduction to art.

Un básico para el estudio de la Historia del Arte

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