STORY OF ART - Tapa dura

'Like every art historian of my generation, my way of thinking about pictures has been in large measure shaped by Ernst Gombrich.'

'More people...have been introduced to the world of fine art, in the last 45 years, through Ernst Gombrich's The Story of Art than through any other single book.'

'The great gift he gave us was to make the living process of art understandable to us all. Rather than a dry cultural history, he made looking at art -- that perceptual experience -- an adventure.'

'It is hard to overstate my enthusiasm for...one of the pivotal works in the great cause of bringing people and art together...A book to read, re-read, and...to savour lovingly like a classic vintage.'

'Gombrich has done more than any other human being to draw people towards an enlightened understanding of art... Wearing his immense learning lightly, tackling abstract ideas without losing his readers in jargon, he has attracted a devoted following.'

'Ernst Gombrich was the most famous art historian in the world. His reputation was based less on a particular approach to the subject, or the mastery of a single period, than on the breadth of his interests and his skill at making the history of art interesting to a non-specialist public.'

'The Story of Art was the first history of art which I read as a 19-year-old student. It was a revelation and I could not put it down. It pushed open the door on some of the greatest achievements of the human spirit. Written with love and scholarship, clarity and insight, it stands as a classic cornerstone in any appreciation of art.'

'... did more than any other writer in the last 100 years to introduce a wider public to a love of art. Successive generations of students have been drawn to The Story of Art, his erudite survey of Western art, and his Big Idea: "There is no such thing as art -- there are only artists." An academic who stayed firmly outside his profession's charmed circle, his book was intended as a rallying cry against snobbery and elitism, and has remained a classic.'

Combining text with hundreds of full-colour illustrations, this book traces the history of art in an unfolding narrative, from primitive cave paintings to modern controversial art works.