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Art and Illusion

Ernst Gombrich

Art and Illusion, A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation, is a 1960 book of art theory and history by Ernst Gombrich, derived from the 1956 A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts. The book had a wide impact in art history, but also in history , aesthetics , semiotics , and music psychology .

Ernst Gombrich photo

“Anyone who can handle a needle convincingly can make us see a thread which is not there.”

Ernst Gombrich Art and Illusion

Quoted in: Willie Maartens (2006). Mapping Reality, p. 185.
Art and Illusion (1960)

Ernst Gombrich photo

“The true miracle of the language of art is not that it enables the artist to create the illusion of reality. It is that under the hands of a great master the image becomes translucent. In teaching us to see the visible world afresh, he gives us the illusion of looking into the invisible realms of the mind - if only we know, as Philostratus says, how to use our eyes.”

Ernst Gombrich Art and Illusion

Art and Illusion (1960)

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