The Preference for the Primitive: Episodes in the History of Western Taste and Art

by E.H. Gombrich

Book Overview

This monumental book - the last to be completed by the author - is a study of a recurring phenomenon in the history of changing taste in the visual arts: the feeling that older and less sophisticated (i.e. 'primitive') works are somehow morally and aesthetically superior to later works that are perceived as comparatively soft and decadent.

In his first narrative work for over two decades, Professor Gombrich traces this fundamental idea back...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0714841544
• ISBN13: 9780714841540
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Phaidon Press
• Length: 324 Pages
• Weight: 2.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 7.1" x 10.0"