Art, Perception, and Reality

E. H. Gombrich is director emeritus of the Warburg Institute at the University of London. Julian Hochberg is professor of psychology at Columbia University. Max Black was Susan Linn Sage Professor of Philosophy and Humane Letters at Cornell University.

The approach of the book is very original because it presents itself as the interdisiplinary convergance of three adopted points of view, respectively, the history of art, the psychology, and the philosophy. -- Pierre Somville Revue Philosophique Bringing together essays by an art historian, a psychologist, and a philosopher, is an important event, for it marks a growing interest in the suggestive but very problematic relation between our experience of art and our perception of the visual world. -- Mark Sagoff Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism Power to provoke thought. -- Michael Rosenthal Art, Perception, and Reality Stimulating and erudite. It considers the problem of likeness between a portrait and the sitter, and the role of empathy, a much neglected aspect in the nature of creating art. -- J.B.Deregowski New Society This useful book contains three significant essays on the subject by an art historian, a psychologist, and a philosopher. Hochberg's theoretical demolition of the theory of empathy in relation to viewing art objects is of exceptional value. -- Peter Fuller Arts Review The great achievement of this book is that it broadens the reader's perspective on the problems of representation, whatever disipline the reader considers his own. From that broadened perspective is likely to come more fruitful consideration of this set of problems. -- Lorraine A. Ozar The Modern Schoolman Three informed opinions on the classical question of representation... Provocative. Art Journal

• PrefacePart I. The Mask and the Face: The Perception of Physiognomic Likeness in Life and in ArtPart II. The Representation of Things and PeoplePart III. How do Pictures Represent?PostscriptIndex