«Professor E.H. Gombrich is acknowledged as one of the most influential scholars and thinkers of the 20th century. His writings include three major narrative works — «The Story of Art», «Art and Illusion» and «The Sense of Order» — and ten volumes of collected essays and reviews. This anthology presents a selection from all these books, as well as six pieces which have previously not been published by Phaidon. This work contains discussions on the nature of representation, the psychology of perception, the interpretation of images and the problems of theory and method. Other topics include social and cultural history, connoisseurship, iconography, symbolism and meaning in art, relativism, tradition, conservatism, and the idea of progress.»