The Sense of Order A Study in the Psychology of Decorative Art

by Gombrich, Leonie; Gombrich, EH; New York University, New York

• ISBN13: 9780714822594
• ISBN10: 0714822590
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-01-01
• Publisher: Phaidon Press

Summary

A comprehensive survey of the history and theory of decorative art. Otherork by the author includes "The Story of Art" and "Art and Illusion: A Studyn the Psychology of Pictorial Representation".

Author Biography

Sir Ernst Gombrich was one of the greatest and least conventional art historians of his age, achieving fame and distinction in three separate spheres: as a scholar, as a popularizer of art, and as a pioneer of the application of the psychology of perception to the study of art. His best-known book, The Story of Art - first published 50 years ago and now in its 16th edition - is one of the most influential books ever written about art. His books further include Art and Illusion(1979) and The Preference for the Primitive (2002), as well as a total of 11 volumes of collected essays and reviews.

Gombrich was born in Vienna in 1909 and died in London in November 2001. He came to London in 1936 to work at the Warburg Institute, where he eventually became Director from 1959 until his retirement in 1976. He won numerous international honours, including a knighthood, the Order of Merit and the Goethe, Hegel and Erasmus prizes.

Gifted with a powerful mind and prodigious memory, he was also an outstanding communicator, with a clear and forceful prose style. His works are models of good art-historical writing, and reflect his humanism and his deep and abiding concern with the standards and values of our cultural heritage.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction Order and Purpose in Nature	1	(16)
Order and Orientation
The Gestalt Theory
The Patterns of Nature
Man-made Orders
The Geometry of Assembly
Monotony and Variety
Order and Movement
Play and Art
Part One: Decoration: Theory and Practice
Issues of Taste	17	(16)
The Moral Aspect
Classic Simplicity
Polemics around the Rococo
Design and Fashion
Ornament as Art	33	(30)
The Menace of the Machine
Pugin and the Reform of Design
John Ruskin and Expressionism
Gottfried Semper and the Study of Function
Owen Jones and the Study of Form
The Japanese
The New Status of Design
Adolf Loos: `Ornament and Crime'
Ornament versus Abstraction
The Challenge of Constraints	63	(32)
Realities of Pattern-Making
The Mastery of the Material
Laws and Orders
The Limits of Foresight
Tools and Samples
Part Two: The Perception of Order
The Economy of Vision	95	(22)
Varieties of Vision
The Selective Focus
Loss of Definition
Testimonies of Art
Visual Information
Expectation and Extrapolation
The Probable and the Surprising
Breaks as Accents
Order and Survival
Global Perception
Towards an Analysis of Effects	117	(32)
The Limitations of Aesthetics
Restlessness and Repose
Balance and Instability
Waves and Vortices
From Form to Meaning
Colour
Representation
Form and Purpose
Shapes and Things	149	(22)
The Kaleidoscope
Repetition and Meaning
`Fields of Force'
Projection and Animation
Decoration
Modifying the Body
Part Three: Psychology and History
The Force of Habit	171	(24)
Perception and Habit
Mimicry and Metaphor
The Language of Architecture
The Etymology of Motifs
Invention or Discovery?
The Psychology of Styles	195	(22)
Riegl's Perceptual Theory of Style
The Pervasiveness of Style
Heinrich Wolfflin
Focillon and the `Life of Forms'
`Purity' and `Decadence'
The Logic of Situations
The Rococo: Mood and Movement
Designs as Signs	217	(34)
Motifs and Meanings
Marks of Distinction
Heraldic Symbolism
Symbol and Setting
The Transformation of the Flourish
The Symbolic Potential
The Sign of the Cross
The Edge of Chaos	251	(34)
A Zone of Licence
Protective Spells
`A Great Dragon Force'
The Elusive Mask
The Migration of Monsters
Domesticated Demons
The Revival of the Grotesque
The Dissolution of Form
Epilogue Some Musical Analogies	285	(22)
The Claims of Music
The Rivalry of the Arts
Song and Dance
Nature and Artifice
Form, Rhyme and Reason
Elementary Effects
From Fields of Force to Worlds of Sound
New Media
Notes	307	(18)
Plates	325	(64)
Full Titles of Books Cited	389	(2)
List of Illustrations	391	(10)
Index	401