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

by E.H. Gombrich

This book is a study of a recurring phenomenon in the history of changing taste in the visual arts, namely the feeling that older and less sophisticated (i.e. 'primitive') works are somehow morally and aesthetically superior to later works that have become soft and decadent. Gombrich traces this idea back to classical antiquity and links it both with Cicero's observation that over-indulgence of the senses leads to a feeling of disgust, and with the profoundly influential metaphor comparing the development of art to that of a living organism. Like an organism, art has been thought to grow to maturity, then decay and die, and successive generations of artists and critics have preferred the alleged strength, nobility and sincerity of earlier styles to the more refined later styles with their corrupting and meretricious appeal to the senses. Summing up more than forty years of study and reflection on this theme, the book presents a closely argued narrative supported by extensive quotations that document with precision the role of authors, critics and artists in shaping and changing opinion. After reviewing the classical authors whose writings largely set the terms of the debate, Gombrich then charts its progress from its revival in the eighteenth century, documenting the often subtle shifts of taste and judgement that frequently focus on the pivotal role of Raphael in the history of art. In the final chapters, he turns to the truly revolutionary primitivism of the twentieth century, analysing the momentous shifts of taste of which he has himself been an eyewitness. Important both as a personal testament and as a documentary anthology, this last book from one of the world's most distinguished art historians provides a deep and revealing insight into the history and psychology of taste.

Genres: Art

324 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Sir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich, OM, CBE (30 March 1909 – 3 November 2001) was an Austrian-born art historian, who spent most of his working life in the United Kingdom.

Reviews

[Eric Byrd]

"Those masters, so overrated in their day, and so underrated in ours."

--Baudelaire

"In Manet, Baudelaire must have sensed a certain division between the picturesque romanticism which was dying out, and the realism which resulted from it as by an elemantary reflex, easily taking its place, as if by a reaction of mental distaste and weariness. Just as the eye replies with a 'green' to a too prolonged and insistent 'red,' so too, in the arts, an overindulgence in fantasy is compensated for by a regime of 'truth.' Which is no reason why one side should insult the other; nor why one side should consider itself bolder, and the other consider itself infinitely wiser."

--Valery

[Sara Sabouri · Rating 5 out of 5]

این کتاب در ایران با عنوان "تحولات ذوق هنری در غرب، گرایش به هنرهای آغازین" توسط محمدتقی فرامرزی ترجمه شده است. که ترجمه چندان خوبی نیست. اما کتاب بسیار بسیار جذاب و الهام بخشی بود برای من. ارنست گامبریج در این کتاب (که آخرین کتاب قبل از مرگش بود) با نقل قول ها و مثالهای مختلف استدلال می کند که سلیقه و ذائقه بشر نسبت به هنر عوض شده است و به سمت ابتدایی گرایی حرکت کرده است، و آثار هنر کلاسیک دیگر چندان مقبول و جذاب نیست

[Kevin Fitzpatrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leading the reader on a trek through Western thought and associated Western images, Gombrich, that esteemed surveyor of all things artistic, in "The Preference for the Primitive," explores competing, idea-based threads in culture, called "the naïve" and "the sentiment" by some, "the sublime" and "the decorative" by others, and how these do battle in the language and the Art of the Western world since Ancient times. Starting with the Roman rhetorical thinkers Longinus and Cicero, Gombrich explicates theory and pictures that deal with these categories, which can be seen as the Scylla and Charybdis of Art in general and painting in particular. The Primitive, the book concludes, comes, after a long subterranean presence, to its height in the Art of the 20th century, where masters like Picasso and Matisse weave the two together, creating a new synthesis out of this intriguing dialectical process. The scope of this books is hardly done justice by the above review, but one can makes some conclusions nonetheless: difficult to follow at times, rich in illustrative examples, and bound to expand your understanding of the appeal of the raw and unschooled in Western Art, this book will be a welcome addition to your library! Two thumbs up!