1 week and 6 days later I’ve completed the first read-through of The Story of Art by Ernst Gombrich. Which is a lot faster than I expected, mainly because the wealth of photography makes it seem like a much longer book at first glance.

Reading the lie of the page

. . . the original principle of keeping the illustrations before the reader’s eye while studying the text . . .1

Gombrich prides himself on illustrating every work of Art within a page or two of it’s mention in the text. Conversely, a full page of text usually indicates extended discussions on the social or theoretical background to the works. As a student of Art History this was quite a useful feature to keep an eye out for.

1. Ernst Gombrich, The Story of Art (London: Phaidon, 1950; 16th edition, 1995; reprinted 2005), p. 12