The Uses of Images

In this volume, the tenth in the series of his collected essays, Professor Gombrich returned to themes that long preoccupied him in his study of visual imagery of all kinds. Central to these pivotal essays is a consuming interest in the functions of images, and how these functions, in addition to the images themselves, evolve over time. In wide-ranging studies of both so-called 'high' and 'low' art — from fresco painting, altar painting, the International Gothic Style and outdoor sculpture to doodles, pictorial instructions, caricature and political propaganda — Gombrich examines a broad spectrum of key questions.