Representation

Gombrich addresses the art history question: why does art from different time periods and different countries have different ways of representation? One might look at the flattened perspective painting from early Medieval paintings and wonder if the painters truly had no skills for depicting space and depth. Since we know this is unlikely, why do their images appear so stylized? Gombrich argues that each era and culture has a different need and standard for the truth of information revealed in a representation. An image may not necessarily be expected to depict a mirror image - it may be used for explanation or suggestion. Also, styles are a way of depicting an image in a language that will be understood by its audience. No image can capture a view completely, so artists pick and choose which aspects to capture and in what visual style, so that it will answer questions in a way that that particular era and culture understands. In this way it is a visual language unique to that time period or people. An artist is also limited by his or her skills and materials. Gombrich writes that artists will pick and choose elements of what they see to include in the artwork. In this way the language of representation will use motifs - symbols that represent what we see. We all use symbols because “all art originates in the human mind, in our reactions to the world rather than in the visible world itself.� Gombrich explains this by saying “the artist will therefore tend to see what he paints, rather than to paint what he sees�. Finally Gombrich concludes that “the innocent eye is a myth�, meaning that every representation comes from a particular cultural language and an artist’s personal style and skill. One cannot copy what one sees because every decision made in the execution will imbibe it with meaning, consciously or not.

-Adrienne Bockheim 01.27.09