Sir Ernst Gombrich, C.B.E., was, until 1976, Director of the Warburg Institute and Professor of the History of the classical Tradition of the University of London. He has been Slade Professor of Fine Art at both Oxford and Cambridge, Professor of the History of Art at University College, London, Mellon Lecturer at the National Gallery, Washington, Visiting Professor at Harvard, Wrightsman Lecturer at the Institute of Fine Art, New York, and Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell, and has taught at many other universities and institutions. He has been elected to the membership of many learned societies and has received numerous decorations, honorary degrees and prized, including the Praemium Erasmianum of the 1975. His publications include Art and Illusion, Meditations on a Hobby Horse, Norm and Form, Symboli Images and The Heritage of Appelles.

The Story of Art is a unique book. One of the reasons why it has been so successful, and so widely admired, is the unsurpassed clarity and vividness with which the author speaks of artistic creation. By clearly showing how every artist builds upon, or sometimes reacts against, the achievements of his predecessors, Professor Gombrich makes us responsive to the values of bygone civilizations embodied in individual works of art, without having to resort to generalizations.

The author's theme is the entire history of artistic creation: the first stirrings in cave and rock paintings: the magical art of the 'primitive' tribes; the old civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome; the Christian arts of the Middle Ages; the Renaissance and the immortal masterpieces created in Italy, the Netherlands and Germany; the splendor of the Baroque and the golden age of Dutch painting; the Rococo; the Age of Reason, which gave birth to the glories of English painting; the 'perpetual revolution' in the nineteenth century and the rise if Impressionism, Expressionism, Cubism and Abstract Art: and in a penetrating last chapter the manifold experiments of our own time. Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Pre-Columbian art of the Americas also form part of the story. The narrative thread running through this book takes the reader up to the present day.

The book maintains a harmonious balance between text and illustrations: the 398 reproductions include many masterpieces. The integration of word and image is made fully effective by the fine quality of reproduction. The tremendous value put on this great book throughout the world is shown by the fact that is has been translated into seventeen languages.

An important new feature of this thirteenth edition is the chronological charts, which are intended to facilitate comparison of the time intervals covered by the periods and styles discussed in the book. The bibliography has also been expanded and updated, and the number of color plates almost trebled.