Customer Reviews

The Image and the Eye: Further Studies in the Psychology of Pictorial ...

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This book explains how we perceive and how sensory input from the eye is interpreted and "shaped" by our brains. The author makes emphasis on how our brains put perspective onto the visual input they receive. He explains how the image is formed and sometimes "completed" by our brains, explaining a bit how the brain's tendency to abstraction works. He mentions why a drawing of the outline of an object can be perfectly interpreted by our brains like corresponding to the object and even mentions that we consider art more beautiful when it corresponds with our "abstraction" capacity than when it corresponds to reality, since it "appeals" more to our brains.

The author has a great knowledge of the visual arts and of the history of art, so he uses examples from the artistic world (including photography) to illustrate his points. He gives various examples with pictures in which you can see them with different perspectives, thereby changing the image you "see". He was probably a pioneer in trying to merge his knowledge of art (at which he is a reknown authority - See The Story of Art, 16th Edition (Gombrich, Ernst Hans Josef//Story of Art)) with the emerging neurosciences.

This is a highly recomendable book. There are probably a lot of new discoveries in this area, since neurosciences have seen a great development in recent years and since the book is not new. However, I have not seen a more recent book on these topics and definitely not one that combines these studies with art. So although probably dated I found the book very refreshing and with new insights.