Bio-bibliography

UK/Austria

Ernst Gombrich

1985 Balzan Prize for History of Western Art

For his outstanding contribution to the historical, aesthetic, and psychological interpretation of classical and modern Western art. For the new perspectives opened by his “iconology” in the study of symbolic images. For the promotion of humanistic studies as director of the Warburg Institute.

Ernst Hans Josef was born in Vienna, Austria, on March 30, 1909 (†2001); he is a U.K. citizen;

Research Assistant, Warburg Institute, University of London, from 1936 to 1939; Senior Research Fellow (1946-1948), Lecturer (1948-1954), Reader (1954-1956), Special Lecturer (1956-1959) and Director (1959-1976) of the Warburg Institute, University of London;

Professor of History of the classic tradition, University of London, from 1959 to 1976, Professor Emeritus since 1976;

Slade Professor of Fine Arts at the University of Oxford from 1950 to 1953 and at the University of Cambridge from 1961 to 1963;

Professor of History of Art, University College, London, from 1956 to 1959;

Visiting Professor, Harvard University in 1959;

member of many academies and institutions and doctor «honoris causa» of the universities of Belfast, Leeds, St. Andrews, Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, London, Essex, Chicago, Harvard, Philadelphia and Brandeis;

in 1975 he received the Erasmus Prize and in 1977 the Hegel Prize of the City of Stockholm;

since 1977 member of the order Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste.

His major works include:

– The Story of Art (1950);

– Art and Illusion (1959);

– Meditations on a Hobby Horse (1963);

– Norm and Form (1966);

– Symbolic Images (1972);

– Art History and the Social Sciences (1974);

– The Heritage of Apelles (1976);

– The Sense of Order (1978);

– Ideals and Idols (1979);

– The Image and the Eye (1982).