In episode 18, I talked about my book choices, they were;
Hubble Vision
The Story of Art
Britains Pilgrim places
At the time, I was finishing off The Photographers eye, and couldn’t make up my mind which book to read, so decided that I would have all three on the go.
As it happens, I reached a point with Hubble vision, when reading about Saturn that I realised just how out of date the book was. I couldn’t bring my self to continue reading it. I’ve a Hubble related book lined up that I will buy myself for Christmas.
I continued with Britains Pilgrim Places and the Story of art, until today when I made a decision.
Who would have thought that a book about art could be so utterly engrossing? I’m finding it difficult to put down. In The Story of Art, E H Gombrich (16th Ed published 1995, re-printed 1996) weaves a story of human kinds ability to create art from the stone age toward today. I have worked my way through the Egyptian art of the Pharoahs, through how the Greeks discovered how to improve the view of the human form, and how from roman days art is suborned entirely to religion, art extends not only to statues , but to church building, and am at the tenth and eleventh centuries, when cathedrals such as The Notre Dam (how sad I was to see the picture in the book, of a beautiful intact building, to carbonised husk it is at the moment. Chartre, we were there several years ago, but I certainly didn’t appreciate the effort that the architects of the cathedral put in to the design of the building, and how that design is dedicated to the story of god, and ensuring that the gospels are given to the peoples.
So, here I am. I have made the decision that I am putting Britain’s Pilgim Places on hold until I have finished The Story of Art. But, there’s more, because I don’t want to forget what I’ve read in this book, and so I will be writing more about it here.
Bills Posts 