The Practice of Art History: Reflections on Method

This is the English version of Otto Pacht's classic text on art history. His approach to art history is shaped by his conviction that visual art, like music, can express ideas in its own medium that no other can. He aims to sharpen the reader's perceptions by recreating the social and cultural context in which an object was made, clarifying unfamiliar notions of space and time or significant gestures and symbols which are no longer recognizable. Pacht explores the major thinkers from Riegl, Wolfflin and Croce to Panofsky and Gombrich, but the emphasis always returns to the activity of looking, and Pacht manages to show the student and general reader alike how to practice art history in their own encounters with works of art.