The problem was sacred message . How do you make a congregation feel the pain of Christ? Solution: Gold backgrounds and symbolic gestures, not realistic anatomy.
Furthermore, Gombrich stopped at the Impressionists. The final edition ends with a reluctant look at Surrealism and a skeptical glance at Abstract Expressionism. He famously disliked Duchamp’s readymades (a urinal as art) and argued that art without craft was a philosophical trick. For Gombrich, the skill of making an illusion was sacred. Gombrich’s greatest strength is also his greatest critique. He writes as a "connoisseur"—a white, male, Viennese-trained scholar who knows what good art looks like. He has clear favorites (Leonardo, Titian, Caravaggio, Vermeer) and clear dislikes (much of Baroque excess, the Pre-Raphaelites). la historia del arte gombrich
The problem was what the eye actually sees . How do you draw a foot that is turning away? Solution: Foreshortening. The Greeks invented the "sweet moment" of illusion. The problem was sacred message