Delicious booklet that collects several texts donated by the great art historian Ernest Hans Josef Gombrich to the publishing house Rialp, which were published in his magazine Atlántida.
We could say that the first of the four theories of the title would be the one that considers artistic expression as a symptom (frowning or blushing are symptoms of anger or inner turmoil), the second would consider it as a signal (the sound that hens emit to call their chicks to eat or warn them of some danger) and the third would be the symbolic function, which understands art as a symbol (a writer describes a scene and conveys the feelings of the hero). The fourth theory, complementary to the previous ones, would be the one that understands art as an expression of the artist's own feelings.
Also appearing in this volume is a lecture delivered by the Austrian on cultural relativism in the sciences of the spirit, which has not lost its relevance.
