The book is a collection of essays on the topic of pressing problems in the history of art as a practice of renewing meaning in relation to the visual reality of the past. The reference point in this endeavor is the extremely monumental figure of Ernst Gombrich, a historian, but above all a theorist of art history, who in his scientific discursiveness reached the level of genuine creativity and exposed the performative roots of scientific knowledge as such. In the person of Gombrich and in the plots of his relationships with other personalities - Popper, Warburg, Panofsky, Mitchell, Preziosi, Wind and many others - we also discover the essential aspects of science as interpersonal communication within and at the edges of various conceptual contexts, which gives specific illusory effects related to effects of authenticity, which, as is usually believed, only the fine arts are capable of. The book will be useful to specialists in the field of aesthetics, psychology and philosophy, as well as to everyone interested in art and its interpretation.