One of the most influential ideas emerging from the age of insight is the “beholder’s share,” first introduced by Riegl and later popularized by one of the major figures in twentieth-century art history, Ernst Gombrich—himself born in Vienna in 1909. Their idea highlighted the role played by the observer—the beholder—in imaginatively “completing” a work of art. The beholder’s share is that part of perceptual experience that is contributed by the perceiver and which is not to be found in the artwork—or the world—itself.
