Prehistoric art Paleolithic, Neolithic, Mesolithic

Hall of the Bulls (Lascaux), c. 15,000-13,000 BCE Usually created by people who stayed high within the caves perched on small ledges for days. Most of these drawings paintings were used, in theory, as guides for hunters “survival guides”, they can also be linked to spiritual meanings. Hall of the Bulls (Lascaux), c. 15,000-13,000 BCE

art as a tool for survival/ art for use in rituals/ twisted perspective/ figure ground relationship/ naturalistic renderings

Left:“Macaroni style” with bison head from Altamira Aurignacian Style(25,000 – 15,000 BCE) Right: Magdalenian Style (15,000 –10,000 BCE)

Wounded man and disemboweled bison (Lascaux), c.15,000 –13,000 BCE First reference of man in a cave painting. Brings on a new era of cave paintings.

Wall Painting in Chauvet Cave, Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, (Ardeche), c Wall Painting in Chauvet Cave, Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, (Ardeche), c. 30,000-28,000 BCE

Spotted horses and negative hand imprints (Pech-Merle, Lot, France), c Spotted horses and negative hand imprints (Pech-Merle, Lot, France), c. 22,000 BCE

Bison at Altamira (Santander, Spain), c. 12,000-11,000 BCE

Bison with turned head (La Madeleine), c. 12,000 BCE, reindeer horn

Venus of Willendorf (Austria), c. 28,000- 23,000 BCE, limestone cult of the fertility goddess/ lack of naturalistic rendering

Human skull from Jericho, c. 7000-6000 BCE spirit trap

Çatal Hüyük, (Turkey), c. 6000-5900 BCE Çatal Hüyük/ Anatolia/ no streets or doors/ shrines with bucrania and wall paintings Only entrance of exit into homes was through the roof. These were designed as fortresses to protect from attackers. Every home/room was attached to one another. Made of mudbrick.

possibly the first known landscape Above: wall painting from Çatal Hüyük Left: Reconstruction of a shrine at Çatal Hüyük possibly the first known landscape

Stonehenge (Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England), c. 2000 BCE

A large stone that forms a pre-historic monument/ a circle of standing stones/ two vertical covered by a header or lintel covering a void in space example a doorway/ the heelstone is a single large block of sarsen stone standing within the Avenue outside the entrance of the Stonehenge earthwork/ the shape created by two intersecting circle otherwise known as a mandorla/ a rounded stone (esp. that at Delphi) representing the navel of the earth in ancient Greek mythology. megaliths/ cromlech/ post and lintel construction/ heelstone/ vesica pisces/ omphalos

cromlech

dolmen A megalithic tomb with a large flat stone laid on upright ones, found chiefly in Britain and France

A prehistoric burial mound made of stones.

Menhir statue (Aveyron, France), c.2500, sandstone A statue menhir is a type of carved standing stone created during the later European Neolithic. The statues consist of a vertical slab or pillar with a stylised design of a human figure cut into it, sometimes with hints of clothing or weapons visible.

Left and Below: Menhirs in the Carnac region of France (Neolithic period)

What changes occurred between the Paleolithic ('Old Stone Age') to the Neolithic ('New Stone Age') period? Explain why calling a prehistoric figure a "woman" instead of "Venus" frees us to think about the object in new and different ways. Refer to at least three works of art in explaining how Paleolithic works of art show an aesthetic sense. What evidence is there that some megalithic monuments, such as Stonehenge, may have had a relationship to celestial events in the calendar? Compare any prehistoric work to something that is created in present day.

sculpture in the round relief sculpture abstraction low relief ware modeling post-and-lintel construction henge   relative dating corbeling dolmen cairn incising capstones passage grave