1. Unit 1: The Birth of Art
Art before history

2. Prehistoric Europe and the Near East

3. Prehistoric Art Before written language Speculation of purpose
No context
To be classified artwork, it must be “modified by human intervention beyond mere selection”—what does that mean?
First intentional art begins 30,000 B.C.E.
Paleolithic*, Mesolithic, Neolithic*

4. Period Dates Paleolithic Art: c. 30,000 BCE- c.8,000 BCE
Neolithic Art: c.8,000 BCE-c. 3,000 BCE
Apply roughly to methods of gathering food
Paleolithic: hunters and gatherers
Neolithic: cultivated earth and raised livestock

5. Makapansgat pebble NOT art. Time, dedication, technique
Makapansgat pebble NOT art. Time, dedication, technique. Recognition vs representation
Figure 1-2 Waterworn pebble resembling a human face, from Makapansgat, South Africa, ca. 3,000,000 BCE. Reddish brown jasperite, approx. 2 3/8” wide.
Figure 1-4 Human with feline head, from Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany, ca. 30,000–28,000 BCE. Mammoth ivory, 11 5/8” high. Ulmer Museum, Ulm.

6. Paleolithic Art Paleo-“old” + Lithos-“stone”= Old Stone Age
Stone Age Art not necessarily Cave Art
Not just recognition but representation of subjects
Variety

7. Characteristics Usual Subjects Animals-profile view, most informative
Humans-usually nude females, males rare
Material chosen influenced look of work
Dates imprecise due to difficulty in dating Paleolithic work

8. Why did they make art? Mimetic Representation Decoration Need
Possibly to control or appease natural forces
Reference
Teaching
Communication
Ritual/Sorcery
Mimetic
Representation
Decoration
Need
Mimetic=imitation
Memory images

9. Almost always an animal: bison, horse, woolly mammoth and ibex were the most common. Species here uncertain.
Figure 1-3 Animal facing left, from the Apollo 11 Cave, Namibia, ca. 25,500 BCE. Charcoal on stone, 5” X 4 1/4”. State Museum of Namibia, Windhoek.

10. Originality-not a concern
Namibian Plaques
Portable art
Purpose:
Create convincing image
Pictorial reference
Originality-not a concern
Found seven plaques. Named for the Apollo 11 spacecraft landing on the moon-discovered the same year 1969

11. The Earliest Sculpted Forms
Majority of these are stylized depictions of nude women.
Why women?
2 types of sculpted forms:
Sculpture in the round—3D sculpture, can walk around it.
Relief sculpture—2D sculpture, projects from a flat surface.

12. Figure 1-5 Nude woman (Venus of Willendorf), from Willendorf, Austria, ca. 24,000 BCE. Limestone, 4 1/4” high. Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna.

14. Venus of Willendorf Most famous “Venus” sculpture 4”
Limestone/sculpture in the round
Subtractive
Anatomical exaggeration
Large breasts
Pubic triangle
Represents female form, not specific woman
“Venus” misleading term

15. Figure 1-6 Woman holding a bison horn, from Laussel, France, ca
Figure 1-6 Woman holding a bison horn, from Laussel, France, ca. 25,000–20,000 BCE. Painted limestone, approx. 1’ 6” high. Musée d’Aquitaine, Bordeaux.

16. Figure 1-7 Two bison, reliefs in cave at Le Tuc d’Audoubert, France, ca. 15,000–10,000 BCE. Clay, each 2’ long.

17. Figure Bison with turned head, fragmentary spearthrower, from La Madeleine, France, ca. 12,000 BCE. Reindeer horn, 4” long.

18. Cave Painting Paintings deep inside caves
Used charcoal, red & yellow ochre to draw and paint
Natural materials used for equipment
Scaffolding/ledges used
Music

19. Figure 1-9 Bison, detail of a painted ceiling in the cave at Altamira, Spain, ca. 12,000–11,000 BCE. Each bison 5’ long.

20. Bison, Altimira Cave Profile Standing Bison ground level
Curled Bison aerial view
No use of ground line
Not herds, separate bison
No location

21. Figure Spotted horses and negative hand imprints, wall painting in the cave at Pech-Merle, France, ca. 22,000 BCE. 11’ 2” long.

22. Spotted Horses and Negative Hand Imprints
Inspiration by rock formation?
Need to “make a mark”

23. Lascaux Caves

24. White limestone
Figure Hall of the Bulls (left wall) in the cave at Lascaux, France, ca. 15,000–13,000 BCE. Largest bull 11’ 6” long.

26. Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux
Large cavern inside decorated cave site
Methods of drawing/painting suggest they were done at different times
Outlines
Colored Profile
Twisted Perspective-body profile, head frontal
Many species shown, not just bulls

27. First narrative
Figure 1-13 Rhinoceros, wounded man, and disemboweled bison, painting in the well of the cave at Lascaux, France ca. 15,000 – 13,000 BCE. Bison 3’ 8” long.

28. Camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine, c.14,000-7000 BCE, bone.

29. Camelid Sacrum in Shape of Canine
From Tequixquiac, Mexico
Bone sculpture from a camel-like animal
Sacrum is the triangular bone at the base of spine
Bone has been worked to create image of a dog or wolf- one natural form takes form of another

30. Carved to represent a mammal’s skull
Mesoamerican idea that a sacrum is a “second skull”
Doorway between worlds, fertility

31. Running Horned Woman, 6,000-4,000 BCE, rock painting, Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria

33. More than 15,000 drawings and engravings found at this site
Some representational, some abstract
Depicts livestock, wildlife, humans
Dots may reflect body paint applied for ritual
At one time the area was grasslands; climate changes have turned it into desert
Algeria largest African country. Huge grouping of rock art that record climactic changes, animal migrations and other important evolutionary shifts.

34. Changes Preceding Neolithic Art
9000 BCE Ice Recession
Mesolithic period transition
Warmer Climate
Humans
Settled into dwellings
Domesticated animals
Grew plants

35. Focus Shift Food gathering to Food production Wanted more land
“Sedentary Societies” led to craft work
Weaving
Pottery
Metalwork

36. Beaker with Ibex Motifs
Neolithic
BCE
Made in Susa, located in Southwestern Iran
Painted ceramic

37. Beaker with Ibex Motifs
Found near a burial site
Used a Potter’s wheel
Walls of pot are thin
Stylized depictions of aquatic birds, and running dogs with lean, elongated bodies
Abstracted stylized motif with oversized horns
Contains a clan symbol of family ownership (in middle of horns) -perhaps of deceased family member

38. Anthropomorphic Stele
Neolithic
BCE
Sandstone

39. Anthropomorphic Stele
One of the earliest known pieces from Arabia
Found in an area with extensive mercantilism, and thus many trade routes
Most likely in relation to religious or burial purposes
Contains a belted robe, which has a hanging double bladed knife
Anthropomorphic: Resembling Human form, but not itself Human
36” x 8”

40. Jade Cong
Neolithic
BCE
Jade

43. Jade Cong From Liangzhu, China Circular hole placed within a square
Abstracted designs: face/deity or spirit
Four corners carry mask-like images with a pronounced eyes and a fanged mouth

44. Material signifies wealth
The Chinese believe Jade=durability & beauty
Difficulty of material
Placed in burial around bodies-some broken, some show signs of intentional burning

45. Stonehenge
Neolithic
BCE
Blue stone and sarsen stone

46. Barrows=burial grounds

49. Believed to be oriented towards the sunrise on the longest day of the year

50. Stonehenge
Believed to have taken thousands of years to finish, due to each generation redeveloping it
Ring of megaliths surrounding a ring of smaller stones surrounding a horseshoe of trilithons.
Some stones are over 50 tons (100,000 lbs)
Menhirs-large individual stones
Henge is a circle of megaliths
another theory: stonehenge was center of ceremonies of death and burial. Megaliths cut into rectangular shapes and used in henges.

51. Surrounding the main portion of Stonehenge lie hundreds of smaller stones, their purpose is unknown
Some stones are thought to have been transported from 200 miles away

52. Post-and-lintel building with each lintel grooved in a place by the mortise-and-tenon system of construction
Mortise and tenon, tongue in groove, post and lintel

53. The Ambum Stone
Neolithic
1500 BCE
greywacke

54. Stone age work-used stone to carve stone
From Ambum Valley in Papua New Guinea
Composite creature
Ritual use?
Importance of anteater
Thought to be a pestle

55. The Ambum Stone e of Tlatilco Female Figures c. 1200- 900 BCE, ceramic
background is greywacke

56. Tlatilco, Mexico well known for pottery
Figures, animals, imaginary creatures, etc.
Female figures show elaborate details of hair, clothing and body ornaments
Many show deformities
First evidence of congenital defects
Shamanistic function possibility
Recognizable style

57. Terra Cotta Fragment.
Lapita culture, from the Solomon Islands, 1000 BCE, terra cotta.

58. Lapita known for their pottery
Known for curved stamped patterns
Outlined forms
Shows one of the oldest faces in Oceanic art