1. HISTORY OF ART (ORIGIN/PRE-HISTORY ART)

3. INTRODUCTION
History of art is the study of the past creative artwork done by men through ages. These artworks are studied through developmental level of man as he gradually evolve and responds to changes in his immediate environment. These developments are in four stages. This artworks were called prehistoric works.

6. PRE-HISTORIC ARTS
These were the artworks done even before the invention of writing. During this age also called pre-historic age,artworks found on the wall of caves were the earliest paintings ever done by man, some of them were engravings and they reflect the diverse situations that man passes through from time immemorial.
The pre-historic people were early men or cave men. The developmental stages of man’s creative existence are hereby arranged in five stages for clarification.
Paleolithic or Old Stone Age d. Bronze Age
Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age e. Iron Age
Neolithic or New Stone Age

8. This is the age when human beings had no particular place to live
This is the age when human beings had no particular place to live. Paleolithic men were wanderers, they move about for food and later sought refuge in the caves. They made weapons from stones, and most of their paintings might have been done with charcoal and earthen colour mixed with animals’ fat.
The Paleolithic men did not believe in God, they just lived an ordinary life. The paintings were done on walls of their cave which served as their house.
Notable discoveries of such artworks were seen by some French officers, while marching around the Sahara desert. The themes of these engravings are Hunting Scene of human beings holding arrows and animals like elephant, gazettes, locations of the first painting was south of Oran in Sahara desert.
Second discovery was the TasiliAdjer also in Sahara desert.

10. Painting at fezan discovered by Henrch Bath within Tripoli and Timbuktu, and discoveries in Altamira Cave in Spain.
Lascaux painting in France with skillful drawing 1994 discoveries named after Jean Chauvet. The Paleolithic men didn’t cloth themselves but later used leaves to cover their nudity.

11. MESOLITHIC AGE

12. This age went through great development, the cave men made weapon from bones, different animals now featured in their paintings.
The eras were:
Bufalo era – Bufalo featured in their paintings
Cattle Period – featured cattles with composition stylized with less realistic approach and domestic animals were used as forest beasts.
Horse Period – The chariots of this sub period and human beings now look like triangles, chariots are prominently used with no wild animals.
Horsemen sub period – human beings are now depicted as Horse riders, carrying shields, bows etc.
Camel and Horse sub period – camel prominently features in relation to horse.

13. THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD
This was the evolvement of the modern era, men became farmers and have stable houses and live in communal settings. Civilization started in this era.

14. BRONZE PERIOD
Minerals like tin and copper which were components of bronze were discovered and this paved way for casting and moulding amongst other trades, men became more responsive to environmental changes.

15. GENERAL FEATURES OF EARLY MEN ARTWORKS
Figures of human beings were less prominent.
They featured wild animal in earlier discoveries.
They featured domestic animals in later discoveries.
Form were stylized and juxtaposed.
They featured hunting scene in earlier paintings.
Farmers were drawn prominently in later discoveries.
Most primitive artworks i.e. painting and engravings were magical and not decorative, the hunting scene looks like ritual approach, showing the manner they wish to kill the animals and some of the figures or forms in the compositions were believed to have been intentionally hidden.

16. MATERIAL (MEDIUM OF EARLY PAINTINGS)
Soot Fat of animal serves as diluent
Charcoal (which later led to the discovery of linseed
Earthen colour from mud oil)
Brush made from reed 6. Red from animal blood.

17. THE END