The Birth of Art:

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Gardners Art Through the Ages, 12e

• Chapter 1
• The Birth of Art
• Africa, Europe, and the Near East
• in the Stone Age

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Goals

• Understand the origins of art in terms of time
  period, human development and human activity.
• Explore origins of creativity, representation,
  and stylistic innovation in the Paleolithic
  period.
• Describe the role of human and animal figures in
  Paleolithic art.
• Examine the materials and techniques of the
  earliest art making in the Paleolithic period.
• Illustrate differences between the Paleolithic
  and Neolithic art as a result of social and
  environmental changes.
• Understand and evaluate the types of art
  prevalent in the Neolithic period.

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Definitions

• Paleolithic Old Stone Age from the Greek
  paleo old lithos stone
• Neolithic NEW Stone Age from the Greek neo
  old lithos stone
• Incise To cut into a surface with a sharp
  instrument a means of decoration, especially on
  metal and pottery.
• Twisted Perspective A convention of
  representation in which part of a figure is shown
  in profile and another part of the same figure is
  shown frontally a composite view.

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Prehistoric Europe and the Near East
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Paleolithic Art in Western Europe and Africa

• Why art must be intentional and representational
  in order to be called art.
• Must be modified by human intervention beyond
  mere selection.
• How do we know this pebble was selected?
• Why does it need to be modified to be called
  art?
• Intentional creation of art objects dates to
  30,000 BCE

Makapansgat pebble
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Paleolithic Art in Western Europe and Africa

• AFRICA Namibia during the Paleolithic period
  Early paintings were portable
• .
• Questions the artist would ask
• What is my subject?
• An animal
• How shall I represent it?
• Strict profile can see all body parts
  completely informative
• Moved from recognition of animal forms to
  representation of animal forms.

Namibia Apollo 11 Cave
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Paleolithic Art in Western Europe and Africa
AFRICA Namibia during the Paleolithic period
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Paleolithic Art in Western Europe and Africa

• WESTERN EUROPE Germany Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave
• Carved from Ivory-1 foot tall.
• Composite creature human with feline head.
• Bridges time gap between the Makapansgat pebble
  and the Namibian animal.
• No way to know what the intention was sorcerer?
  Humans dressed as animals?
• Did involve skill time, so was important.

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The Earliest Sculpted Forms

• Women in Paleolithic Art Representations of
  humans during this period were almost always of
  unclothed women.
• Called Venuses after the Greco-Roman goddess of
  beauty.
• Not accurate because there is no proof of the
  idea of named gods or goddesses in that era.
• Venus of Willendorf ?

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The Earliest Sculpted Forms

• Venus of Willendorf ?
• Why were they thought to be fertility images?
• What is the evidence against that?
• What CAN we safely conclude?
• -----------------
• Lack of focus on naturalism.
• No facial features.
• Evidence in the sculpture that it is a fertility
  figure?

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The Earliest Sculpted Forms

• Laussel Venus woman holding a bison horn,
  found in Dordogne, France.
• Probably later than the Willendorf figure.
• One of the earliest relief sculptures.
• Originally part of a large stone block.
• Red ochre was applied to the body. Ochre is a
  pigment made from tinted clays
• Similar emphasis on the female form to the
  Willendorf Venus

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The Earliest Sculpted Forms

• Another example of a fertility relief
  including bison horn

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The Earliest Sculpted Forms

• Rock-Cut WomenLa Magdelaine, France
• Relief sculptures of nude women on cave walls.
• Used the natural contours of the cave wall as
  abasis for the representation.
• Incised and carved.

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The Earliest Sculpted Forms

• Clay Bison
• Le Tuc dAudoubert, France-12-17k yrs ago
• Strict profile- 2 ft long
• Modeled in clay from the cave itself
• Antler Sculpture
• 4 inches long
• Compare?
• Engraving
• Represented with the head turned probable
  reason?

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Discovery of Altamia

• Altamira was the first prehistoric cave with
  paintings to be discovered in 1879.
• Now paintings are known at 200 other sites.
• Floating Bison
• Strict profile maintained by changing the
  viewpoint in the case of the curled up bison.
• Not a group
• no common ground line
• No setting, background or indication of place.

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Signs Hands

• Checks, dots, squares, lines are found alongside
  the animals Lascaux image
• May include a primitive kind of writing.
• Also common representations of human hands,
  mostly with pigment around the shape.
  Pech-Merle, France
• Murals at Pech-Merle Indicate animals chosen
  for a particular place in the cave- horses/hands
  painted on concave surfaces- bison on convex.

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Examining Materials and Techniques

• To SEE in the caves they used stone lamps with
  animal marrow or fat.
• To DRAW they used chunks of red and yellow ochre,
  but also other minerals.
• The PALATTE was a large flat stone.
• BRUSHES were made from reeds, bristles or twigs.
• May have used reed or blowpipe to spray paint on
  hard to reach locations.
• Used ledges and perhaps primitive scaffolds to
  reach the walls.
• Hard to ascertain WHY the paintings were made
  there are numerous theories

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The Bulls of Lascaux

• Paintings include animals other than bulls, but
  the name has stuck!
• Differences in style suggest paintings done at
  different times.
• Both colored and outline examples.

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Lascaux The Bulls of Lascaux

• The horns are represented in twisted perspective
  Bull is in profile, but horns viewed from the
  front.

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Lascaux The Well Scene

• "The Shaft of the Dead Man."
• 2 animals and a stick-man lying on the ground.
• Indication of narrative in cave paintings.
• Cleary a man
• Many interpretations.

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Chauvet

• Oldest cave paintings yet discovered. in 1994
• Horns rendered in strict perspective.
• Possible narrative in the two rhinos confronting
  each other.
• Dating is in question

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FRANCEMaps of Other Caves
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Neolithic Art Goals

• Understand the effect of climatic and lifestyle
  changes during the transition from the
  Paleolithic to the Neolithic period.
• Illustrate artistic development as a result of
  differences between the Paleolithic and Neolithic
  society and environment.
• Understand and evaluate the different types of
  art prevalent in the Neolithic period.

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Changing Environment and Lifestyle

• The Ice recedes from Northern Europe c. 9000 BCE
• Climate grew warmer, reindeer migrated north
  wooly mammoth and rhinoceros disappeared.
• MESOLITHIC Transitional period of change
• NEOLITHIC Settled in fixed abodes and
  domesticated animals and plants.
• Beginning of AGRICULTURE
• Oldest communities near the Tigris Euphrates
  rivers in Mesopotamia. part of modern day
  Syria/Iraq
• Neolithic innovations systematic agriculture,
  weaving, metalworking, pottery, and counting
  recording with tokens.

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Neolithic Art Jericho Stone Fortifications

• Inhabited long before Joshuas Biblical battle.
  Jordan River valley.
• Small village as early as 9th millennium BCE.
• Developped around 7th mil. BCE.
• Towns wealth grew along with powerful
  neighbors, thus fortifications were built.
• 2,000 people estimated in 7500 BCE
• Circular Stone Tower 33 ft diameter at base
  with inner stairway.
• Built with simple stone tools.

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Neolithic Art Sculpture at Ain Ghazal

• Neolithic settlement, near Amman, Jordan. 8-6th
  mil.
• Homes of irregularly shaped stones, plastered,
  painted walls and floors.
• Plaster Statues Mid-7th mil. Appears to be a
  ritual burial.
• Plaster over a core of reeds and twine.
• Orange black hair, clothing and some body
  painting. Gender was rarely indicated
• Beginning of monumental sculptures 3 ft.

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Neolithic Art Catal Hoyuk

• City without streets 7-5th mil BCE --
  predetermined plan
• Twelve building levels excavated, thus revealing
  the development of a NEOLITHIC culture based on
  trade in obsidian.
• Narrative Painting Regular appearance of
  human figure.
• Composite view based on what presented the most
  information about the body segment.

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Neolithic Art Catal Hoyuk

• First landscape painting? may have been a map

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Monumental Architecture

• Around 4000 BCE Megaliths standing stones and
  Henges circles of stones were developed in
  Western Europe.
• STONEHENGE2000 BCE
• Terms SarsenLintel,Trilithons

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Monumental Architecture
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Discussion Questions

• In the textbook, emphasis is placed on a
  criterion of intentional manipulation of an
  object in order for it to be classified as art.
  Is this criterion valid? What is your definition
  of art?
• Why do you think that images of man were less
  prevalent in Paleolithic art than those of women?
• What accounts for the lifestyle changes which
  effect the art?
• How is the human figure presented differently in
  the Paleolithic to the Neolithic periods?

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Small Group Discussion

• Describe the differences between the so-called
  Venus of Willendorf (FIG. 1-4) and the relief of
  the Woman from Laussel (Fig. 1-5)?
• When comparing two figures you can begin with
  facts like size, material and technique,
  approximate date, and what is know about where
  they were found.
• Then go on to describe the bodily features of
  each figure and how the similarities and
  differences might be interpreted.