Paleolithic Art in Western Europe and Africa

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• Explore why art must be intentional and representational in

order to be called art.

• Explore why subject matter was depicted a particular way

(stylistic innovation) during the Paleolithic period.

• Describe the roles of animals and human figures in Paleolithic

art.

Paleolithic Art in Western Europe and Africa

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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.

YEARS 40,000 BCE - 2300 BCE

PALEOLITHICANDNEOLITHIC ART

Map of prehistoric Europe and the ancient Mediterranean

Hand stencilsfromEl Castillo Cavehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdlQxISNpwYSTONE AGE ART INTRODUCTION

Hand stencils, from El Castillo Cave, Cantabria,

Spain, c. 37,300 BCE

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Second Edition, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, and M. Kathryn Shields

PART 3

HISTORY AND CONTEXT

Chapter 3.1 The Prehistoric and Ancient Mediterranean

El Castillo Cave, Spain

Earliest paintings in the world: at least

40,000 years old

Made by blowing pigment (red ocher)

through a reed or from the hand, and

using hand as a stencil

Same method was used later to create

images of animals they hunted, such as

bison

Left wall of the Hall of the Bulls in the cave at Lascaux, France, ca.

16,000-14,000 BCE.

Largest bull 11’ 6” long.

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Figure 1-4 Nude woman

(Venus of Willendorf), from Willendorf,

Austria, ca. 28,000–

25,000 BCE. Limestone,

4 1/4” high.

Naturhistorisches

Museum, Vienna.

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Figure 1-5 Woman holding a

bison horn, from Laussel,

France, ca. 25,000–20,000

BCE. Painted limestone,

approx. 1’ 6” high. Musée

d’Aquitaine, Bordeaux.

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Second Edition, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, and M. Kathryn Shields

PART 3

HISTORY AND CONTEXT

Chapter 3.1 The Prehistoric and Ancient Mediterranean

Venus of Laussel

“Fertility figure”: most common

type of prehistoric art

Woman holds a horn-shaped

object with 13 short carved lines

Scholars have differing opinions:

ritual for hunting, musical

instrument, phallic symbol, fertility

Animals in ArtMammoth from Vogelherd Cave, Germany c.25,000 BC

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Figure 1-3 Human

with feline (lion?)

head, from

Hohlenstein-Stadel,

Germany, ca. 40,000-

35,000 BCE. Wooly

mammoth ivory, 11

5/8” high. Ulmer

Museum, Ulm. ‘’

Mostly shown in profile to

capture the essence of the

animal. In paintings, Gave

the most information

about the animal.

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Figure 1-6 Two bison, reliefs in cave at Le Tuc d’Audoubert, France, ca. 15,000–10,000 BCE. Clay, each 2’long.

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Bison licking its flank, fragmentary spearthrower, from La Madeleine, France, ca. 12,000 BCE.

Reindeer horn, 4” long.

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Bison, detail of a painted ceiling

in the cave at Altamira, Spain,

ca. 13,000–11,000 BCE. Each

bison 5’2 ½” long.

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Spotted horses and negative hand imprints, wall painting in the cave at Pech-Merle,

France, ca. 22,000 BCE. 11’ 2” long.

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“Chinese horse,” detail of the left wall in the Axial Gallery of the cave at Lascaux, France, ca. 15,000–13,000 BCE. Horse, 4’11” long.

Rhinoceros, wounded man, and disemboweled bison, painting in the

well of the cave at Lascaux, France ca. 16,000 – 14,000 BCE. Bison 3’4 ½ ” long. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYhmq3vo7aY

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Aurochs, horses, and rhinoceroses, wall painting in Chauvet Cave, Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, France, ca. 30,000–28,000 or ca. 15,000–13,000 BCE. Right rhinoceros 3’ 4” long.

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Neolithic Art

Compare and contrast artistic development as a result of

differences between the Paleolithic and Neolithic society

and environment.

The first “communities” started in the Turkey

Mesopotamian and Middle Eastern areas

Domesticated animals, farming, fixed dwelling.

The arts of weaving, pottery, metalworking

A type of currency based system is developing

Most buried their dead in/under their homes

Still rendering the “CONCEPT” or essence of humans or

animals

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Figure 1-14 Human figure, from Ain

Ghazal, Jordan, ca. 6750–6250 BCE. Plaster,

painted and inlaid with bitumen, 3’ 5 3/8”high. Louvre, Paris.

MORE COMPLEX BURIAL RITES WERE BEING PERFORMED

WITH VOTIVES AND TRINKETS SPECIFIC TO THE DEAD BURIED

WITH THEM. SOME HEADS HAVE BEEN COVERED WITH CLAY

AND DECORATED USED IN RITUALS. DEAD WERE BOUND

TIGHTLY THEN ENTOMBED IN THE HOME.

THESE HEADS HAVE BEEN FOUND IN OTHER REGIONS OF THE

WORLD AT THIS TIME A FORM OF ANCESTOR WORSHIP

Restored view of a section of Level VI, Çatal Höyük, Turkey, ca. 6000–5900

BCE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2xbeGgNKos

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Seated Goddess of Catal

Hoyuk 6000 BCE

Clay 16.5 cm

Found in a grain storage

vessel. She is flanked by

two feline animals,

believed to be leopards.

Fertility figure and mother

goddess of both birth and

crops. Many more female

deities are found at this

time and place than male

counterparts.

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Bulls Heads found at Catal Hoyuk 5000-7000 BCE Found in many homes plastered into the walls. Only wild animals were honored

this way. Bulls are a recurring theme in art of this period from all over the world.

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Deer hunt, detail of a wall painting from Level III, Çatal Höyük, Turkey, ca. 5750 BCE. Museum of

Anatolian Civilization, Ankara.

Landscape with volcano eruption, wall painting

Landscape with volcano eruption, detail of watercolor copy of a wall painting from Level VII, Çatalhöyük, Turkey, c. 6150 BCE. Wall painting: Ankara Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Turkey. Watercolor copy: Private collection

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Second Edition, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, and M. Kathryn Shields

PART 3

HISTORY AND CONTEXT

Chapter 3.1 The Prehistoric and Ancient Mediterranean

Landscape with volcano eruption, wall painting

From Çatalhöyük, Turkey

Re-creates the design of the town

Rectangular houses are closely aligned

A volcano in the background appears to be

erupting

World’s first known landscape image-6100

BCE.

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Monumental Architecture

• Examine megaliths and henges along with the Western

European cultures that developed monumental architecture.

• Discover hypotheses about the purposes of such structures.

• Define architectural support techniques such as the corbelled

vault and post-and-lintel system and identify the usage of these

techniques in Neolithic architectural structures.

• Megalith a large stone that forms a prehistoric

monument or part of one (e.g., a stone circle

or chamber tomb). A Henge is a prehistoric

circular monument consisting of a circle of

stone or wooden uprights.

• The IDEA of COMMUNAL MONUMENT

Post-and-lintel construction

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Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, England, ca. 2550–1600 BCE. Circle is 97' in

diameter The smaller Bluestones were transported from far away. 1000 henges

were constructed. Trilathons are the three rock gated-like structures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0CaumQmOCo

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A corbel arch is constructed by offsetting successive courses of stone (or brick) at the

starting of the walls so that they project towards the archway's center from each supporting

side, until the courses meet at the apex of the archway (often, the last gap is bridged with a

flat stone). Although an improvement in load-bearing efficiency over the post and

lintel design, corbeled arches are not entirely self-supporting structures Corbel arches

and vaults require significantly thickened walls and a counterpoint of another stone or fill

to counteract the effects of gravity and weight, which otherwise would tend to collapse

each side of the archway inwards.

97 Kerbstones, 450 megalith stones, covered in white quartz,

Newgrange Ireland (Bru na Boinne) 3200 BCE

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Newgrange Ireland 3000 BCE-First corbel system

documented

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6XAFJ_FdOA