The Birth Of Art

Africa, Europe, & The Near EastIn the Stone Age

35,000 BC – 2000 BC

The Birth Of Art

Cro-Magnon orEuropean Early Modern Humans (EEMH

Les Eyzies, in France

Paleolithic(3,000,000 -11,000)

"Old Stone Age," and begins with the first use of stone tools

Mesolithic( 10,000-5,000)

"Middle Stone Age" (from the Greek "mesos," "middle," and "lithos," "stone") was the period in the development of

human technology

Neolithic(4,000-3,200)

"New Stone Age." This was a period of primitive technological and social development, toward the end of the "Stone Age."

studying positiondirection and size of the figures organization of the composition painting techniquedistribution of the color planes research of the image center

Iconographic method of analysisConsidering a work of art in terms of the life of the person

who made it creates one kind of historical context. There are many other ways to relate a work to history, though, involving

different elements of the period from which it came.

Art?Waterworn pebble resembling a human face, from Makapansgat, South Africa, c. 3,000,000 BC. Reddish-brown jasperite.

*Technically not considered an "artwork," since it was not modified by human intervention beyond selection, but interesting nonetheless!

The world's oldest example of abstract art, dating back more than 70,000 years, has been

found in a cave in South Africa.

The abstract art was found on two pieces of ochre in a cave on the southern Cape shore of

the Indian Ocean.

The seven slabs of rock with traces of animal figures that were found in the Apollo 11 Cave in the Huns

Mountains of southwestern Namibia have been dated with unusual precision for ancient rock art.

Animal facing left,Namibia Cave 23,000 BC

The Venus of Hohleis an Upper Paleolithic Venus figurine found in 2008 near Schelklingen, Germany.

It is dated to between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago at the very beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, which is associated with the assumed earliest presence of Homo sapiens in Europe (Cro-Magnon).

It is the oldest undisputed example of Upper Paleolithic art and figurative prehistoric art in general.

Venus of HohleFels

Human with Feline HeadPaleolithic Art

Lion man of the HohlensteinStadelSwabian Alps, Germany.

The Venus of DolníVěstonice is a Venus figurine.

A ceramic statuette of a nude female figure dated to 29,000–25,000 BC

Found at a Paleolithic site in the Moravian basin south of Brno, Germany.

Venus of DolníVěstonice

Venus of Lespugue(c.23,000 BCE)The Venus of Lespugue is a statuette of a nude female figure of the Gravettian, dated to between 26,000 and 24,000 years ago.

It was discovered in 1922 in the Rideaux cave of Lespugue in the foothills of the Pyrenees by René de Saint-Périer (1877-1950)

Approximately 6 inches tall, it is carved from tusk ivory, and was damaged during excavation.

Venus of WillendorfThe Venus of Willendorf, also known as the Woman of Willendorf, is an 11 cm (4.3 in) high statuette of a female figure

It was discovered in 1908 by archaeologist Josef Szombathy at a paleolithic site near Willendorf, a village in Lower Austria near the city of Krems.

It is carved from an oolitic limestone that is not local to the area, and tinted with red ochre.

In the Round

Venus of Laussel(c.23,000 - 20,000 BCE)

The Venus of Laussel is a Venus figurine, a 1.5 foot high limestone bas-relief of a nude female figure, painted with red ochre.

The figure holds a wisent horn, or possibly a cornucopia, in one hand, which has 13 notches.

This may symbolize the number of moons or the number of menstrual cycles in one year.

Venus of Brassempouy(c.23,000 BCE)Mammoth Ivory Carvin of Head & Face of Female:

First Ever Portrait Art

The Venus of Brassempouy, meaning "Lady of Brassempouy", is a fragmentary ivory figurine from the Upper Palaeolithic.

It was discovered in a cave at Brassempouy, France in 1892.

About 25,000 years old, it is one of the earliest known realistic representations of a human face and hairstyle.

Lespugue

Laussel

HohleFels

Willendorf

DolníVěstonice

Reclining woman, rock-cut relief,La Magdelaine cave, Tarn, France,

ca. 12,000 B.C. APPROX. HALF LIFE-SIZE.Rock-cut relief of a reclining nude woman.

Leg

Pubic Mound

Head

Bison with turned head, from La Madeleine, Dordogne, France, 12,000 B.C.

A relief carving of a bison on a reindeer antler, approx. 4" long.

This masterful bison, skillfully cut by means of flint tools, owes its compact, expressive outline in part to the contours of the palm-shaped piece of reindeer antler from which it was carved.

Two bison, reliefs in cave atLe Tucd'Audoubert, Ariège, France,

ca. 15,000-10,000 B.C. CLAY, EACH APPROX. 2' LONG.Two bison modeled in clay.

SpottedHorses andNegativeHand Imprints,

Pech-Merle, Lot, France, ca. 25,000 B.C. APPROX. 11' 2" LONG

Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux,Dordogne, France, (c.17,000 BCE)

Sections have been identified in the cave; the Great Hall of the Bulls, the Lateral Passage, the Shaft of the Dead Man, the Chamber of Engravings, the Painted Gallery, and the Chamber of Felines.

The cave contains nearly 2,000 figures, which can be grouped into three main categories - animals, human figures and abstract signs.

Most of the major images have been painted onto the walls using mineral pigments although some designs have also been incised into the stone.

Lascaux Caves, SW France

Ceiling LascauxThe Painted Gallery “aka”

"Sistine Chapel of Prehistory."

Dead Man, Lascaux

Black Stag, Lascaux

Chinese horse - Lascaux

Falling cow - Lascaux

Great black bull - Lascaux

The four black bulls, or aurochs, are the dominant figures among the 36 animals represented here.

One of the bulls is 17 feet long — the largest animal discovered so far in cave art.

Bison, Altamira Cave, Santander Spain, 12,000-11,000 BC, First Discovered site 1879

Ocher -mineral oxides of iron occurring in yellow, brown, or red

Hand, Vallon Pont d`Arc, France

Horse , Vallon Pont d`Arc , France

War - Tassili

Hunting - Tassilin'Ajjer

Chariot - rock paintings, Tassilin'Ajjer

Neolithic is a measured progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes

Taking control of environment.Development of human technology, The rise of farming, "Neolithic

Revolution"Use of wild and domestic crops and the

use of domesticated animals.Originated government, law, formal

religion, writing, weaving, metal work and pottery

Neolithic Societies

Jericho may be man's oldest permanent city. Amazingly sophisticated despite the fact that it

was created with stone tools. Self-contained with it's own well and grain silos. Mud brick houses built on oval stone foundations

covered about ten acres. A rock-cut ditch and a 5 foot thick , 13 ft high

stone wall surrounded a population of about 2000 people.

encompassed a 28 foot stone tower, 33 feet wide at the base and contained a spiral staircase inside.

Begins man's long history of monumental stone architecture.

Jericho

Collapse   of    the   Wall   Archaeological excavations indicate

portions of the walls of the fortified city have collapsed outwards. The fallen mud bricks and the stone rubble had formed ramps for the invading Israelites to enter the city (Josh. 6:20).

Human Skull with restores features, Jericho 7000-6000 bc

ÇatalhöyükNeolithic town in Anatolia (Turkey).

A large settlement, said to have 3000-8000 inhabitants at its peak, it lasted some 1200 years

CatalHoyuk

Wall painting found in a home in the city of CatalHoyuk.

No streets or doors.

All buildings are connected and entered from the roof.

Famous for the wall paintings and animal skulls found there.

This particular painting is thought to be the first-ever landscape.

6150 BC

Hasan Dag Mountain

Deer Hunt.  wall painting from Catal Huyuk, Turkey dates 5750 bc.

•Pictoral Narrative•Organized hunting party•Human action theme vs. cave paintings•Rythmic repition of basic shapes•Bows, arrows, garments•Heads have defined noses, mouths, chins and hair

Seated goddess on a throne flanked by two lionesses

A striking feature of Çatalhöyük are its female figurines.

Carved and molded from clay, represented a female deity giving birth.

Stone Henge

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about 2.0 miles west of Amesbury and 8 miles north of Salisbury.

Stonehenge is composed of 153 colossal stones (Megaliths)in a circular setting known as a Cromlech or Henge

It is at the center of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds.

2008, hundreds of human remains were excavated, mostly male, burned & buried, dated across 1,000 years

Today, Stonehenge is a broken stone ring 30 meters in diameter made of hewn blocks that mass between 25 and 50 tons each.

The blocks were transported from Marlborough Downs, some 20 miles north of the Stonehenge site.

Outer circle with five trilithons (Post & Lintel) Bluestones form a horse shoe Heel Stone marks midsummer solstice Archaeologists have partially reconstructed

some 16 of them, and 6 are now re-capped with their lintels.

Holy Site or Scientific Observatory? Ceremonial complex or temple of the dead?

There is also an inner, horeshoe-shaped arrangement of 5 lintel-capped pairs called "trilithons". The whole arrangement is surrounded by a low earthwork embankment 100m in diameter with only one gap, to the northeast, in which direction lies another boulder known as the "heel stone".

Archaeologists have discovered evidence of what they believe was a second Stonehenge located a little more than a mile away from the world-famous prehistoric monument.

The new find on the west bank of the river Avon has been called "Bluestonehenge", after the colour of the 25 Welsh stones of which it was once made up.

Bluehenge