USAD22 (Week 2): History of Art & Design and Appreciation

What is Art? Art – like beauty, truth, and life itself – is larger than any

single definition.

Art (art), n. 1. the quality, production, or expression of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. (C. L. Barnhart and Jess Stein, eds., The American College Dictionary (New York: Random House, 1963), 70

Art is an experience. When we are so moved by an experience and we want to share it with others, we are where art begins.

Art does not need to be “understood” to be enjoyed.

Early History of Human Age: Stone Age

Bronze Age

Iron Age

Stone Age: Paleolithic

Mesolithic

Neolithic

Part One: Foundations of Art (Before History) The Art of the Hunters

- Prehistoric Europe and West Asia

The Art of Farmers

- Cave Art

- Neolithic Architecture

Women of Willendorf

Subject: Women

Material: Limestone

Discovered: Willendorf, Austria

Dimension: 4 ½ inches high (11.5cm)

Now: Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna

Woman of Willendorf: Woman from Willendorf (Venus of Willendorf)

Paleolithic - C. 30,000 – 25,000 B. C.

Female figure: Breast, belly and the buttocks

Women with no face, tiny curls of hair cover the whole head

Symbolizes fertility, some kind of magic charm

Sex and art would seem to have been closely allied from the very beginning

Man from Brno: Subject: Man

Material: Mammoth Ivory

Discovered: Brno, Czech Republic

Dimension: 8 inches high (20.3cm)

Now: Moravian Museum, Brno

Man from Brno: Found at Brno in the Czech Republic in the grave of a man.

Paleolithic - C. 30,000 – 25,000 B. C.

Earliest discovery of a puppet or doll.

It is thought the man it was buried with could have been a shaman and the puppet may have had an esoteric or occult significance.

Three parts: The head, body and left hand.

The hand is missing due to damage

Woman’s Head of Brassempouy:

Subject: Women

Material: Mammoth ivory

Discovered: Brassempouy, France

Dimension: 1 ½ inches high (3.4cm)

Now: Musée des Antiquités Nationales, St. Germain-en-Laye

Woman’s head from Brassempouy

Woman’s head from Brassempouy (Venus of Brassempouy)

French: la Dame de Brassempoy, “Lady of Brassempouy” Dame à la Capuche, “Lady with the Hood”)

About 25,000 years old.

It is one of the earliest known realistic representations of a human face

Reveals that women dressed their hair in braids

Worn as pendants, perhaps as charms

Mother Goddess of Laussel:

Subject: Women

Material: Stone

Discovered: Laussel, France

Dimension: 18 ½ inches high (47cm)

Now: Musée d’ Aquitaine, Bordeaux

Mother Goddess of Laussel, Dordogne, France

Mother Goddess of Laussel (Venus of Brassempouy)

C. 22,000 – 19,000 BC

Visualization of a pregnant women figure.

The head has been obliterated

The right hand is holding a bison’s horn and the rest hand is resting on the belly, indicating the swelling womb.

Bison’s horn: 13 notches, it is believed that this indicates the phases of the moon.

Cave Paintings: Found in side the cave

Painted using Earth/Mineral Pigments:

Earth Pigments: Found in rocks and soils – Ochers, sienna and umbers

Mineral Pigments: Created by combining and heating naturally occurring elements – Ultramarine (lazuli stone) and spinel (Crystalline pigments of volcanic source) pigments

Bison, Altamira Spain :

Bison, Altamira Spain Cave Paintings: Image of a bison

C. 14,000 – 10,000 BC

Subject: Animal (Bison)

Material: Pigment on limestone rock

Discovered: Altamira (Northern Spain)

Dimension: 6 feet 4 ¾ inches high (1.95 m)

“Great Hall”, Lascaux France

Cave Paintings: Image of aurochs, horses, deer

C. 16,000 – 14,000 BC

Subject: Animal (Bison)

Material: Pigment on limestone rock

Dimension: 16 feet (5 m)

Cave: Religious sanctuary, or temples

Successful hunting

Bison – Modelled Clay, France

Sculpture: Clay (unbaked), on the floor

15,000 BC

Subject: Animal (Bison)

Material: Pigment on limestone rock

Dimension: 25 and 24 inches (63.5 cm and 61cm)

It was not confined to those that were hunted and eaten.

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