Australopitethecus 4,5-5 million BC. (artistic reconstruction by Zdenek Burian )

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Mabel Simmons
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1 PREHISTORY

2 Australopitethecus 4,5-5 million BC (artistic reconstruction by Zdenek Burian )

3 PREHISTORY End of Tertiary and Quaternary (geological periods) Stone Age 2,4 m 4500 BC Paleolithic 2,4 m BC stone tools, Aurignac culture Mesolithic BC last glacial period, Crô-magnon man and his art Neolithic BC polished stone tools, beginnings of agriculuture, pottery Copper Age BC literacy, city-states in Mesopotamia and Egypt

4 Paleolitic horde (artistic reconstruction by Zdenek Burian)

5 Obsidian chipped stone tool

6 Homo erectus ( BC) with wooden spear (Zdenek Burian)

7 Bearhunting (Zdenek Burian)

8 After an ice-age hunt (Zdenek Burian)

9 Ritual ceremony in Montespan cave (Zdenek Burian)

10 Archeological documentation (details) Drachenloch cave Bear-cave (artistic reconstruction by Gyula Istvánfi)

11 montespan bear the animal made of clay (length 1,10 m) 2. and 3. Felidae made of clay, Montespan (length 1,60 m) a, b, c Bisons made of clay, Tuc d Audoubert cave (France) a b c

12 reconstruction of the natural modell after dressed in bearskin complemented with it s head

13 Bisons (Tuc d Audoubert) BC

14 The basic Paleolithic steps of incarnating/depicting : Left parts of the animal (typical: scull, bones of the limbs) Natural modell Large-scale statue made of clay Reclined figure closed profile (developing the technical and intellectual conditions of relief-like depicting) Relief-like depicting Outline/contour (first on clay surface, only side/profile, two-legs figures) rough geometric contour generalized contour detailed contour artistic depicting of the moving animal

15 The basic Paleolithic steps of incarnating/depicting a bear: a natural modell b generalized contour c artistic depicting of the moving animal 1 2 Aurignac-age profile drawings of bison 1 rough geometric contour, La Pena de los Hornos (scratched into clay, length: 0,42 m) 2 generalized contour, Pair-non-Pair (scratched into stone, length: 0,75 m) 3 detailed contour, La Gréze (scratched deep into stone, length: 0,60 m) 3

16 Rough geometric contour, Bison, La Pena de los Hornos (Spain) ~30000 BC

17 generalized contour Pair-non-Pair (France) ~30000 BC detailed contour, Bison La Gréze (France) ~ 30000BC

18 Mammoth in Rouffignac cave ~13000 BC Artist of Magdalenian culture (Zdenek Burian)

19 Rouffignac cave (France)

20 Le Grand Plafond detail, Rouffignac cave, ~13000 BC

21 Le Grand Plafond, detail, Rouffignac cave, ~13000 BC A horse, B bison, C1 goat, C2 mammoth, D rhinoceros

22 Mammoth, Rouffignac, ~13000 BC

23 Horse, Rouffignac, ~13000 BC (length cm)

24 Rhinos, Rouffignac, ~13000 BC

25 Lascaux cave (France) BC

26 Great Hall of the Bulls (Salle des Tauraux) Central holow (Diverticule axiale) Holow of the felines Diverticule des felines Passageway (Passage) Nave (Nef) Apse (Abside) Hole (Puits)

27 Lascaux

28 Lascaux

29 Horse, Lascaux, ~ BC

30 Rhino-hunting (Zdenek Burian)

31 Lascaux

32 Altamira cave (Spain) ~ BC

33 it is practical to use the word art with a limitation. We have to keep in mind that the Paleolithic cave paintings, figural plasties or ornaments are parts of the art, in the way as the incantations, the ritual ceremonies, the funerals or the meditation. The most important attribute of the cave paintings is their open-character. It does not only mean that they don t have any frame as a visual element but the the depicting itself doesn t show it s own boundaries (middle, up-down direction of the activity). V. N. Toporov Theoritically each drawing is independent (compositions with several figures are rare), at most parataxis or iteration can be found in the Paleolithic paintings and texts Drawing an animal on an other one is frequent; palimpsest technique

34 Bisons in Altamira cave, ~ BC

35 Altamira

Steps of depicing a horse in the upper Paleolithic: 1 2 3 1 primitive contour (scratch in Altamira, length: 0,34 m) 2 generalized

Horse-contour on clay surface in Montespan cave with the traces of plastical modellation on it s back, head, tail.

37 Steps of depicing a horse in the upper Paleolithic: primitive contour (scratch in Altamira, length: 0,34 m) 2 generalized contour (scratch, Pair-on-Pair, length ~0,80 m) 3 detailed two-leg contour (scratch, Les Combarelles, length: 0,85 m) 4 Horse-contour on clay surface in Montespan cave with the traces of plastical modellation on it s back, head, tail. (length: 0,68 m) standing four-leg horse, artistic picture (drawing, Niaux, length: 0,70 m) 6 moving horse with two colours ( fresco, Lascaux, length: ~1,50 m)

38 Handprints/hand stencils made with red pigments, discs and bison-profile, Castillo (Spain) The length of the frieze: ~4,30 m Macaroni drawn with fingers on the ceiling of Altamira cave (Spain) length: ~5 m

39 Stone age imagery (character) Thematic Rhytmical, or ornamental Symbolic

40 Castillo, cave (Spain) ~13000 BC

41 Hand stencils Castillo cave BC (CA 014)

42 (CA 065) Castillo cave BC

43 Cueva las manos Argentina ~7000 BC

44 Macaroni (finger fluttings, tectiform) in Rouffignac and Gargas cave

45 Lascaux

Dolni Vestonice Venus, Gravetti culture, ~29-25000 BC The

46 Dolni Vestonice Venus, Gravetti culture, ~ BC The shaman is forming the Dolni Vestonice Venus (Zdenek Burian)

47 Dolni Vestonice Venus, Gravetti culture, ~ BC

48 Venus of Willendorf years old, Gravetti culture

49 Moravian Venus Savignano Venus Grimaldi Venus

50 Laussel Venus ~23000 BC

51 Female figures : a sculpture (Willendorf Venus) b relief (Laussel) c plain scratches (La Marche) Female figures without head: 1-2 Peterfels 3 Pecarna (sculpture, birdlike details) 4-10 La Roche (antropomorf figures with unambigous birdlike details) 11 Hohlenstein 12 Fontalés

52 Signs referring to woman: 1-3 La Ferrassie, scratches 4-5 Mezin, scratches Birds Mezin (Ukraine) (heights of the figures ~6 cm) the little bird-figures in Mezin shows us the complicated, bounded bird-woman idea in an objectified way (A. D. Sztoljar)

53 Signs: male and female symbols, upper Paleolithic

It gives us the possibility to find the semantical function of the third figure(s).

54 Composition in El Pindal cave (length: 0,90 m) Composition in Lascaux cave (length: 1,40 m) The most important element wich organizes both compositions is that they define the act of the depicting. It gives us the possibility to find the semantical function of the third figure(s). (In Lascaux the bird wich stands on a stick, in El Pindal, the six sticks/lines) They are connecting to each other in an associative way. (A. D. Sztoljar)

55 Linear Pottery Culture, stockholder s and ploughman s village, ~7000 BC (Zdenek Burian)

56 Collecting honey, La arana cave (Spain) ~6000 BC

57 Motives from Almaden cave (Spain) ~6000 BC stylized and dinamic figures turn slowly to abstract signs

58 Edifices, end of Neolithic 1. menhir (Sardinia), dolmen (Ireland), 3. (Mallorca), 4. nouragh (Sardinia)

59 Pottery firing Bronze Age (Zdenek Burian)

60 Painted cup, Susa, Iran 4000 BC Venus, Halaf culture, ~5000 BC

61 Early Nagada culture, ~4000 BC Female idols, Nagada I. ~3800 BC, 10,6 and 12 cm

62 Ceramics, Ciempozuelos, ~3000 BC / In the Middle East mostly the painted, in the West the scratched ceramics are specific in Copper age, spiral ornamentation became popular in Bronze age

Prehistoric Art. Key Notions. -Hand, negative/positive -In the round (ronde-bosse) -Low-relief (bas-relief) -Parietal -Twisted perspective -Venus

Prehistoric Art. Key Notions. -Hand, negative/positive -In the round (ronde-bosse) -Low-relief (bas-relief) -Parietal -Twisted perspective -Venus Key Notions -Hand, negative/positive -In the round (ronde-bosse) -Low-relief (bas-relief) -Parietal -Twisted perspective -Venus Prehistoric Art c. 42 000-8000 BCE - Upper Paleolithic 30 000 BCE c. 22 000