PREHISTORY
Australopitethecus 4,5-5 million BC (artistic reconstruction by Zdenek Burian )
PREHISTORY End of Tertiary and Quaternary (geological periods) Stone Age 2,4 m 4500 BC Paleolithic 2,4 m 10-15000 BC stone tools, Aurignac culture Mesolithic 15-10000 7-9000 BC last glacial period, Crô-magnon man and his art Neolithic 7-9000 4500 BC polished stone tools, beginnings of agriculuture, pottery Copper Age 4500 3300 BC literacy, city-states in Mesopotamia and Egypt
Paleolitic horde (artistic reconstruction by Zdenek Burian)
Obsidian chipped stone tool
Homo erectus (800000-100000 BC) with wooden spear (Zdenek Burian)
Bearhunting (Zdenek Burian)
After an ice-age hunt (Zdenek Burian)
Ritual ceremony in Montespan cave (Zdenek Burian)
Archeological documentation (details) Drachenloch cave Bear-cave (artistic reconstruction by Gyula Istvánfi)
1 2 3 1. 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
reconstruction of the natural modell after dressed in bearskin complemented with it s head
Bisons (Tuc d Audoubert) 15 000-10 000 BC
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
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
Rough geometric contour, Bison, La Pena de los Hornos (Spain) ~30000 BC
generalized contour Pair-non-Pair (France) ~30000 BC detailed contour, Bison La Gréze (France) ~ 30000BC
Mammoth in Rouffignac cave ~13000 BC Artist of Magdalenian culture (Zdenek Burian)
Rouffignac cave (France)
Le Grand Plafond detail, Rouffignac cave, ~13000 BC
Le Grand Plafond, detail, Rouffignac cave, ~13000 BC A horse, B bison, C1 goat, C2 mammoth, D rhinoceros
Mammoth, Rouffignac, ~13000 BC
Horse, Rouffignac, ~13000 BC (length 60-70 cm)
Rhinos, Rouffignac, ~13000 BC
Lascaux cave (France) 15000-10000 BC
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)
Lascaux
Lascaux
Horse, Lascaux, ~15 000-10 000 BC
Rhino-hunting (Zdenek Burian)
Lascaux
Altamira cave (Spain) ~16500-14000 BC
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
Bisons in Altamira cave, ~16500-14000 BC
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 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) 4 5 6 5 standing four-leg horse, artistic picture (drawing, Niaux, length: 0,70 m) 6 moving horse with two colours ( fresco, Lascaux, length: ~1,50 m)
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
Stone age imagery (character) Thematic Rhytmical, or ornamental Symbolic
Castillo, cave (Spain) ~13000 BC
Hand stencils Castillo cave 130000 BC (CA 014)
(CA 065) Castillo cave 130000 BC
Cueva las manos Argentina ~7000 BC
Macaroni (finger fluttings, tectiform) in Rouffignac and Gargas cave
Lascaux
Dolni Vestonice Venus, Gravetti culture, ~29-25000 BC The shaman is forming the Dolni Vestonice Venus (Zdenek Burian)
Dolni Vestonice Venus, Gravetti culture, ~29-25000 BC
Venus of Willendorf 22-24000 years old, Gravetti culture
Moravian Venus Savignano Venus Grimaldi Venus
Laussel Venus ~23000 BC
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
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)
Signs: male and female symbols, upper Paleolithic
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)
Linear Pottery Culture, stockholder s and ploughman s village, ~7000 BC (Zdenek Burian)
Collecting honey, La arana cave (Spain) ~6000 BC
Motives from Almaden cave (Spain) ~6000 BC stylized and dinamic figures turn slowly to abstract signs
1 2 3 4 Edifices, end of Neolithic 1. menhir (Sardinia), dolmen (Ireland), 3. (Mallorca), 4. nouragh (Sardinia)
Pottery firing Bronze Age (Zdenek Burian)
Painted cup, Susa, Iran 4000 BC Venus, Halaf culture, ~5000 BC
Early Nagada culture, ~4000 BC Female idols, Nagada I. ~3800 BC, 10,6 and 12 cm
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