Todays Objective

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Todays Objective

• I will be able to
• explain the
• stylistic conventions of
• Pre-Historic art.

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Pre-Historic Art

• Vocabulary
• Cultural Context
• Timeline Events
• Geography
• Stylistic Conventions
• Art works

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Cultural Context

• Timeline Events
• Geography

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Timeline

• Paleolithic (Old Stone Age)
• 30,000 - 10,000 BC
• Mesolithic (Middle)
• 10,000 - 8000 BC
• Neolithic (New)
• 8000 - 3000 BC 

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Dating Ancient Art Objects

• Radiocarbon dating
• method of measuring the decay rate of carbon
  isotopes in organic matter to provide dates for
  organic materials such as wood and fiber

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Events

• CREATIVE EXPLOSION
• EARLIEST KNOWN ART OBJECTS BEGIN TO BE CREATED
• HUNTING AND GATHERING
• NO ARCHITECTURE OR WRITING

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Stylistic Conventions

• Animals depicted from the side (profile)
• Therianthropes
• Carved or incised free-standing sculptures
  reliefs
• Adapted art to natural resources
• Beginning use of ground line
• Hands Signs
• Twisted Perspective

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ART OBJECTS
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Animal facing left, from the Apollo 11 Cave

• Namibia, Africa
• Circa 23,000 BCE (Paleolithic)
• Charcoal on stone
• Approx. 5 X 4.

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Animal facing left, from the Apollo 11 Cave

• Humankind began in Africa
• Earliest art is portable
• Two questions
• What to depict?
• How to depict it?

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Two Questions

• What to depict?
• Composition The way in which an artist organizes
  forms in an artwork
• Pre-historic painting focused mostly on animals
• How to depict it?
• Medium The material (e.g., marble, bronze,
  fresco, etc.) in which an artist works

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Stylistic Conventions

• Animals Perspective
• Always from the side (profile)
• Tells the most about the animal
• Artists aimed to create convincing images vs.
  original or creative ones

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Human with feline head

• Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany
• Circa 30,000 BCE (Paleolithic)
• Mammoth ivory
• Approx 12 high

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Human with feline head

• Western Europe
• Earliest examples are statuettes of humans
• Therianthrope
• Carved by hand

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Stylistic Conventions

• Therianthropes
• Artistic images that share both human and animal
  features
• Common in art, mythology, folklore, etc.
• Shamans in the process of change or wearing
  masks, clothing, etc.

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Stylistic Conventions

• Carved by hand
• Freestanding sculpture Freestanding figures,
  carved or modeled in three dimensions
• Incise To cut into a surface with a sharp
  instrument also, a method of decoration metal or
  pottery
• Burin a pointed engraving tool

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Venus of Willendorf

• Willendorf, Austria
• Circa 28,000 BCE (Paleolithic)
• Limestone
• Approx. 4 high

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Venus of Willendorf

• Venuses
• NOT meant to be a goddess
• Round like natural stone
• Features Fertility
• Stylistic

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Woman holding a bison horn

• Laussel, France
• Circa 25,00020,000 BCE (Paleolithic)
• Painted limestone
• Approx. 1 ½ high

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Woman holding a bison horn

• Relief sculpture
• Stood in the open air
• Carved AND painted
• Pregnant and holds a bison horn (???)

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Stylistic Conventions

• Relief
• Sculpted figures that project from a background
  of which they are part
• Degrees
• High
• Low (bas)
• Sunken

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Two bison

• Le Tuc dAudoubert, France
• Circa 15,000 BCE (Paleolithic)
• Clay (built on rock)
• Each approx. 2 long

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Two bison

• Some of the largest Paleolithic art
• Clay brought in and modeled on a rock
• Smoothed and incised with tools

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Bison with turned head

• La Madeleine, France
• Circa 12,000 BCE (Paelolithic)
• Reindeer horn
• Approx. 4 long

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Bison with turned head

• Medium
• Incised with great detail (only 4 long)
• Head turned in profile
• Adapted art to natural resources

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Bison

• Altamira cave
• Santander, Spain
• Circa 12,000 BCE (Paleolithic)
• Approx. 5 long

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Bison

• Cave ceiling
• Profile
• floating

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Stylistic Conventions

• Ground Line a painted or carved baseline on
  which figures appear to stand
• There is no ground line in this painting
• Hence it appears to float
• Also, other bison are not in a group
• Does not have a setting or place

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Spotted horses negative hand imprints

• Pech-Merle, France
• Circa 22,000 BCE (Paleolithic)
• Approx. 11 long

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Spotted horses negative hand imprints

• Adapted to the natural resource
• Human hands (negative)
• Signs
• Mural

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Stylistic Conventions

• Mural A wall painting
• Hands
• First form of stenciling
• Blown paint powder
• NEGATIVE
• What does it mean?
• Signatures?

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Stylistic Conventions

• Signs
• Dots
• Checks
• Squares
• Other arrangements of lines
• What does it mean?
• Language?
• Hunting stories/instructions?
• Magic?
• Optical effect (video)?

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Hall of the Bulls

• Lascaux, France
• Circa 15,000 BCE (Paleolithic)
• Largest bull approx. 11 ½ long

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Hall of the Bulls

• Mural, profile, etc.
• Groundline now present
• Outline
• Twisted perspective

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Stylistic Conventions

• Outline vs. Silhouette
• Both present in Lauscaux
• Probably represents different periods
• Twisted perspective A form of representation
  where one part of a figure is shown in profile
  and another part shown from the front

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Wounded man and bison

• Lascaux, France
• Circa 15,000 BCE (Paleolithic)
• Bison approx. 3 8 long

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Wounded man and bison

• Where do we begin??
• Only human figure
• Therianthropic
• How did the bull die?
• NARRATIVE ART

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Cultural Context

• End of the Paleolithic
• Ice recedes
• Animals migrate north or disapear
• Mesolithic
• Europe becomes how it is today
• Climate, geography, biologically
• Neolithic
• Fixed homes, domesticated crops animals
• Creation of settled communities

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Paleolithic vs. Neolithic

• People drew pictures in an attempt to control
  their world
• Nomadic
• Hunter/gatherers

• People actually began to take control of their
  world
• Settled communities
• Agriculture begins

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Catal Huyuk

• Turkey
• Circa 6,000 BCE (Neolithic)
• Approx. 32 acres

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Catal Huyuk

• Fully developed agriculture extensive trading
• Obsidian (volcanic) glass
• No streets!!

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Catal Huyuk

• Unique house construction
• Study
• Protection
• Lots of shrines
• More decorated
• Bull skulls
• Female statuettes

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Deer Hunt

• Catal Huyuk, Turkey
• Circa. 5750 BCE (Neolithic)

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Deer Hunt

• Hunting still important
• Human figures
• Different poses
• Creates setting
• Creates a narrative
• Rhythm
• Twisted perspective
• Surface prepared, painted with brushes

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Landscape with volcano

• Catal Huyuk, Turkey
• Circa 6150 BCE (Neolithic)

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Landscape with volcano

• Worlds first landscape
• A picture showing natural scenery, without
  narrative content
• Visible from Catal Huyuk

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Landscape with volcano

• Found in a shrine
• If it tells a story, then it CANNOT be a
  landscape
• Still, no humans or animals

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Stonehenge

• Salisbury Plain, England
• Circa 2000 BCE
• 24 tall
• 97 wide

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Stonehenge

• Megalithic
• Almost 50 tons
• Not just the stones, but the culture as well
• Built in several phases
• Astronomical observatory
• Solar calendar

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Stylistic Conventions

• Megalithic
• Greek, great stone.
• A large, roughly hewn stone used in the
  construction of monumental prehistoric structures

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Stylistic Conventions

• Monolith
• a column shaft that is all in one piece
• a large, single block or piece of stone used in
  megalithic structures
• Henge circle of monoliths

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Stylistic Conventions

• Lintel
• a beam used to span an opening
• Post and lintel system
• A form of construction where two posts support a
  lintel

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Stylistic Conventions

• Animals depicted from the side (profile)
• Therianthropes
• Carved or incised free-standing sculptures
  reliefs
• Adapted art to natural resources
• Beginning use of ground line
• Hands Signs
• Twisted Perspective
• Megalithic construction

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Homework

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