Minor

• Paleolithic Period


  Ancient times (30,000 BCE - 3,500 BCE), "Paleo" meaning old and "lithic" meaning "stone"
• Paleolithic art


  • Crude tools of man became more shaped, thinner and sharper - which became conducive to the development of art
  • After the ice age ended, man became wholly human - imagination, concepts of identity and meaning came along
  • The stone man achieved the invention of "representation" - probably the most important contribution of prehistoric man
• Upper / Early Paleolithic


  Aka: Later Stone Age
• Upper / Early Paleolithic art

  • Poses captured were fleeting or indicating movement - not stiff or stationary
  • Representation of animals was descriptive rather than optical
  • Twisted perspective - horns, eyes and hooves are shown as seen from the front, yet heads and bodies are rendered in profile
• Twisted Perspective

  Horns, eyes and hooves are shown as seen from the front, yet heads and bodies are rendered in profile
• Paleolithic cave art


  • First cave art in Altamira Cave in northern Spain
  • The caves at Lascaux, Dordogne, France
• Venus of Willendorf

  • From Willendorf, Austria, ca. 28,000 - 25,000 BCE, Limestone, 41-4" high, Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna
• Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux Cave


  • Left wall, ca. 16,000 - 14,000 BCE, Largest bull 11' 6" long
• Two bison, Le Tuc d'Audoubert Cave


  • Reliefs, ca. 15,000 - 10,000 BCE, Clay, right bison 2' 7-8" long
• Animals are far more common than humans in Old Stone Age art
• In both relief sculpture and painting, animals always appear in profile, the only view completely informative about the animals' shape</b>
• Spotted horses and negative hand imprints, Pech-Merle Cave


  • Wall painting, ca. 23,000 - 22,000 BCE, 11' 2" long
• Many Paleolithic paintings include abstract signs and handprints
• Middle / Mesolithic


  "meso" meaning middle
• Middle / Mesolithic art

  • Hunters left their caves to make rock shelters, semi-nomadic existence
  • They did not have permanent shelters but were able to make dwellings of light wooden materials or in rock shelters
  • Man became gatherers as well as hunters
  • Change in art forms: human form appeared and usually in groups
• Characteristics of Middle / Mesolithic art

  • Human themes - Could have been pictorial records of memorable events
  • Styles became more abstract; true - more symbol than picture (symbolic rather than pictorial) = in the East this culminated in the invention of writing
• Middle / Mesolithic art

  • Rock shelter paintings
  • Microliths
  • Petroglyphs
• Microliths


  "small stones", small blades of various shapes; made of stone; used in hunting; under 2 inches in length, also used as tools and ornamentation
• Petroglyph


  Images on rock made by carving into the rock and exposing a lighter color underneath
• Neolithic


  New stone age
• Neolithic period


  • Man learned to actually control his environment and settled into fixed abodes, domesticated animals and started planting
  • Changed from hunter to herdsman/farmer
  • Built communities, villages with cultivated fields
• Neolithic human figure, Ain Ghazal


  • From Ain Ghazal, Jordan, ca. 6750 - 6250 BCE, Plaster, painted and inlaid with cowrie shell and bitumen, 3' 5-3/8" high, Musée du Louvre, Paris
• Megalith


  "great stones"
• Stonehenge


  • Aerial view, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England, ca. 2550 - 1600 BCE, One of the earliest examples of monumental architecture in Neolithic Europe, the circle of 24-foot-tall trilithons probably functioned as an astronomical observatory and solar calendar
• The Nile, The Pharaohs, The Gods, Life After Death are key aspects of ancient Egyptian culture
• Egyptian gods


  • Horus, Seth, Thoth, Anubis, Isis, Ra, Osiris
• Egyptian paintings


  • The image was frequently identified by inscription, resemblance with the depicted was not necessary, infirmities and old age are rarely shown
  • Most images are glowing examples of prosperity, youth, and good health
  • The head of the character was always drawn in profile, while the body is seen from the front ("Frontalism")
  • Every figure in paintings either stands or sits with a formal, stiff, and rigid posture
  • Slaves and animals were painted more natural and relaxed, and with a smaller scale in drawings to show their limited importance
  • There was no attempt at linear perspective
  • Artists made colors from raw materials around them and therefore worked in a limited number of shades
  • Color was applied in flat tones - strict rules often applied to the use of a particular color for particular purpose
  • There were no individual artists with originality - Imitation and strict adherence to rules required
• Mage


  • Frequently identified by inscription
  • Resemblance with the depicted was not necessary
  • Infirmities and old age are rarely shown
  • Most images are glowing examples of prosperity, youth, and good health
• Head of the character

  • Always drawn in profile
  • Body is seen from the front
• Figures in paintings


  • Either stand or sit with a formal, stiff, and rigid posture
  • Stance of the body is severe, but the faces are calm and serene
• Slaves and animals


  • Painted more natural and relaxed
  • Smaller scale in drawings to show their limited importance
• There was no attempt at linear perspective
• Artists


  • Made colors from raw materials around them
  • Worked in a limited number of shades
  • Applied color in flat tones
  • Strict rules often applied to the use of a particular color for a particular purpose
  • No individual artists with originality
  • Imitation and strict adherence to rules required
• Ti watching a hippopotamus hunt, relief in the mastaba of Ti, Saqqara, Egypt, Fifth Dynasty, ca. 2450 – 2350 bce
• Successful hunt


  Metaphor for triumph over evil
• Ti's size


  • Reflects his high rank
• Menkaure and Khamerernebty(?), from Gizeh, Egypt, Fourth Dynasty, ca. 2490 – 2472 bce
• Egyptian statues


  • Designed as substitute homes for the ka
  • Frozen gestures signify the man and woman are husband and wife
• Canopic jars


  • Four in number, each for the safekeeping of particular human organs
  • No jar for the heart as it was believed to be the seat of the soul and so it was left inside the body
• Amenhotep III Representation at Karnak Temple Complex, Luxor