Lecture 1 Course Overview and Paleolithic Art

1. History of Art I

2. Course overview
• Paleolithic and Neolithic art
• Art of the Ancient Near East.
• Egyptian Art.
• Aegean Art: Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean.
• Ancient Greek Art: Geometric, Orientalizing, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic.
• Etruscan Art.
• Roman Art: Republican and Imperial.
• Early Christian, Byzantine Art.
• Medieval Art in Europe.

3. Human with feline head, from
Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany, ca.
40,000–35,000 BCE. Mammoth ivory.
Ulmer Museum, Ulm.
Head of an Akkadian ruler, from the Temple
of Ishtar, Nineveh
(modern Kuyunjik), Iraq, ca. 2250–2200
BCE. National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad.
Facade of the temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel, Egypt, 19th
Dynasty, ca. 1290–1224 BCE. Sandstone.

4. Bull-leaping, from the palace, Knossos (Crete), Greece, ca. 1500 BCE. Fresco.
Archaeological
Museum, Iraklion.
Lysippos, Weary Herakles (Farnese
Hercules). Roman statue
from the Baths of Caracalla, Rome,
Italy, signed by
Glykon of Athens, based on a
bronze statue of ca. 320 BCE.
Marble. Museo Archeologico
Nazionale, Naples.

5. Chimera of Arezzo, from Arezzo, Italy, first half of fourth century
BCE. Bronze. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Florence.
Portrait of Augustus as
imperator (general),
from Primaporta, Italy,
early-first-century CE
copy of a bronze
original of ca. 20 BCE.
Marble. Musei
Vaticani, Rome.

6. Justinian procession. Mosaic, 547 (San Vitale, Ravenna)
Lamentation, wall painting, Saint Pantaleimon, Nerezi, N. Macedonia, 1164.

7. Gislebertus, Last Judgment, west tympanum of Saint-Lazare, Autun,
France, ca. 1120–1135.
Jean d’Orbais, Jean le Loup, Gaucher de Reims, and
Bernard de Soissons, west facade of Reims Cathedral,
Reims, France, ca. 1211–1290.

8. The Paleolithic Era
• The onset of the Paleolithic era is marked by the earliest recorded use of stone tools (3,3 million years ago) and ends
approximately 12,000 BCE.
• According to a consensus shared among most historians, the earliest findings of human artistic activity date back to
30,000 BCE.
• The creative output of humans in the following millennia underline the passage from the recognition of human and
animal forms to their representation.

9. Animal facing left, from the Apollo 11 Cave, Namibia, ca. 23,000 BCE.
Charcoal on stone, 5 41–4 . State Museum of Namibia,Windhoek.
The artistic output of the Paleolithic Period demonstrates a
prevalence of animal subject matter, almost universally painted in
strict profile.
The strict profile allows the fullest possible representation of the
animal’s body, while frontal views would conceal parts of it.

10. Blombos Cave Rock Art (70,000 BCE), Blombos Private Nature Reserve,
South Africa
Diepkloof Eggshell Engravings (c.60,000 BCE), South Africa

11. Human with feline head, from Hohlenstein-
Stadel, Germany, ca. 40,000–35,000 BCE.
Mammoth ivory, 11 5/8’’ high. Ulmer Museum,
Ulm.
The significance of the representation is unclear.
a) Human or animal?
b) Real or mythological?
c) Male of female?

12. Nude woman (Venus of Willendorf ), from
Willendorf, Austria,
ca. 28,000–25,000 BCE. Limestone, 4 ¼’’ high.
Naturhistorisches
Museum,Vienna.

13. Nude woman (Venus of Willendorf ), from Willendorf,
Austria,
ca. 28,000–25,000 BCE. Limestone, 41–4 high.
Naturhistorisches
Museum,Vienna.
The Ludovisi Aphrodite of Cnidos, Roman
copy of the 2nd century CE (original by
Praxiteles, 4th century BCE). Rome, Roman
National Museum, Palazzo Altemps.
Alexandros of Antioch, Venus de
Milo, 150-125 BCE. Louvre, Paris.

14. Nude woman (Venus of Willendorf ), from
Willendorf, Austria,
ca. 28,000–25,000 BCE. Limestone, 41–4 high.
Naturhistorisches
Museum,Vienna.
The silhouette is, at least in part, determined by the shape of the stone used
as medium.
The exaggerated anatomical aspects of the figure suggest that naturalism was
not the goal of the carver.
The crimped pattern on the figure’s head can either imply hair or a hat (made
of plant fibers).

15. Sculpture in the round

16. Donatello, David, 1440s, bronze. Bargello
National Museum, Florence.
The Discobolus, Roman marble copy of 2nd century
CE (original bronze by Myron, 460-450 BCE). The
British Museum, London.
Constantin Brâncuși, Mlle Pogany, 1913, bronze. The
Museum of Modern Art, New York.

17. Relief Sculpture
Woman holding a bison horn, from Laussel, France, ca. 25,000–
20,000 BCE. Painted limestone, 1' 6'' high. Musée d’Aquitaine, Bordeaux.

18. Paul Gauguin, Woman with Mango Fruits, ca. 1889 Painted oak,
11 3/4 x 19 1/4 in. (30 x 49 cm) Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek,
Copenhagen
Relief from the ruins of the temple of Angkor Wat in
Siem Reap, Cambodia, 1116 -1150.
Marble metope from the Parthenon
(South metope XXVII), 447-438 BCE.
The British Museum, London.

19. Woman holding a bison horn, from Laussel, France, ca. 25,000–
20,000 BCE. Painted limestone, 1' 6'' high. Musée d’Aquitaine, Bordeaux.
This piece was part of a great stone block that measured about 140 cubic
feet. The carved block stood in the open air in front of a Paleolithic rock
shelter.

20. Two bison, reliefs in a cave at Le Tuc d’Audoubert, France, ca. 15,000–10,000 BCE.
Clay, each 2’ long.
The bison are modelled in clay and are supported by a
central rock.
The clay was moulded by hand and smoothed over with
the use of a tool (to give a “finished” look).
The cracks on their bodies are the result of clay drying up.

21. Bison with turned head, fragmentary spearthrower, from
La Madeleine, France, ca. 12,000 BCE. Reindeer horn, 4’’ long.
Fragment of a spearthrower or atlatl (tool used to achieve
greater velocity when throwing a spear).
The piece was carved from reindeer antler.

22. Bison with turned head, fragmentary spearthrower, from
La Madeleine, France, ca. 12,000 BCE. Reindeer horn, 4’’ long.
Human with feline head, from Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany, ca. 30,000–28,000 BCE.
Mammoth ivory, 115–8 high. Ulmer Museum, Ulm.

23. Bison with turned head, fragmentary spearthrower, from
La Madeleine, France, ca. 12,000 BCE. Reindeer horn, 4’’ long.
The features of the bison are carved with impressive
detail.
The bison’s head is turned 180 degrees, maintaining thus
its rendering in strict profile.

24. Bison with turned head, fragmentary spearthrower, from
La Madeleine, France, ca. 12,000 BCE. Reindeer horn, 4’’ long.
Animal facing left, from the Apollo 11 Cave,Namibia, ca. 23,000 BCE.
Charcoal on stone, 5 41–4 . State Museum of Namibia,Windhoek.

25. Bison, detail of a painted ceiling in the cave at
Altamira, Spain,
ca. 12,000–11,000 BCE. Each bison 5’ long.
Paleolithic Cave Painting
More than 200 sites decorated with paleolothic cave paintings have
been discovered in Spain and France.
The paintings tend to be concentrated deep inside caverns and
removed from the spaces inhabited by humans.
Cave painters used chunks of charcoal, red and yellow ochres for
drawing. For painting, the painters ground these materials into
powders they mixed with water before applying.
The painters used large flat stones served as palettes and made
brushes from reeds, bristles or twigs.

26. Red and yellow ochre

27. Bison, detail of a painted ceiling in the cave at
Altamira, Spain,
ca. 12,000–11,000 BCE. Each bison 5’ long.
The paintings at Altamira were accidentally discovered by amateur
archaeologist Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola and his daughter, Maria, in
1879. The paintings at Altamira were the first examples of Paleolithic
cave painting discovered. Because of this, archaeologists initially
dismissed them as forgeries (Congress on Prehistoric Archaeology,
Lisbon, Portugal 1880).
The bison are painted in profile from an aerial view (bird’s eye view).
They do not occupy a single pictorial plane or share a common
orientation.

28. Spotted horses and negative hand imprints, wall painting in the cave at Pech-Merle, France, ca.
23,000–22,000 BCE. 11′ 2″ long.
The spots are not simply decorating the horses but
extend beyond them; are they features of the
animals or represent something different?
The animals are surrounded by negative hand
imprints.

29. Detail of Hall of Bulls, Lascaux II (replica of the original cave, which is closed to the
public), original cave: c. 16,000–14,000 BCE.
Co-presence of different approaches to
representation: silhouettes and outlines.
Use of twisted perspective (composite view): viewers
see the heads in profile but the horns from the
front.

30. Rhinoceros, wounded man, and disemboweled bison, painting in the well of the cave at
Lascaux, France,
ca. 15,000–13,000 BCE. Bison 3’ 8’’ long.
The earliest example of narrative art ever?