4. Landscape
•
•
•
•
c. 42,000 – 8000 BCE
Hunting and gathering
People lived in small nomadic groups
Glaciers of the last ice age still covered
northern stretches of Europe, North
America, and Asia
5. Characteristics of Art
• Mostly small figures or figurines, of
people and animals
• Materials used include bones, ivory,
stone and clay
• Women as more frequent subjects
• Sculpture shows an aesthetic sense
and the ability to pose and solve
problems
7. Woman from Brassempouy
Grotte du Pape, Brassempouy Landes, France. c.
22,000 BCE. Ivory, height 3 cm. Musée des Antiquits
Nationales, st.-Germain-en-Laye. (abstraction)
9. Characteristics of Art
• Composition shows that the ritual of
making the painting is more important
than the finished work
• Rock engraving: pecking designs into
rock with stone tools
• Used red and brown pigments derived
from manganese dioxide
10. Mimis and Kangaroo
Prehistoric rock art, Oenpelli, Arnhem Land, Australia.
Older painting 16,000-7000 BCE. Red and yellow
ocher and white pipe clay. (x-ray style)
11. Wall painting with Four Horses
Chauvet cave, Vallon-Pont-d’Arc Ardèche gorge,
France. C. 28,000 BCE. Paint on limestone.
15. Landscape
•
•
•
•
Around 8000 BCE in Europe
Development of organized agriculture
Practice of animal husbandry
Foundation of permanent, year-round
settlements
• Introduction of metalworking (Bronze
Age, 2300 BCE in Europe)
16. Characteristic of Art
• Wall paintings
• “Flying gallop” – an animal (in motion)
leaps forward with fully extended legs;
the conventional way to indicate speed
17. People and Animals
Detail of rock-shelter painting in Cogul Lérida, Spain.
c. 4000-2000 BCE. Museo Arqueológico Barcelona
20. Characteristic of Art
• Megalithic Architecture: massive
tombs and monuments built from huge
stones
• Dolmen: a tomb chamber; was formed
of huge upright stones supporting one
or more table-like rocks (capstones)
• Passage graves: elaborate burial sites;
oriented towards the rising sun in
midsummer
29. Synthesis
• Human beings have always strived
toward ever-more perfect expressions
of artistic and cultural values.
• History and art history can be seen as
a series of cumulative developments.
• Many cultural transitions occurred at
the same time in geographically
unrelated and unconnected places.
However, some of the same changes
happened on very different timetables
from place to place.