Foundations of Art (Part 1): The Art of the Hunters - Prehistoric Europe and West Asia The Art of Farmers - Cave Art - Neolithic Architecture

2. What is Art?
 Art – like beauty, truth, and life itself – is larger than any
single definition.
 Art (art), n. 1. the quality, production, or expression of what
is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary
significance. (C. L. Barnhart and Jess Stein, eds., The
American College Dictionary (New York: Random House,
1963), 70
 Art is an experience. When we are so moved by an
experience and we want to share it with others, we are
where art begins.
 Art does not need to be “understood” to be enjoyed.

3. Early History of Human Age:
 Stone Age
 Bronze Age
 Iron Age

4. Stone Age:
 Paleolithic
 Mesolithic
 Neolithic

5. Part One: Foundations of
Art (Before History)
 The Art of the Hunters
- Prehistoric Europe and West Asia
 The Art of Farmers
- Cave Art
- Neolithic Architecture

7. Women of
Willendorf
 Subject: Women
 Material: Limestone
 Discovered: Willendorf,
Austria
 Dimension: 4 ½ inches high
(11.5cm)
 Now: Naturhistorisches
Museum, Vienna

8. Woman of Willendorf:
 Woman from Willendorf (Venus of Willendorf)
 Paleolithic - C. 30,000 – 25,000 B. C.
 Female figure: Breast, belly and the buttocks
 Women with no face, tiny curls of hair cover the whole head
 Symbolizes fertility, some kind of magic charm
 Sex and art would seem to have been closely allied from the
very beginning

9. Man from Brno:
 Subject: Man
 Material: Mammoth Ivory
 Discovered: Brno, Czech
Republic
 Dimension: 8 inches high
(20.3cm)
 Now: Moravian Museum,
Brno

10. Man from Brno:
 Found at Brno in the Czech Republic in the grave of a man.
 Paleolithic - C. 30,000 – 25,000 B. C.
 Earliest discovery of a puppet or doll.
 It is thought the man it was buried with could have been a
shaman and the puppet may have had an esoteric or occult
significance.
 Three parts: The head, body and left hand.
 The hand is missing due to damage

11. Woman’s Head
of Brassempouy:
 Subject: Women
 Material: Mammoth ivory
 Discovered: Brassempouy,
France
 Dimension: 1 ½ inches high
(3.4cm)
 Now: Musée des Antiquités
Nationales, St. Germain-en-
Laye

12. Woman’s head from
Brassempouy
 Woman’s head from Brassempouy (Venus of Brassempouy)
 French: la Dame de Brassempoy, “Lady of Brassempouy”
Dame à la Capuche, “Lady with the Hood”)
 About 25,000 years old.
 It is one of the earliest known realistic representations of a
human face
 Reveals that women dressed their hair in braids
 Worn as pendants, perhaps as charms

13. Mother Goddess
of Laussel:
 Subject: Women
 Material: Stone
 Discovered: Laussel, France
 Dimension: 18 ½ inches high
(47cm)
 Now: Musée d’ Aquitaine,
Bordeaux

14. Mother Goddess of Laussel,
Dordogne, France
 Mother Goddess of Laussel (Venus of Brassempouy)
 C. 22,000 – 19,000 BC
 Visualization of a pregnant women figure.
 The head has been obliterated
 The right hand is holding a bison’s horn and the rest hand is
resting on the belly, indicating the swelling womb.
 Bison’s horn: 13 notches, it is believed that this indicates the
phases of the moon.

15. Cave Paintings:
 Found in side the cave
 Painted using Earth/Mineral Pigments:
 Earth Pigments: Found in rocks and soils – Ochers, sienna
and umbers
 Mineral Pigments: Created by combining and heating
naturally occurring elements – Ultramarine (lazuli stone)
and spinel (Crystalline pigments of volcanic source)
pigments

16. Bison, Altamira Spain :

17. Bison, Altamira Spain
 Cave Paintings: Image of a bison
 C. 14,000 – 10,000 BC
 Subject: Animal (Bison)
 Material: Pigment on limestone rock
 Discovered: Altamira (Northern Spain)
 Dimension: 6 feet 4 ¾ inches high (1.95 m)

19. “Great Hall”, Lascaux
France
 Cave Paintings: Image of aurochs, horses, deer
 C. 16,000 – 14,000 BC
 Subject: Animal (Bison)
 Material: Pigment on limestone rock
 Dimension: 16 feet (5 m)
 Cave: Religious sanctuary, or temples
 Successful hunting

21. Bison – Modelled Clay,
France
 Sculpture: Clay (unbaked), on the floor
 15,000 BC
 Subject: Animal (Bison)
 Material: Pigment on limestone rock
 Dimension: 25 and 24 inches (63.5 cm and 61cm)
 It was not confined to those that were hunted and eaten.

22.  THANK YOU! :D