ancient art- art 111

85
ANCIENT ART Prehistoric: Paleolithic to Bronze Age

Upload: daniela-gutierrez

Post on 06-Apr-2017

122 views

Category:

Art & Photos


1 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Ancient Art- Art 111

ANCIENT ARTPrehistoric: Paleolithic to Bronze Age

Page 2: Ancient Art- Art 111

In order to understand the development of art we must first look at the movement of people across the world

• Humans began moving out of Africa around 1 million years ago

• As they moved out of Africa, one group went towards Europe while another went towards Asia

• Humans moved into Europe and began settling around 690,000 years ago

• Humans moved into Asia and began settling around 700,000 years ago

• Humans then began moving south into South East Asia and Australia, while at the same time a different group moved north into Siberia, North America and South America

Page 3: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 4: Ancient Art- Art 111

• In Europe humans began to create settlements

• These settlements were based around areas with food sources, and water

• People in these settlements traded with one another and gradually started developing their own culture

• These cultural systems became unique to the area and the people, and therefore once art was developed it was unique to that region

• This process was not found only in Europe

• This development happened at different times across the world, and therefore helped with the movement of artistic cultures from one region of the world to another

Page 5: Ancient Art- Art 111

• This time in human history is divided into 3 separate time periods

• Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) (2.6 million years ago – 12,000 years ago)

• Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) (20,000 BCE – 9,500 BCE)

• Neolithic (New Stone Age) (10,200 BCE – 2,000 BCE)

• During the time of early human settlement humans were Hunter & Gatherers

• As they became settled into communities (Sedentary Life) they started to experiment more with the concept of art, religion, and architecture

• The development of art, religion, and architecture can be divided into specific categories, including:

• The Human Form• Animal Forms• Architecture• Other Forms

Page 6: Ancient Art- Art 111

Ancient Art TimelinePaleolithic Era• (Old Stone Age) (2.6 million years ago – 12,000 years ago)• prehistoric period of human history • distinguished by the development of the most primitive stone tools• covers roughly 95% of human technological prehistory• During the time of early human settlement humans were Hunter &

GatherersMesolithic Era• (Middle Stone Age) (20,000 BCE – 9,500 BCE)

Neolithic Era• (New Stone Age) (10,200 BCE – 2,000 BCE)• beginning of farming, which produced the "Neolithic Revolution”• Domestication of animals and crops

Page 7: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 8: Ancient Art- Art 111

The Paleolithic Period

• Roughly two million years ago, in east-central Africa, early hominids made crude stonecutting tools

• These tools enabled our predecessors to extend their skills and gain a measure of control over their surroundings

• Human beings developed the abilities to reason and to visualize, to remember the past, to relate it to the present, and to imagine a possible future

• Emergence of cognitive personhood

• As we become form-creating creatures, our ability to conceive mental images set us apart from other animals

• Imagination is our special advantage.

2.6 million years ago – 12,000 years ago

Page 9: Ancient Art- Art 111

The Creative Explosion“The Creative Explosion”- the period when humans first began to produce art in abundance.

This art has mainly been discovered in Europe, and dates back around 40,000 years.

No-one is sure what caused this “creative explosion”- a time of immense creative fertility which occurred simultaneously in many locations.

One hypothesis is that this may have something to do with the weather being colder than in Africa, where the first human remains- dating back 100,000 years- were found.

Shell Necklace a Sign of 100,000-Year-Old Culture. Israel

Page 10: Ancient Art- Art 111

• Humans began creating objects that were purely functional

• The first human artifacts that have been found are spearheads

• Early humans would use rocks and flint stones to chip stone tools that could be used to hunt animals

• These tools were also used to hunt, cut apart meat, start fires, and create other tools such as rope, and baskets

• Spearheads start by being very rounded

• As humans developed and moved to other parts of the world the spearheads become more detailed and have a sharper point

• Archaeologists have also found that spearheads became a trading tool, and were vital to the lives of the people who created them

Page 11: Ancient Art- Art 111

ART

Page 12: Ancient Art- Art 111

■ The function or purpose of art in Paleolithic life remains a subject of debate.

■ Some scholars see the human and animal representations as evidence of the use of magical rites to ensure success in hunting or to guarantee fertility.

■ Others have suggested that Paleolithic artists’ accurate representations of animals’ coats may be an early attempt to produce a seasonal notation system.

■ Another viewpoint, disregarding utility altogether, sees the art of Paleolithic peoples solely as an outgrowth of a basic human need to creatively record and reproduce aspects of the surrounding world.

Purpose & Function

Page 13: Ancient Art- Art 111

Paleolithic Art■ Two main forms of Paleolithic art are known to modern

scholars: – small sculptures

■ typical were small, portable clay figurines, stone and bone and ivory carvings.

■ simple but realistic animal figurines and stone statuettes of women (referred to by scholars as Venus figures.)

– monumental paintings and reliefs on the walls of caves. ■ Such works were produced throughout the

Mediterranean region and other scattered parts of Eurasia and Africa but survived in quantity only in eastern Europe and parts of Spain and France.

Page 14: Ancient Art- Art 111

Cave Paintings■ Characteristics of Cave Art/Murals

– Mostly animal figures– Profile view– Thick black outlines – Overlapping of figures– Highly realistic & Highly sophisticated – Most likely associated with ritualistic behaviors and not

necessarily the hunt as previously believed – One theory suggests that they were produced by women!

Page 15: Ancient Art- Art 111

■ The worlds oldest paintings• Found in a cave at Vallon-Pont-dÁrc,

France• Dating around 30,000 – 28,000 BCE• Only discovered in 1994 • Changed the way that archeologists

think about cave painting• The earliest form of perspective is

found when we look at the placement of the animals

• Depictions of animals which would have been everywhere in the world of Neolithic peoples

• All animals are drawn in profile• Art historians believe that people

first painted like this because it made very clear what animal the artist was trying to depict

Aurochs, Horses, and Rhinoceroses, ca. 30,000 – 28,000 BCEArtist Unknown, Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, FranceLimestone, Cave PaintingChauvet Cave, Vallon-Pnt-d’Arc, Francehttp://www.bradshawfoundation.com/chauvet/

Page 16: Ancient Art- Art 111

Spotted Horses and Negative Hand Imprints, ca. 22,000 BCEArtist Unknown (Pech – Merle, France)Lime Stone, Cave Painting11 feet 2 inches longPech – Merle Cave, Francehttp://www.pechmerle.com/english/introduction.html

■ Cave Paintings at Pech – Merle• Found in a cave at Pech-Merle, France• Dating around 22,000 BCE• For a long time Pech-Merle was

considered to have the oldest cave paintings in the world

• Dots, lines, and hand prints are often painted alongside the images of animals

• We are unsure what exactly these are meant for

• We can see clearly that the painters were using the actual space of the wall to help them with the painting of the animal (Horses Head on the Right)

• This shows us that the painters were quite sophisticated in their technique

• They were examining the cave wall much as a painter would do to their canvas

Page 17: Ancient Art- Art 111

Lascaux, FranceHall of Bulls17,000 BC

• Found in 1940 in a cave near Lascaux, France

• Among some of the best-known Upper Paleolithic works of art depicted are primarily large animals, typical local and contemporary fauna

• The cave has around 600 paintings of cows, bulls, horses, deer, bears, rhinoceroses, cats, and an Ibex

• The cave has around 1,500 engravings of the same animals

Page 18: Ancient Art- Art 111

• Animals are depicted using different styles

• It is unsure weather these were created at the same time or if the styles changed over time

• The main styles are outlined• The outlined images seem

to be larger, so many art historians believe that they might have been created in later years

• Colored silhouettes• The colored silhouettes

are common in other caves throughout Europe, including Altamira and Pech-Merle

Bison Detail, Hall of Bulls, ca. 15,000 – 13,000 BCEArtist Unknown (Lascaux France)Largest Bull 11 feel 6 inches longLascaux Cave, Francehttp://www.lascaux.culture.fr/?lng=en

Lascaux, FranceHall of Bulls17,000 BC

Page 19: Ancient Art- Art 111

Hall of BullsLascaux, France

• The cave paintings at Lascaux are unique because they seem to be in motion

• The artists were trying to show the animals in what they viewed as their most important state (LIVING)

• Many archeologists believe that the people who made these paintings were trying to show them mid hunt

• The power of animals! The immensity of life and their inclusion of their surroundings- its magical.

Animal Details, Hall of Bulls, ca. 15,000 – 13,000 BCEArtist Unknown (Lascaux France)Limestone, Cave PaintingsLargest Bull 11 feel 6 inches longLascaux Cave, Francehttp://www.lascaux.culture.fr/?lng=en

Page 20: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 21: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 22: Ancient Art- Art 111

Altamira Cave, SpainBison Detail, ca. 12,000 – 11,000 BC

• Was the first cave painting to be discovered in Europe

• The hall of bulls is the largest painted section of the cave

• It is unknown what exactly these bulls were meant to represent but many believe that they were used as ritualistic offerings

• There is no perspective found in this painting

• This shows us that the bulls were probably not all painted at the same time, and that creating one common scene was not important to the artists

• The bulls are painted in profile http://museodealtamira.mcu.es/

Page 23: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 24: Ancient Art- Art 111

Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave

France32,000–30,000 BC

contains some of the best preserved figurative cave paintings in the world, as well as other evidence of Upper Paleolithic life.

Hundreds of animal paintings have been catalogued, depicting at least 13 different species, including some rarely or never found in other ice age paintings.

Rather than depicting only the familiar herbivores that predominate in Paleolithic cave art, i.e. horses, cattle, mammoths, etc., the walls of the Chauvet Cave feature many predatory animals, e.g., cave lions, panthers, bears, and cave hyenas. There are also paintings of rhinoceroses.

Typical of most cave art, there are no paintings of complete human figures

Painting of Lions

Page 25: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 26: Ancient Art- Art 111

A Group of Rhinos

Page 27: Ancient Art- Art 111

Painting of Deer

Page 28: Ancient Art- Art 111

Pedra FuradaPiauí, Brazil12,000 BCrepresenting actions of daily life),

hunting and ceremonial events, as well as abstract and geometrical designs

Page 29: Ancient Art- Art 111

Cave of Beasts, Egypt. 9,000 BC

Page 30: Ancient Art- Art 111

Cueva de la Soledad, Baja California, Mexico. 5500 BC

Page 31: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 32: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 33: Ancient Art- Art 111

La Trinidad, Baja California, Mexico

5,500BC

Page 34: Ancient Art- Art 111

Cueva de las Manos, Argentina. 13,000-9,000BC

Page 35: Ancient Art- Art 111

El Castillo cave in Cantabria, Spain44,000 BC

Page 36: Ancient Art- Art 111

Lascaux Caves in central France

Page 37: Ancient Art- Art 111

Cave of Beasts, Egypt, 9,000 BC

Page 38: Ancient Art- Art 111

Ham Cave, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. 40,000 BC

Page 39: Ancient Art- Art 111

Wall Painting from Çatal Höyük

• By the Neolithic era people began depicting themselves and animals together

• What became important was the interaction of animals and humans (THE ACT OF THE HUNT)

• On the walls of the Turkish city of Çatal Höyük people began painting images of their most important interactions

• The people of Çatal Höyük began domesticating animals and therefore changed their interaction with most important part of their art

• Even after the domestication of animals people still depicted themselvess hunting animals

• People are found in groups

• Shows us that the act of hunting was the important part, not individual

Dear Hunt, ca. 5,750 BCEArtist Unknown, Catal Höyük, TurkeyWall PaintingMuseum of Anatolian Civilization, Ankarahttp://www.anadolumedeniyetlerimuzesi.gov.tr/

Page 40: Ancient Art- Art 111

SCULPTURE

Page 41: Ancient Art- Art 111

Two bison reliefs, ca. 15,000 – 10,000 BCEArtist Unknown, Le Tuc D’Audoubert, FranceClayEach 2 feel longLe Tuc D’Audoubert Francehttp://www.bradshawfoundation.com/france/bison-tuc-d-audoubert/bison-tuc-d-audoubert2.php

■ Bison Reliefs• Found in the cave of Le Tuc

D’Audoubert• Dating around 15,000 – 10,000 BCE• Some of the largest Paleolithic

sculptures known • Utilized Bas Relief techniques to add

depth and dimension to their representations of animals

• Special clay was brought from outside the cave in order to create these sculptures

• This means that the peoples who created this had to put thought into what they were doing before they did it

• The profile and position of the bison are similar to other depictions found throughout caves in Europe

• The first mixture that we know of combining depictions of animals and sculpture

Page 42: Ancient Art- Art 111

• Depictions of animals were not only used as decoration for caves.

• We start to see art being added as decoration to ritual and everyday objects

• This shows a development where Paleolithic and Neolithic peoples were looking to take art with them

• We can assume then that the people creating these depictions of animals believed that by painting or carving them they were somehow gaining their power (why we find a powerful image of a bison on hunting weapon)

• This shows us that art was considered as an important aspect in the life of Paleolithic and Neolithic peoples

• Art becomes more than just decoration• It becomes part of the community and

its interactions with other communities

Bison with Turned Head, ca. 12,000 BCELa Madeleine, France

Page 43: Ancient Art- Art 111

Bone Flute37,000BC

Hohle Feels Cave, Ulm, Germany

• Among the bone and ivory carvings dating to the Paleolithic are several examples of partial bone or ivory flutes, including one with five finger holes, found at Hohle Fels Cave, near Ulm, Germany, and dated to about 35,000 years ago.

• Those flutes give evidence of yet another art form practiced in prehistoric cultures.

• It is one of the oldest known musical instruments from western Europe.

Page 44: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 45: Ancient Art- Art 111

Human with feline headHohlenstein-Stadel, Germany

30,000-28,000 BC

• One of the earliest sculptures discovered • Carved out of mammoth ivory and nearly a

foot tall (truly huge for this era!)• Represents something that existed only

in the vivid imagination of the unknown artist who conceived it.

• It is a human (whether male or female is debated) with a feline head

• Composite creatures with animal heads and human bodies were common in the art of the Ancient Near East and Egypt

• For Stone Age representations no one knows what the artists had in mind

Page 46: Ancient Art- Art 111

Human with Feline Head (detail), ca. 30,000 – 28,000 BCEArtist Unknown (Hohlenstein – Stadel, Germany)Mammoth Ivory11 5/8 inches HighUlmer Museum, Ulm Germanyhttp://www.ulm.de/ulm_museum/collections/archeology.110882.3080,110499,110872,110882.htm

■ Human with Feline Head (Detail)• These animal-headed humans have sometimes

been called sorcerers and described as magicians wearing masks

• Also have been interpreted as humans dressed up as animals.

• Absence of any Stone Age written explanation- this is a time before writing

• Art historians agree that these statuettes were important to those who created and revered them, because manufacturing any ivory figure, especially at one foot tall, was a very difficult process.

Page 47: Ancient Art- Art 111

Soundbox of the lyre from Tomb 789Ur, Iraq

26000BCLast Judgement of Hu-Nefer, Thebes,

Egypt.. 1290-1280 C

Page 48: Ancient Art- Art 111

And in other parts of the world..

Olmec Seated Were Jaguar Figures 1200 BC Mexico Dancing Ganesha sculpture from Bengladeshl, 11th century CE

Page 49: Ancient Art- Art 111

Venus of WillendorfAustria

• 28,000 and 25,000 BC

• 4 inches high

• Made of limestone

• Venus applied to any female nude of the past

• Our first clue to why our modern world is obsessed with unrealistic images of the body

• Fertility- exaggerated body parts are all deliberate. Why would the artist do this?

• This continued to happen for many thousands of years! For the next 20,000 years

Page 50: Ancient Art- Art 111

The Importance of Women

• Many art historians believe that the amount of Venuses found from the Neolithic era shows the importance of women at the time

• Sculptures of women are found from France, to Germany, Austria, The Czech Republic, Italy, and Jordan.

• Sculptures of women are found in the round, and in relief, as well as in all types of media

• Due to the lack of written records we will never truly know the belief of Paleolithic peoples towards women, but we can assume in one way or another women were important members of society

Page 51: Ancient Art- Art 111

Kostienki Venus• Russia

• 22,000 BC

Page 52: Ancient Art- Art 111

Venus of Hohle Felslocated near Schelklingen, Germany. It is dated to between 35,000 and 40,000 years ago,

Oldest human figure ever discovered

Page 53: Ancient Art- Art 111

Venus of Dolní Věstonice

(29,000 BCE – 25,000 BCE)

the earliest discovered use of ceramics

Czech Republic

Page 54: Ancient Art- Art 111

Venus of MoravanySlovania

22,800 BC

Exaggerated some parts while ignoring others.

But why?

Were they more stimulated by images like this??

Page 55: Ancient Art- Art 111

Producing exaggerated versions of the human form- preprogramed what mattered the most.

Ice age environment, fatness and fertility were highly desired.

If this is true for the nomadic people of the Paleolithic era this should also be true for the peoples that came after.

Page 56: Ancient Art- Art 111

• After the Neolithic era the human form began changing

• This development is quite dramatic

• The development is also regional and based towards individual taste

• This happens all over the world

Page 57: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 58: Ancient Art- Art 111

NEOLITHIC We see the emergence permanent architectural structures

Page 59: Ancient Art- Art 111

Architecture

Page 60: Ancient Art- Art 111

Jericho8,000-7,000 BCJericho, Israel

• Located on the Jordan River Valley was occupied by a small village as early as the 9th millennium BC

• This village underwent spectacular development around 8000 BC

• Covering about 10 acres• Its mud-brick houses sat on round or oval stone

foundations and had roofs of branches covered with earth.

• As the town’s wealth grew and powerful neighbors established themselves, the need for protection resulted in the first known permanent stone fortifications.

• By approximately 7500 BC, the town, estimated to have had a population of more than 2,000, was surrounded by a wide rock-cut ditch and 5 foot thick wall.

• Into this wall, which as been preserved to a height of almost 13 feet, was built a great circular stone tower 28 feet high.

Page 61: Ancient Art- Art 111

The Tower of Jericho

Almost 30 feet in diameter at the base, the tower has an inner stairway leading to its

summit. Walls = 5 feet (thickness), 30 feet (height), 33

feet (diameter)

Page 62: Ancient Art- Art 111

The Tower of Jericho8,000 – 7,000 BCE

Jericho, Israel• Not enough of the site has been

excavated to determine whether this tower was solitary or one of several similar towers that formed a complete defense system

• Built with only the most primitive kind of stone tools, was certainly a tremendous technological achievement

• It constitutes the beginning of a, which leads fromlong history of monumental architecture this stone tower in Neolithic Jericho to today’s hundred-story skyscrapers of steel, concrete and glass.

• Much of the site has still not been excavated http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/barkai327/

Page 63: Ancient Art- Art 111

Human Skull with Restored Features

7000-6000BCSeveral of the excavated buildings seem to have served as shrines-that included statuettes of women or goddesses and of animals.

Also are these “reconstructed” human skulls filled with plaster.

Subtly modeled, with inlaid seashells for eyes and painted hair (including a painted mustache preserved on one specimen) their appearance is strikingly lifelike.

However lifelike the skulls are not portraits in the modern sense of accuracy. Typical faces.

The skulls ere not only detached from the bodies and given new faces but also were buried separately= special significance to the heads.

Attest to belief in the afterlife?

Page 64: Ancient Art- Art 111

Çatalhöyük7500 BC- 5700

BC. Turkey• One of the largest early

human settlements• Buildings were arranged in

different levels for different purposes, and some believe for different levels of society

• The layout of the city is well organized and tells us that the people were using high levels of thought in order to plan out the city

• The city also has a lot of art work• Monolithic stones with

engravings• Wall paintings

Page 65: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 66: Ancient Art- Art 111

Domestic LifeÇatalhöyük was composed entirely of domestic

buildings, with no obvious public buildings

As a part of ritual life, the people of Çatalhöyük buried their dead within the village.

Human remains have been found in pits beneath the floors and, especially, beneath hearths, the platforms within the main rooms, and under beds.

Bodies were tightly flexed before burial and were often placed in baskets or wound and wrapped in reed mats.

Disarticulated bones in some graves suggest that bodies may have been exposed in the open air for a time before the bones were gathered and buried

Page 67: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 68: Ancient Art- Art 111

Landscape Painting 6,150 BC• Generally has been acclaimed as the world’s first landscape (a picture of natural setting without narrative)

• In the foreground is a town with rectangular houses neatly laid out side by side, probably representing Çatalhöyük.

• Behind the town appears a mountain with two peaks.

• Art historians believe the dots and lines issuing from the cone is a volcanic eruption.

• It has been identified as Hasan Dağ a 10,600 ft mountain nearby.

• Located on a shrine wall, it is very likely had some religious meaning but the mural does not necessarily depict a specific historic event.

• The mural is the first depiction of a place devoid of both humans and animals.

Page 69: Ancient Art- Art 111

Seated Woman of Çatalhöyük6,000 BC

• baked-clay

• nude female form, seated between feline-headed arm-rests.

• It is generally thought to depict a corpulent and fertile Mother Goddess in the process of giving birth while seated on her throne, which has two hand rests in the form of feline (leopard or panther) heads.

Page 70: Ancient Art- Art 111

Western Europe Neolithic Period

■ As early as 4000 BC Neolithic populations in several eras developed a monumental architecture employing massive rough-cut stones.

■ The very dimensions of the stones, some as high as 17 feet and weighting as much as 50 tons, have promoted historians to call them megaliths (great stones)

■ Sometimes these huge stones were arranged in a circle known as cromlech or henge, often surrounded by a ditch.

■ The most imposing today is Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain in southern England.

■ Stonehenge is a complex of rough-cut sarsen (a form of sandstone) stones and smaller “bluestones” (various volcanic rocks).

■ Outermost is a ring, almost 100 feet in diameter, of large monoliths of sarsen stone capped by lintels.

Page 71: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 72: Ancient Art- Art 111

Stonehenge2,550-1600 BCSalisbury Plain, England

• Was built in stages over several centuries

• Circular design consisting of large sandstone monoliths on the outside with a smaller circle of smaller bluestones on the inside

• It is still unclear what exactly Stonehenge was used for

• Archeologists know that these “Henges” were used for ritual purposes

• Some kind of astronomical observatory/ solar calendar associated with the summer solstice.

• Some archeologists believe that they were used as a place to connect the world of the living and the world of the dead

• This achievement is testimony to the rapidly developing intellectual powers of Neolithc humans as well as to their capacity for heroic physical effort

Page 73: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 74: Ancient Art- Art 111

• There are many similar (smaller) structures across Europe• They are mostly found in northern Europe• In England and Ireland they are made from stone• In Germany, Denmark, and Sweden they are made from wood• What is most impressive is how the Neolithic peoples of southern England were able to move such large stones from their quarry into their current position• There are many theories as to how they did this• Some believe that they moved them on the many rivers in the area• Some believe that they were moved with a series of levers, and wooden pols

Page 75: Ancient Art- Art 111

Stonehenge ‘bluestone’ quarries confirmed 140

miles away in Wales

•“Personally I think that the overland route is more likely. Each of the 80 monoliths weighed less than 2 tons, so teams of people or oxen could have managed this. We know from examples in India and elsewhere in Asia that single stones this size can even be carried on wooden lattices by groups of 60 – they didn’t even have to drag them if they didn’t want to.”

•https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1215/071215-stonehenge-bluestone-quarries#sthash.iAxJxqIw.dpuf

Page 76: Ancient Art- Art 111

The Human FormHas obsessed some of the great artists

Whatever their use-

None of these images resemble a real human being.

Imagine if people looked like the images we created of them.

People rarely create images of the body that are realistic ---- why???

About us fundamentally- what can we learn about ourselves??

Page 77: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 78: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 79: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 80: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 81: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 82: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 83: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 84: Ancient Art- Art 111
Page 85: Ancient Art- Art 111

ParmigianinoMadonna with the Long Neck (1534-40)