the outline in the early beginnings of art

13
Leonardo The Outline in the Early Beginnings of Art Author(s): S. Giedion Source: Leonardo, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Apr., 1969), pp. 181-192 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1572028 . Accessed: 12/06/2014 15:59 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . The MIT Press and Leonardo are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Leonardo. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:59:11 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Upload: s-giedion

Post on 16-Jan-2017

215 views

Category:

Documents


1 download

TRANSCRIPT

Leonardo

The Outline in the Early Beginnings of ArtAuthor(s): S. GiedionSource: Leonardo, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Apr., 1969), pp. 181-192Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1572028 .

Accessed: 12/06/2014 15:59

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The MIT Press and Leonardo are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toLeonardo.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:59:11 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Leonardo, Vol. 2, pp. 181-192. Pergamon Press 1968. Printed in Great Britain

DOCU M ENTS-DOCUMENTS

THE OUTLINE IN THE EARLY BEGINNINGS OF ART

S. Giedion*

I. INTRODUCTION

Art came into being with homo sapiens, when man's brain reached its full dimensions. This was in the Aurignacian-Perigordian period; but even before then man must have perceived the outlines and impressions his feet and fingers made in the soft clay which covered the ceilings, walls and floors of the caverns, as well as the scratches upon the rock walls made by the cave bears. But it was not until after homo sapiens had fully developed that man felt an urge to trace in clay lines and forms imbued with symbolic significance.

If there is a continuous tendency throughout pre- historic art, it is the ever-increasing mastery of the outline. Our fragmentary knowledge, as well as the enormous span of the eras we have to deal with, do not permit us to use notions derived from the brief epoch since the Renaissance: notions such as perspective, the opposition of linear and painterly, and so on.

The vast complex of prehistoric art must, I believe, be treated according to its own nature. There is a common denominator from the earliest, the Aurig- nacian-Perigordian period, up to the very end of the Solutrean and Magdalenian periods and even con- tinuing into the time of the first high civilizations. This comprehensive idea consists in the outline or the contour of an object. The determination of the outline concentrates all this striving in coming to terms with the formal and psychic content of an animal or human figure.

There are many different stages in the evolution of the outline, they cannot be clearly differentiated since they are in eternal flux. But there is a develop- ment at the beginning of the Aurignacian-Peri- gordian period, when the outline of the animal was caught in a most primitive way. Gradually, within the same early period, the outline of the body slowly became smoother and more articulated; the features more detailed, the legs more organically connected with the body.

The manner of connecting the legs to the body is also important for the representation of movement, one of the great preoccupations of prehistoric art,

* Historian of art and architecture born 14 April 1888, Switzerland, died 9 April 1968, Switzerland.

even in the early period. The power of the attacking bison in the cavern of Pech-Merle (Lot, France), with all its mystic accompaniment of dots and of other animals, was, by means of abstraction, concentrated in a single projecting movement (Fig. 1) and this during the Aurignacian-Perigordian age. Aurignacian drawing of a bison, Pech-Merle

During the Aurignacian-Perigordian period, the abstraction, abbreviation and elimination of certain parts of the body were driven so far and became so sophisticated that momentary doubts easily arise as to whether a specific example may not be a product from the other end of prehistory, when abstraction became paramount.

Just such a case is the silhouette of an Aurignacian bull bison in the cavern of Pech-Merle (Fig. 2). This bison immediately leaps to the eye on account of its strong black outline painted high up on a large boulder and surrounded by a natural curved ridge of the rock. To give a vivid impression of the animal in full gallop the artist has sacrificed every particular of the body. The outline only retains those aspects which will fortify his intention. The main emphasis is deliberately laid upon the enormous humped shoulders of the bull. A steep line thrusts this heavy mass forward, head and forelegs are merged into this single line for the sake of conveying the utmost speed. A smooth concave curve forms the up- stretched tail and hindlegs. A slightly curved hori- zontal connects the end with the forward thrust. The whole outline of this racing bison could indeed serve as the symbol of a projectile.

It was the Abbe Lemozi who first recognized this abstract figure as the representation of a bison in full flight, an interpretation with which Breuil concurred.

This bison cannot be considered as an isolated phenomenon. It forms part of a larger scene. Below it are twenty red disks, eight more silhouettes of bison (also deciphered as abstract female figures) and an elephant, the last being the only animal that can be clearly distinguished.

II. OUTLINES IMPRESSED IN CLAY When water forced its way through clefts and

hollows in the rock formation it left traces of its passage behind. Most of the clay carried still lies today in deep deposits on the floors of the caverns.

181

_ L

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:59:11 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

S. Giedion

Fig. 1. Pech-Merle, Aurignacian drawings on a boulder: top, abstract silhouette of a bison; centre, red disks; bottom, elephant and enigmaticfigures (bison or human females). (Photo: H.

Herdeg and A. Weider.)

But a thin layer of perpetually damp, ductile clay clung to the surface of many cavern walls and ceilings. This was the canvas upon which the first symbols and representations were traced by human hands.

It is often possible to find groups of parallel mark- ings in the clay made by cave bears sharpening their claws. In the recently explored cavern of Rouffignac (Dordogne, France), an extraordinarily regular line of these markings extends along the gallery, like a frieze, at the height of an upright bear whetting its claws on the rock wall. On the ground, the bears' resting places form tub-like hollows in the clay. It has often been stated that it was the sight of these

claw marks that first gave primeval man the impulse toward expression. This may be so, but it is com- pletely irrelevant, for when man pressed his fingers into the cavern clay his intention was radically different. Here, for the first time, man attempted to give direct visible expression to his deepest desires by means of symbols and figurations. The yielding material proffered no technical impediment, only imagination was necessary. One of the most astonishing things about these first manifestations of the formative impulse is the grandeur sometimes achieved both in form and size, e.g., on the low ceiling in the cavern of Altamira, not far from the famous painted ceiling.

182

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:59:11 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Documents: The Outline in the Early Beginnings of Art

Fig. 2. Pech-Merle, Detail of the attacking bison. Head and forelegs are merged into a single line. (Photo: H. Herdeg and A. Weider.)

The musk ox of Altamira

A highly refined version of the clay drawings of this early period can be found in the head of a bull- Ovibus moschatus-in the cavern of Altamira, Spain, Figs. 3(a) and (b). This is among other figurations upon the low, partly collapsed ceiling near the main hall of the cavern. The head of this musk ox is completely woven into the meandering lines which traverse the ceiling for a length of some 15 feet. Like these meanders, the outline of the animal's head is made up of two or three parallel grooves. The muzzle, nostril and, above all, the eye are drawn in the clay with astonishing expressiveness. Every detail of the outline of the head is depicted with an unerring hand.

Preliminary stages

In the Aurignacian period, simultaneously with the desire for artistic expression, symbolic hands appear upon the walls of the caverns.

It may be that some of the undulating signs, pressed directly into the soft clay of the caverns, have the same significance as impressions of the complete hand, surrounded by colour; possibly they are their precursors.

Near the entrance to the innermost recesses of the cavern of Altamira there is a short, low corridor (6-2 m long x 2*1 m high) which becomes ever narrower towards its end. Short linear signs, close together, cover the entire ceiling, Fig. 4. The ever- moist clay receives and retains every slight pressure, every vibration of a movement. These signs are distinct from the long-drawn-out curves of other 'macaroni', they are short and lopped off, measuring 18 cm or less. They seem to have been impressed in quick strokes: even today one can discern the pressure of fingertips at the start and marks of fingernails at the end of each unhesitating stroke. In Fig. 4, the impression of three fingers of the left hand, with the long ring finger, is very distinct. Can these

nervous 'exclamation marks', in their determined and continuous repetition mean anything other than urgent cries for aid-primitive invocations?

III. OUTLINE AND TRANSPARENCY

Related with the outline is the use of transparency in primeval as in contemporary art. The first is the superimposition of different configurations-bodies or lines-without harming or obliterating any of them. The most impressive example is displayed on a large scale in the so-called Hall of the Hieroglyphs at Pech-Merle, near Cabrerets (Lot, France). This cave temple or 'grotte-temple', as the Abbe Lemozi called it, is about 30 km from Cahors, in southern France. It has no arena of frescoes as at Lascaux, nor anything like the low ceiling of Altamira with its many protuberances covered with bisons and other animals of enigmatic significance. But, taken all in all, Pech-Merle is the most magical of the pre- historic caverns.

There is a high vaulted hall with a fantastic rock pillar and stalactites. This natural setting was perfectly adapted to form a great sanctuary in which different parts, at different levels, were used by men (maybe even by different races), at different periods, to create their own sacred shrines-without ever disturbing the shrines created by bygone generations. How long the religious use of this cavern continued, whether four, five, or ten thousand years-from the Aurignacian until the Magdalenian period or even later-it is useless to ask.

The background of this high hall is perforated by two natural galleries. On the ceiling of the upper gallery is spread a large-scale manifestation of one of man's earliest artistic experiments. Rightly did the Abbe Lemozi baptize the place the Hall of the Hieroglyphs. No other document of Aurignacian times exists which expresses the fundamental con- ceptions of the time with such intensity. To our eyes, especially at first glance, this ceiling with its criss-

183

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:59:11 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

S. Giedion

Fig. 3(a). Altamira, musk oxfrom right gallery. (Photo: H. Herdeg and A. Weider.)

f i: . ---- ;C t-? r

i. . c? ?:'? ;3T

Fig. 3(b). Outline of Fig. 3(a).

184

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:59:11 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Documents: The Outlines in the Early Beginnings of Art

Fig. 4. Altamira, Details of'exclamation marks' imprinted in the clay with three fingers. (Photo: H. Herdeg and A. Weider.)

cross lines seems to have no significance at all. Then they appear: superimposed, drawn by fingers in the soft clay (soft and pliable even now), with no domi- nant direction, crossing and interpenetrating one another-mammoths, felines and the heads of horses; also female figures (without head at the top

Fig. 5. Pech-Merle, ceiling of the Hall of theHieroglyphs, with clay finger drawings. (Drawing: Chanoine Lemozi.)

13

of Fig. 5 and again, with a bird's head at the bottom). The figures' limbs are reduced to mere stumps: everything is neglected except the attributes of fertility-the breasts and the swollen belly. For two long months, the Abbe Lemozi lay ('le dos cloue sur la roche') and redrew every line of the 45 m2 in its natural size, at the same time disentangling many of the interwoven figures.

When the contemporary artist tries to seize hold of some particles of his inner life, he also has to turn his eyes inward. Once, I showed the drawings of Pech-Merle to Hans Arp and he confessed that he and his wife often drew their curved interpenetrating lines with half-closed eyes. Later, he wrote me the following:

"Now, under lowered lids, the inner movement streams untainted to the hand. In a darkened room it is even easier to follow the guidance of the inner movement than in the open air. A con- ductor of inner music, the great designer of pre- historic images, worked with eyes turned inwards. So his drawings gain in transparency; open to inter- penetration, to sudden inspiration, to recovery of the inner melody, to the circling approach; and the whole is transmuted into one great exaltation." Picasso expressed the direct projection of the

185

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:59:11 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

S. Giedion

Fig. 6. Belcayre, deeply incised outline of animal on limestone block. (Photo: H. Herdeg and A. Weider.)

inner light which commands the artist's hand: "If you paint, close your eyes and sing".

IV. OUTLINES INCISED IN ROCK

The attainment of an ever-increasing mastery of the outline was the major preoccupation of primeval art from the very beginning to the very end.

To capture the essential characteristics of an animal within a single expressive outline demanded great artistic concentration.

Outlines impressed in clay represented only the first stage. Outlines incised in rock were the natural consequence, starting with rough deep furrows hacked into the stone (e.g., Belcayre) and reaching to hair-fine Magdalenian outlines breathed upon the rock surface (e.g., Le Gabillou). In addition, a loosening of the outline took place in the Magda- lenian era and it was used to define textural quality. The process had its beginnings in the Aurignacian- Perigordian cycle.

Outlines incised in the rock were sometimes com- plete in themselves; sometimes they were emphasized by colour; sometimes they were used to add detail to certain parts of a painted figuration.

The rock shelter of Belcayre

The figure of an animal on a limestone block from the rock shelter of Belcayre (now in the museum of Les Eyzies, France) cf. Fig. 6, though of poor quality in itself, gives some insight into the technique employed in the middle Aurignacian period.

Its deeply incised outline reveals the technique of the Aurignacian sculptor. Since it was apparently left unfinished, the procedures employed by the sculptor are easily discernible, in several places the blows of the hand axe have hacked out small conical hollows, the outline of the body was effected by a sort of coarse furrow.

V. MODULATION OF THE OUTLINE

A main concern of the Magdalenian era was to bring more ease, elegance and variety to the heavy outlines of the Aurignacian-Pdrigordian period: in short, to impart more vitality. Once the develop- ment has proceeded far enough, the slightest accentuation of outline will suffice to impart a new intensity to the form.

The Magdalenian era achieved full mastery over

186

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:59:11 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Documents: The Outline in the Early Beginnings of Art

Fig. 7. Le Gabillou, large bison (60 cm) and small horse (25 cm). (Photo: H. Herdeg and A. Weider.)

Fig. 8. Le Portel, three bison in the Galerie Breuil, two partly painted black with engraved out- lines, with drawing of large bison to left. (Photo: H. Herdeg and A. Weider.)

187

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:59:11 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

S. Giedion

Fig. 9. Le Portel, painted horse pawing the ground. (Photo: H. Herdeg and A. Weider.)

the outline, which had been the object of endeavour for many ages. One could now pursue the possi- bilities of varying the extended outlines of the Aurignacian-Perigordian period and thus bring more intensity to the total form. This was done by modelling it with curves or even with sharp angles, if this would bring out the form desired.

In late Magdalenian times, mastery of the outline became so conscious that it was almost turned to the development of ornamental forms, as in the bison of La Pasiega, an obvious trend toward abstraction, peculiar to the late Magdalenian.

The handling of the outline can also give certain hints as to the period of the engravings from the little cavern of Le Gabillou (Dordogne, France), Fig. 7. Here we can only touch on the treatment of a delicate little horse, so replete with movement; almost no surface modelling; only its mane, fluttering in the breeze. The form of the outline is no longer enclosed, as in the bison of Pech-Merle, nor is it ornamentally voluted like the bison of La Pasiega. It points to a period in which breaks in the outline and yet the simultaneous incorporation of the body in the modelling had become a matter of course: this means between the middle and the late Magdalenian periods.

The engravings ofLe Gabillou

For sheer delicacy of engraving, the hair-fine out- lines of animals cut into the soft limestone of the cavern of Le Gabillou are unsurpassed. With the

utmost artistic economy and in the smallest space, we are here shown the power of Magdalenian man to create outlines as lively as they are allusive.

The small cavern of Le Gabillou, discovered in 1941, is beneath a house at the end of a wine cellar. It was inaccessible and almost completely filled up with clay until its present owner cleared it out with his own hands. Today, once more, it is just possible for two men to stand upright side by side and observe the many delicate engravings which are strewn over its low ceiling. The animals-horses, cattle, bison, reindeer, ibex, rabbits, even a small mammoth- seem to have been breathed upon the stone. As is so often the case in Magdalenian art, the horses have been executed with a particular grace. This pre- historic engraving may be compared with those refined dry-point etchings of the seventeenth century, whose creators were able to achieve a similar vitality by using the finest of lines in the smallest possible format.

As a whole, however, the superb eye-level engrav- ing of Le Gabillou are among the choicest delights of primeval art: miniatures transferred to stone.

VI. MODULATION OF THE BODY SURFACE

Some modulation of the body surface by means of a structural emphasis on certain planes had already appeared, even though fragmentarily, in the Aurignacian-P6rigordian period. In the middle Magdalenian period (Magdalenian IV), structural

188

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:59:11 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Documents: The Outline in the Early Beginnings of Art

Fig. 10. Commarque: head of a horse on the wall of a narrow gallery. (Photo: H. Herdeg and A. Weider.)

treatment of the body surface became of the greatest importance. On the smallest scale this was achieved by a few engraved strokes on bones. On a larger scale, it was achieved by a variety of means. It is here that different techniques were often employed simultaneously, until the ultimate synthesis was attained in the recumbent bison of Altamira.

A group at Le Portel (Ariege, France) This group shows a later stage, when the use of

monochromatic areas of colour had been fully mastered. Three bison are represented, all upon different levels, following the rock ridges (Fig. 8). Two stand face to face, one only depicted in outline, the other with its neck, belly and legs emphasized by heavy black strokes. The most interesting is the advancing bison, with its squat, concentrated energy.

In the middle, the naked rock is left untouched and the surrounding colour lends this area an abstract form; the body is otherwise enshrouded in deep blue-black.

The horse pawing the ground ('le cheval qui piaffe') is one of the most charming Magdalenian drawings (Fig. 9). No colour is used, but the boundaries of the colour zones are indicated by strong black lines. Whether this work was left uncompleted or whether this was the intended effect is difficult to say. The head is only partly preserved, taut outlines confine the well-rounded body, but everything is replete with life: one can sense the pulsing blood. With a royal freedom, the artist cast aside all that he deemed inessential to his ends.

Despite what has been written, one cannot inter- pret Magdalenian man as a passionate naturalist

189

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:59:11 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

S. Giedion

Fig. . China, (T'ang Dynasty) horse from the tomb of the emperor T'ai Tsung. Seventh century (From collections in the University Museum, Philadelphia, U.S.A.).

and criticize his work in terms of the realism it achieves. He was a most exact observer, who simultaneously had the ability to transpose that which he saw into artistic form. He moved, all unaware, on to another plane. Every part of the outline of this little horse is expressive, a perfect interplay of lines which never descends to ornamen- tation. It is of no importance that the ends of the crossed front legs do not appear or that only a single hind leg is shown. Internal lines delimit the various colours of the animal's pelt. But they also play another role: one line darts through the body at a sharp angle, leading resolutely through to the line of the foreleg, whose upper part is deliberately over- stressed. If this line were eliminated, all sense of movement would disappear. All signs point to the high Magdalenian period, when such complete mastery had been attained over the means of expres- sion that it was possible to give the impression of colour without actually using it.

VII. OUTLINES INNATE IN THE ROCK

To the eye of primeval man the nature formed an encompassing whole, living or dead alike. His eye saw in the rock wall outlines of animals, which he both adored and hunted. There they were living since eternity, all he did was to make them clearer, apparent to the human eye.

Out of these-for us-just haphazard forms of the rock the most intensive images came into being. To them belongs the horse of Commarque (Dordogne) in a small cavern in the South of France, Fig. 10. It was not photographed earlier.

This animal is embedded in the rock: only recog- nizable from certain angles and in a certain light. When it appears it possesses an irresistible strength. Everything is there, the sensitive nostrils and vibrating muscles. Parts of the body as well as the eye and wind-blown mane are formed from irregu- larities in the natural rock. The entire head, slightly inclined, readily follows the rock. The predestined form of this long, slender head (47 cm from ear lobe to muzzle) emerges distinctly from a natural cleft. Eye and nostrils have been clearly traced, indications of its loose coat are not omitted. A well-nigh breathing image emerges and yet it eludes our grasp. We tried several times to photograph this most magnificent horse in primeval art, and yet succeeded only once. The difficulty is by no means due merely to the narrowness of the gallery and similar obstacles; it lies much more in the delicacy of the form, which is revealed only when the light strikes it at a certain angle. It is a wild, untamed horse, a horse that blooms out of the rock in absolute freedom, a horse before its enslavement by man. What this means can be seen by comparing it with a horse from the tomb of the emperor T'ai Tsung

190

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:59:11 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Documents: The Outline in the Early Beginnings of Art

Fig. 12. The sunken relief as light-catcher: The giant figure of Thutmoses III on his (the sixth) pylon of the Temple of Karnak, in the traditional scene massacring the defeated, fifteenth century B.C. The photograph is taken in full sunlight, yet the engraved outline of Thutmoses III is

clearly delineated in black and white.

(seventh century), of the T'ang Dynasty (Fig. 11). Here a saddled war horse is represented as quietly waiting for its master, the Chinese Emperor, un- doubtedly a noble animal but completely subdued in the service of man.

VIII. THE OUTLINE IN EGYPT

The great differences between paleolithic art and the art of the archaic high civilizations leap to the eye. The astonishing thing is that certain constituent elements of primeval art continue to live on. This cannot be revealed by a simple comparison of forms. The continuity only comes to light when one probes into methods of representation. Then it appears that the methods we considered the most telling qualities of prehistoric art-the stress upon outline and the hollowing-out of reliefs-were continued throughout the entire Egyptian epoch, though the

process changed to meet a new requirement-the polished stone surface instead of the rough rock face.

The Egyptian was bound to stone as primeval man was to rock. Rock engravings were forerunners of the sunken reliefs which Egyptian art developed to such perfection.

The sunken relief as light catcher

The common characteristic of primeval and Egyptian reliefs is that both were sunk into the stone.

In accordance with the totally different situation in Egypt, the sunken relief changes without relin- quishing its basic principle. Rock walls are replaced by plane surfaces, but these polished walls are treated in the same manner as the rough structure of the rock. They never loose their inner unity. The Egyptian relief is still derived from a hollowing-out process. But the surface is immediately penetrated

191

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:59:11 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

S. Giedion

..... ................ ~~... .7'~."_.: Z. .:i

.

.../ijia;;:i :;';:;i..i....................:...:',':..... . ..e.e;... .....

_,:, t - .............. .BWVNW~.

?&;;',^:'::;i?:/ ::i.:,.^ -- * :: ' . . . .-:: ... : : *::. . ! . :.}.:*:.*:, ; i ^ .~:.,.i : ; ,: : !.. . :.: -' ? . "Fig. 13. Pergamon, detail of the h"ellenistic high-relieffrom the altar of Zeus second century B.C.

Fig. 13. Pergamon, detail of the hellenistic high-relieffrom the altar of Zeus, second century B.C.

at an angle of ninety degrees. This right angle forms a knifelike edge of great plastic significance. The side caught by the light is illuminated as though by a strip of neon lighting, while the other side is emphasized by a dark line of shadow. The effect of these sharp edges is so intense that outlines are fully visible even in the most glaring sunlight (Fig. 12).

The full development of the Egyptian sunken relief came about in the great building undertakings of the New Kingdom, a millenium after its first appearance. As a gatherer of light and shadow, the sunken relief was destined to cover the mighty temple walls with representations that live within the wall surfaces without destroying them. The sunken relief was never abandoned in Egyptian architecture, not even in the Late Period and Roman times.

IX. THE GREEK HIGH RELIEF The situation changed completely in Greek art.

High reliefs are, from the very beginning, derived from sculpture in the round. They project strongly from the background, and in the summit of hellen- istic art (altar of Zeus at Pergamon, second century B.C.) high reliefs have become sculptures in the round, for which the walls behind exist only as a means to attach them (Fig. 13).

Note-An outline in prehistory cannot be regarded in iso- lation. It is enclosed within less tangible elements-here we have looked at it in isolation. In The Eternal Present: The Beginnings of Art (New York: Bollingen Series xxxv.6.I, Bollingen Foundation, Pantheon Books, 1962) we have integrated it in its whole setting together with the prehistorical symbol, the active or potent symbol, which depicts reality before reality occurs (Hunting magic) and with other pheno- mena.

EDITORIAL NOTE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In his concluding note above the author refers to his book. The book and this article are the outcome of his A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, given at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C. in 1957. They are based on studies extending over more than ten years. In a letter to L. Alcopley, Professor Giedion made the following comment on his article: 'Um die Isolierte "outline" in ein grosseres Koordinatensystem zu bringen, greift der Schluss iiber die Prahistorie hinaus.' (In order to bring the isolated 'outline' into a larger coordinating system, the end of my article does not deal with prehistory.)

We are grateful to the author and to Mr. William McGuire of New York City, editorial manager of the Bollingen Series, for their arrangements and permission to reproduce copyrighted Figures 1 to 12. We also thank Dr. Carola Giedion-Welcker for her kind assistance with the publication of the article of her late husband.

192

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.52 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 15:59:11 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions