Art History
Chapter 1 Prehistory
Enduring Understanding 1.1
• Human expression existed across the
globe before the written record. While
prehistoric art of Europe has been the
focus of many introductions to the history
of art, very early art is found worldwide
and shares certain features, particularly
concern with the natural world and
humans’ place within it.
Enduring Understanding 1.1
a) Defined in terms of geological eras or major
shifts in climate and environment. Human
Behavior & expression was influenced by
the changing environments in which they
lived.
b) Earliest peoples were small groups of
hunter-gatherers. Paramount concern was
survival, resulting in the creation of practical
objects. Practical tools, ritual and symbolic
works. Established artistic media: ceramics,
painting, incised graphic designs, sculpture,
and architecture.
Enduring Understanding 1-2
• First instances of important artistic media,
approaches, and values occurred on
different continents, with Africa and Asia
preceding and influencing other areas as
the human population spread.
a) Awareness of fundamental, stable
phenomena: macrocosmic ( astronomical
cyces), microcosmic (available materials in
environment: jade, clay..)
Enduring Understanding 1-2
b) Origins of Humanity understood to have
begun in Africa & radiated outward. Typically
2-D geometric representations of life forms &
natural materials
c) Paleolithic communities in West, Central,
South, Southeast & East between 70,000 &
40,000 BCE
d) Pacific regions, migrations from Asia aprox
45,000 yrs ago due to lowered sea levels
Enduring Understanding 1-2
e) Paleolithic & Neolilithic Europe’s human
figural sculptures provided glimpses into
ritual life & showed the connections of
naturalism (cosmos, fertility) and abstraction
found throughout art’s history.
f) American continent, indigenous peoples
(migrated from Asia before 10,000 BCE)
makd sculptures from animal bone & later
from clay. Animals & sacred humans
dominant subject matter.
Enduring Understanding 1-3
• Over time, art historians’ knowledge of
global prehistoric art has developed
through interdisciplinary collaboration with
social and physical scientists.
a) Ongoing archaeological excavations & use
of carbon-14 dating
b) Stratigraphic archaeology
c) Function inferred from evidence of
technology & survival strategies, culture,
food sources
1-4 Venus of Willendorf
Subtractive Sculpture
Flashcard
Flashcard
1-10 Spotted Horses and negative hand imprints
New
APAH
Apollo 11
Stones
1-11 Hall of the Bulls
Flashcard
TWISTED PERSPECTIVE – combination of frontal
and side view.
Frontal
Side view
(profile)
faculty.evansville.edu/.../sum04/art105-12.html
Camelid sacrum in the shape of a canine.
Tequixquiac, central Mexico 14,000-7000
BCE Bone
Earliest example of
rock art
Dotted marks indicate
body paint
Featureless face
White parallel
patterns represent
flowing raffia decor
Horns shown in
twisted perspective or
composite are part of
ceremonial attire
Running horned woman. Tassili
n’Ajjer, Algeria. 6000-4000 BCE
Bushel with ibex
motifs. Susa, Iran.
4200-3500 BCE.
Painted terra cotta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeNfDr
4ojZg#t=199
Terra cotta fragment.
Lapita, Solomon
Islands, Reef Islands.
1000 BCE
The Ambum stone
•
Pre-historic
zoomorphic figure,
• Possibly
representing the
embryo of a longbeaked echidna
(spiny anteater)
• 3500 years ago
Tlatilco
Female figure,
1200–900 B.C.
Ceramic with traces
of pigment
Jade cong Liangzhu, China 33002200 BCE Carved jade
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/jadecong.html
Anthropormorphic
stele.
Arabian Peninsula.
Fourth millennium
BCE Sandstone.
Flashcard
1-16 Level VI Catal Hoyuk, Turkey
faculty.evansville.edu/.../sum04/art105-12.html
COMPOSITE RECONSTRUCTION DRAWING OF A SHRINE ROOM
http://catal.arch.cam.ac.uk/visit/Neolithic/B5EN.html
Megaliths
Trilithon
Cromlech or henge
Post and Lintel
Post
Lintel
Flashcard
Significant astronomical alignments at Stonehenge
1-19 Stonehenge
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Historical Context
•
•
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Time period: 30,000 BCE – 2300 BCE
Paleolithic – old stone age
Mesolithic –Middle Stone Age
Neolithic – New Stone Age
Hunter Gatherers to towns with permanent
houses
• No written language – unable to understand art’s
meaning – must speculate
• Tool – burin used to incise (scratch)
Stylistic Characteristics
•
•
•
•
•
Paleolithic – mostly animals
Cave paintings
Sculptures – relief, subtractive, in the round
Animals – strict profile
Humans – twisted or composite perspective
(combined front & side view)
• Megaliths, trilithons, cromlechs/henge, post &
lintel