Chapter 1 The Birth of Art - Notes
Humankind seems to have originated in Africa long ago, perhaps millions of years.
For the study of art we must look beyond just evidence of man and ask ourselves
what makes an “artwork”? For art historians to declare a piece an “artwork,” it
must have been modified by human intervention beyond mere selection. It was
not until about 30,000 BC that humans intentionally manufactured sculptures
and paintings. This is when the story of art really begins.
The several millennia following 30,000 BC saw a powerful outburst of creativity
of astonishing variety. This period has been classified by scholars as the Old
Stone Age or Paleolithic period. This comes from the Greek paleo “old” and
lithos “stone”. During this period of time humans went beyond the recognition of
human and animal forms in their natural environment to the representation of
humans and animals. The immensity of this achievement cannot be exaggerated.
Africa
Some of the earliest paintings yet discovered in Africa were portable. The artists
had to ask themselves the same two questions that you must ask yourself today.
What is my subject and how shall I represent it? In Paleolithic art the answer
was almost always an animal - bison, mammoth, ibex, and horse were the most
common. In fact humans were rarely depicted and men almost never. Virtually
every animal in Paleolithic, Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), and Neolithic (New
Stone Age) painting was presented in the same manner - in strict profile. Why?
The profile is the only view of the animal in which the head, body, tail, and legs
could all be seen at once. Only the profile view is completely informative and this
is why the Stone Age painter always chose it. The concepts of “variety” and
“originality” would not be seen for many millennia. The aim of the earliest
painters was to create a convincing image of the subject, a kind of pictorial
definition of the animal capturing its very essence, and only the profile met their
needs.
Western Europe
The earliest sculptures also depicted animals and humans. For Stone Age
representations no knows what their makers had in mind. Because this is PreHistory (or before writing), any authoritative explanations are just speculation.
Not knowing their exact purpose, however, does not keep us from learning some
things. We know that these objects were important to them because of the time it
took to do them.
The earliest depictions of humans are almost exclusively woman as opposed to
men. The women in paint and sculpture were almost always nude, even though
they must have worn garments to cover parts of their bodies. When archaeologists
first discovered Paleolithic statuettes of women, they dubbed them “Venuses,”
after the Greco-Roman goddess of beauty and love, who artists usually depicted
nude. The nickname is inappropriate and misleading. There is no evidence for
named Gods and goddesses in human form during the Old Stone Age, but it is also
doubtful that these figurines represented deities of any kind.
The “Venus of Willendorf” is named after the place it was found in Austria. What
do you think could be reasons for the ball-like shape? The artist’s response to the
material, the exaggerated features suggest this is like fertility figures found in other
areas are some possibilities. Other Paleolithic stone women have been depicted
much more slender which brings some to the conclusion that the meanings of these
images are as elusive as everything else in Paleolithic art. Yet the preponderance
of female figures over male in this period seems to indicate a preoccupation with
women, who child- bearing capabilities ensured survival of the species.
In this piece the sculpture did not strive for naturalism in shape or proportion.
Characteristic with other figurines is the lack of facial details. Some believe that
the hair area may depict a woven hat that could be evidence of textile
manufacturing at an early date. Whatever the purposes of these statuettes, the
maker’s intent seems to have been to represent female form and not a specific
woman.
The two bison shown in the high relief sculpture were created in clay against a
large free standing rock. What do you notice that is characteristic of depiction of
these bison? They are in profile. These are among the largest Paleolithic
sculptures known. What are the cracks we see and why are they there?
In “Bison with Turned Head” we see art on a smaller and portable scale. It was
used as a spear thrower. What do we notice about the depiction of the bison?
Again it is in strict profile. The head is turned 180 degrees to maintain the
Paleolithic characteristic of profile because it creates greater clarity and
completeness.
The Cave Paintings
The first examples of cave painting were found accidentally by an amateur
archaeologist in 1879 at Altamira, Spain. At the time they were dismissed by
professional archaeologists as forgeries. Over the next twenty years, many more
painted walls were discovered that were partially covered with mineral deposits
that would have taken thousands of years to accumulate, convincing the skeptics.
More than 200 Paleolithic painting sites have been discovered. The cave paintings
are still regarded as rare, even though there are hundreds of images, because they
were created over a period of 10,000 to 20,000 years.
There are important characteristics to note: every one of the Altamira bison is in
profile, whether alive and standing or curled up on the ground, perhaps dead.
Modern critics often refer to the bison as a group, but that is very likely incorrect.
The bison do not share a common ground line, nor do they share a common
orientation. They seem almost to float above the viewer. There is no setting, no
background, or indication of place. The painters appear to have no concern for
where the animals are, nor how they relate to one another. Instead it seems that
they are rather several separate images of a bison probably drawn at different
times each with as much information as possible. The meaning of all of this,
however, remains a mystery.
The best known Paleolithic cave is at Lascaux, near Montignac, France. It is
extensively decorated, but hundreds of feet from any entrance. The most
magnificent is a large circular gallery called The Hall of Bulls, though not all are
bulls. Many are represented using color silhouettes as in Altamira, others are
created by outline. We see the profile approach to drawing. There is also another
convention called twisted perspective, because viewers see the heads in profile but
the horns from the front. Thus the painter’s approach is not consistently and
strictly optical, but rather descriptive, to show both horns. While this twisted
perspective was common it was not universal.
In Chauvet cave at Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, France in profile the horns are shown as
one horn, the true natural way. There also is depicted two rhinos attacking each
other. This deviation from the norm has challenged the thinking regarding
Paleolithic art. The traditional thinking is that man progressed from more
symbolic, simplified, or abstract images to more accurate or naturalistic forms.
Chauvet turns that thinking upside down, since the paintings are determined to be
twice as old as Lascaux, Altamina and Peche-Merle. The assumption that
Paleolithic art evolved from simple to more sophisticated representation is wrong.
A painting found deep in the Lascaux cave was a strange discovery. It appears that
the images could be a narrative. A narrative involving humans at this early a date
in many thousands of years before it was believed to have happened.
Neolithic Art
Around 9000 BC the ice that covered much of Northern Europe during the
Paleolithic period melted and the climate grew warmer. The reindeer migrated
north and the wooly Mammoth and rhinoceros disappeared. This gave way to a
transitional period now labeled Mesolithic. Europe became climatically,
geographically, and biologically much as it is today. Then for several thousand
years at different times in different parts of the globe, a great new age, the
Neolithic age, dawned.
Humans began living in fixed abodes and domesticate plants and animals. The
Agricultural Revolution which assured a stable food supply, enabled people to
change from hunters and gatherers to farmers and finally townspeople. The
conventional division of prehistory into Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic
periods is based upon the development of stone implements. A different
distinction can be made between the age of food gathering and the age of food
production. The Paleolithic period corresponds roughly to the age of food
gathering. The Mesolithic period which is the last phase of the Paleolithic period
is marked by intensified food gathering and the taming of the dog. In the Neolithic
period, agriculture and stock raising became human kind’s major food sources.
The transition to the Neolithic period occurred first in the ancient Near East.
Ancient Near East
The remains of the oldest known settled communities have been found in the
grassy uplands bordering the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia (Parts of
modern Syria and Iraq), eventually spreading to the river valleys and deltas of the
two rivers. Species of native plants such as wheat and barley were plentiful as
were herds of goats, sheep, and pigs that could be domesticated. Sufficient rain
occurred for the raising of crops.
The ability to stay in one place enabled the origination and development of
weaving, metalworking, pottery, and counting and recording with tokens. These
innovations spread from Mesopotamia to Northern Syria, Anatolia (Turkey), and
Egypt.
Jericho
This is the ancient city that we read about in the Bible. By 7000 BC, agriculture
was well established in Palestine, Iran, and Anatolia. The site of Jericho - a
plateau in the Jordan River valley with an unfailing spring - was occupied by a
small village as early as 9000 BC. Around 8000 BC a new Neolithic town
covering ten acres was built. Mud brick houses sat on round or oval stone
foundations and had roofs of branches covered with dirt.
Over time the town’s wealth grew the need for protection resulted in the first
known permanent stone fortifications. By 7500 BC, the town with over 2000
people, was surrounded by a wide rock-cut ditch and a 5 foot thick wall that was at
least 13 feet tall. Into the wall was built a circular tower that was 28 feet high and
33 feet in diameter with an inner stairway leading to the summit. This structure
was a tremendous technological achievement built with only simple stone tools.
Ain Ghazai
Near Amman, Jordan. It was populated from late eighth millennium to late sixth
millennium BC. They built houses of irregularly shaped stones, but carefully
plastered and then painted floors and walls red. Two caches containing 3 dozen
plaster statuettes, busts, some with two heads and dateable to mid seventh
millennium BC. An armature core of reed and twine was then covered with plaster
and decorated with a black tar like substance. Orange and black hair was added as
was clothing on some. Only rarely did sculptures indicate the gender of the
figures. Their size (as much as three feet tall) and sophisticated technique
distinguish them from the other sculptures we have seen. It marks the beginning of
monumental sculpture.
Catal Hoyuk
Is located in Anatolia, which is in modern Turkey. This Neolithic town flourished
between 7000 BC and 5000 BC. So far one of thirty-two acres has been excavated.
One quality of the settlement is the lack of streets. The houses adjoin one another
and have no doors. Openings in the roofs provided access to the interior. The
openings also severed as chimneys to ventilate the living room and question. This
arrangement, while impractical today, had advantages. The attached homes
created greater stability as a structure and the perimeter acted as a wall of defense
from human and natural forces. If they managed to get over the wall defenders
were waiting on the roof. The houses were built of mud brick strengthened with
timbers. The interior walls and floors were plastered and painted with platforms
along the walls for sleeping, working, and eating. The dead were buried beneath
the floors. Catal Hoyuk appeared to be a trade center, especially dealing in
obsidian, a stone highly prized for its fine cutting edge.
Narrative Painting
The painted wall murals at Catal Hoyuk are different than previous motifs of the
Paleolithic age. Here humans appear in the images in large coherent groups with a
wide variety of poses, subjects, and settings. In Neolithic paintings, human themes
and concerns and action scenes with humans dominating animals are central. The
figures are of twisted perspective showing the torso from the front and the legs and
arms from profile. This composite view of the body is not natural but it is
descriptive. Painting also went from direct application to natural stone walls to
walls of carefully prepared plaster.
The First Landscape
One wall in Catal Hoyuk has a painting that has been declared by some as the
oldest landscape known; a painting of a natural setting in its own right without
narrative content. This purpose would not be seen in other discovered, dated work
for another 1000 years.
Western Europe
In Western Europe, were paleolithic paintings and sculptures abound, the have
been no comparatively developed towns as Catal Hoyuk. Around 4000 BC, local
Neolithic populations in several areas developed a monumental architecture
employing massive rough cut stones. Historians have called them megaliths (great
stones) and designated their culture that produced them megalithic.
Although megalithic monuments are through out Europe, the arrangement of huge
stones in a circle (called a cromlech or henge) often surrounded by a ditch is
almost entirely limited to Britain. Stonehenge in southern England is made up of
trilithons (Three stone constructions) The vertical stones are called posts and the
stones laying vertical across the top are called lintels (a stone beam used to span an
opening). Stonehenge was probably built in several phases in the centuries before
and after 2000 BC. It seems to have been some kind of astronomical observatory
and is a remarkably accurate solar calendar. In the Middle Ages the people
believed it to be the work of Merlin the magician of Arthurian legend who spirited
them from Ireland.
Summery
The first sculptures and paintings predate written history by tens of thousands of
years. No one knows why the images were made. These works were not created
as “art” in the modern sense. But Paleolithic “artists” were the first to represent
the world around them, initiating an intellectual revolution of enormous
consequence. Techniques and conventions they established along with their
Neolithic successors, would characterize sculpture and painting for millennia.