Transcript prehistoric
Pre-Historic
Paleolithic
Mesolithic
Neolithic
Artist as Magician
Paleolithic- Old Stone Age
Mesolithic-Middle Stone Age
•Earliest form of craft seen
•Connecting form and function
•Shaped rock to meet needs as tools
•Earliest form of ART- 35,000 years ago
•During the time of the last Ice Age
•Objects found mostly in Spain and southern France
•People were nomadic and lived in caves or over hanging rocks
•Artwork was completed for ritualistic purposes
Altamira-Images are incised or
painted onto rock-often
use natural projections
of the rock to fit the
drawing
-bison is lifelike due to
shading and roundness
-animals only- no
landscape backgrounds
-painted from ocre and
ash from the
surroundings- used as
much as 3 colors
Altamira, Wounded Bison
Lascaux, France
•Pictures are drawn far inside the caves, away from entrances
•Produced as part of a magic ritual
•Pictures are superimposed- no separation between image and reality
•Once the animal has been killed, the spirit has been killed and a new animal
is drawn on top
•Purpose of the drawings were to lure animals for the hunt-they were scarce
-wanted fertility both for animals and for
themselves
-small figures carved from naturally
shaped rocks
-central point in the design, the navel is a
natural crevice in the rock
Venus of Willendorf, Austria
Neolithic- New Stone Age
8000 BC- Near East
•Began with the onset of farmingdomestication of animals and food grains
•Still used stone tools
•Created permanent settlements- new
crafts- pottery, weaving, spinning,
architecture
Actual human skull- face has been
recreated and tinted, decorated
with seashells
-strong individuality- first known
portrait
-meant to perpetuate life beyond
death
-displayed above ground, rest of
body was buried- first recoginition
of belief of life beyond death
-believed in a spirit, located in the
head that remained after deaththese heads were meant to trap
spirits in their graves
Sculptured Head, Jericho, 7000 BC
Catal Huyak, Turkey
-Lived in houses of mud and brick centered around courtyards
-no streets or doors- people entered through the roof
-large number of shrines
-plaster walls with paintings- 1st known artwork on man-made
surface, no more actual hunts- everything is ritual- in honor of male
and female deities
Landscape drawing of Catal Huyuk
-1st evidence of goddess worship- mountains always shown in profile
-houses shown from above- both a map and a landscape
Stone Henge, 3000 BC
Neolithic Europe not as advancedMegaliths- large stone structures
solely for religious purposes
Made up of Dolmenstombs with upright stones,
slab roof
Cromlechs-other stones that
form a setting
Outer circle and 2 inner
circles with a center altar
Oriented towards the point
at which the sun rises on the
Summer Solstice
Totems of
animals from a
specific tribeechos the natural
formation of the
land.
Mound Builders, North America