PREHISTORIC
ART
THE
BEGINNING
Not until 25,000 years ago did
out forebears invent art
• The first art objects were created not to
adorn the body or decorate the cavern--But attempt to control or appease natural
forces
CAVE PAINTING
• FIRST PAINTINGS WERE MADE ABOUT
15,000 YEARS
• BEFORE THE DISCOVERY IN 1996 THE
IMAGES AT LASCAUX, FRANCE WERE
THE OLDEST KNOWN PAINTINGS IN
EUROPE
• PAINTINGS MOST REMOTE RECESSES
OF THE CAVE—WHERE THERE WAS
NO SUNLIGHT
WHY DID THEY PAINT THESE
IMAGES?
• Maybe :
• certain animals are symbolic
• others represent mythical spirits
• to contact spirits in another world
• to track migration patterns
• related to ritual occasions
HORSE
CAVE PAINTING
13,000 B.C.
SCULPTURE
OLDEST SURVIVING ART
OBJECTS ARE SCULPTURES
VENUS OF
WILLENDORF
• 25,000- 20,000 BC
• ONE OT THE EARLIEST
KNOWN HUMAN FIGURES
• VENUS GODDNESS OF
LOVE
• FERTILITY IMAGE
• CARRIED AROUND AS AN
AMULET—GOOD LUCK
CHARM
• ONLY FEATURES SHOWING
BELLY, BREASTS AND PUBIC
AREA
• ONLY 5 INCHES TALL
•
•
•
•
Paleolithic Period:::OLD STONE AGE
After 4000 years gave way to:
NEOLITHIC OR NEW STONE AGE
New stone tools---learned to farm—domesticate
animals (cattle—goats –etc.)help with labor,
food, milk and leather
• Technology of pottery
• Settled communities ---architecture of stone and
wood were starting to be built
ARCHITECTURE
STONE HENGE
2,000 B.C.
Certain conditions foster
preservation of Art
• Durable materials ( stone-metal-fired clay)
• Local of environment not destructive to
artworks
• Stable population• Putting artworks in places of limited or no
accessibility—tombs underground caves
CHARACTERISTICS
OF
PREHISTORIC TIME PERIOD
• CAVE PAINTINGS
• MAGIC
• SURVIVAL
MESOPOTAMIA
• DEVELOPED ON THE TIGRIS AND
EUPHRATES RIVERS
• RIVERS PROVIDED
TRANSPORTATION—SOURCE OF
WATER—IRRIGATION
• CITIES DEVELOPED: RELIGIONS—
ARCHITECTURE
• Lack of boundaries easy to invade/difficult
to defend
Invented:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
360 degree in circle
24 hours in a day
60 minutes in a hour
How many days in a year lacking 26 minutes
Men could go bankrupt
Women could be priests
Mastered irrigation/flood control
Invented city-state-formal religion-mathematicslaw
• Writing used over 3000 years ( cuneiform)
Architecture
• Sun dried brick basic building block
• Devised complex cities/centered around
the temple/also included workshopshomes-stores
• One king palace had 200 rooms covered
25 acres-stood on 1 square mile man
made mound above the city
NANNA ZIGGUARAT
2100-2050
• a Temple Dedicated
to the moon God
Nanna
It was a meeting
place for heaven and
god
SCULPTURE
• Predominant art form
of Mesopotamia—
besides architecture
was---Bas-Relief
Sculpture
• Popular subject to
sculpt was the
• “Lion Hunt”
HUMAN-HEADED WINGED LION
883-859 BC
LIMESTONE
• Stood at the gates of
the Citadel to protect
the palace from it’s
enemies
• Horned cap indicating
dive status
GROUP OF STATUETTES FROM THE
SQUARE TEMPLE OF THE GOD ABU
• Figures represent
priests and
worshipers
large eyes are for
communication with
their Gods-the eyes
are the window to
their souls
• Serve the God of
vegetation
CHARACTERISTICS
OF
Mesopotamia
•
•
•
•
•
Beards
Worship figures
Huge eyes
Ishtar Gate
Low reliefs
EGYPT
THE ART OF
IMMORTALITY
PLATO WROTE: EGYPTAIN ART
DID NOT CHANGE FOR TEN
THOUSAND YEARS---EXAGGERATION---BUT MANY
THINGS REMAINED THE SAME
OVER 3,000 YEARS
In pursuit of permanence the
Egyptians established essentials
of a major civilization—
literature,medical science, higher
mathematics---While else where
lesser civilizations rose and fell
with the annual floods of the Nile,
Egypt sustained the world’s first
large scale –unified state for
3,000 years
CHARACTERISTICS OF
EGYPTIAN ART
• ESSENCE OF:
•
•
•
•
STABILTY
ORDER
ENDURANCE
CONTINUITY
PALETTE OF NARMER
• illustrates many
characteristics of
Egyptian Art
It was used for mixing
cosmetics
Egyptian Painting
• Reveals the same clear visual design and
works in stone
• If you compare works of art such as “The
Palette of Narmer”even a thousand years
later you would not find them separated in
time.
• The pose of the human form would still be
seen in the same
“Wall painting from Thebes”
• depicting a hunting
scene
poses the main figure
very much like
Narmer even though
they are 1650 years
apart in time
SPHINX
• Symbol of most
important
characteristic of
Egyptian art
STABILITY AND
EDURANCE
BUILT 2530 BC ---65
FT. HIGH
PYRAMID OF CHEOPS AT
GIZA EGYPT
• LARGEST STONE
STRUCTURE IN THE
WORLD
leveled 13- acre sitebase perfect square
built 26,000 BC
To construct the Great Pyramid
this is what you would need.
• 2,300,000 limestone blocks—each weighing 2 ½
tons
• Copper and stone cutting tools
• Barges to float blocks down the nile
• Log rollers
• Pearly white lime stone—facing surface to finish
480 ft. of the pyramid
• 4,000 construction workers to move the blocks
weighing up to 15 tons with the benefit of no
animals or wheels
• Completion time 23 years (average life span35
yr)
SCULPTURE
• FOLLOWED A RIGID FORMULA FOR
REPRESENTING THE HUMAN FIGURE
• FRONT VIEWS OF THE EYES AND
SHOULDERS AND PROFILE VIEW OF HEAD,
ARMS AND LEGS
• STATUES INTENDED TO LAST ETERNALLY
• MADE OF HARD SUBSTANCE
GRANITE/DIORITE
QUEEN NEFERTITI
1345 BC --- Limestone
AKHENATEN AND HIS FAMILY
1345 BC
• Sunken relief—figures
do not project upward
from surface--outlines are carved
deep into surface—
figures are modeled
within them surface
down
MUMMY ART
• PROVIDE A DURABLE RECEPTACLE FOR
THE DECEASED SPIRIT
• PERFECTED THE SCIENCE OF EMBOLMING
• 70 DAYS TO MUMMIFY
• BODY SOAKED IN BRINE FOR MORE THAN A
MONTH
• HUNG OUT TO DRY
• WRAPPED AND NESTED INTO COFFINS AND
STONE SARCOPHAGUS
MUMMY OF RAMSES II
• DISCOVERED WITH
39 OTHER DEAD
KINGS
MOSES GREW UP
IN HIS COURT
KNOW AS “THE
GREAT”
SIRED MORE THAN
100 CHILDREN
67 YEAR REIGN
TUTANKHAMUN
1325 BC--- GOLD MASK
1922
THE AEGEAN
• ALONG THE GREEK PENINSULA AND
CONTINENT OF MODERN DAY TURKEY
• PARALLEL IN TIME WITH EGYPT AND
MESOPOTAMIA
3 MAJOR AEGEAN
CULTURES
• CYCLADIC: GROUP OF SMALL
ISLANDS IN THE AEGEAN
• MINOAN: BASED ON THE ISLAND OF
CRETE
• MYCENAEAN:MAINLAND OF GREECE
STATUETTE OF A WOMAN
• Cycladic Art is a
puzzle
art only consists of all
nude female figures --2ft to life size
fertility images
TOREADOR FRESCO FROM PALACE AT
KNOSSOS –
1500 BC---HEIGHT 32”
• MINOAN CULTURE
NUMEROUS
FRESCOES
SURVIVED
LIGHT HEARTED,
HAPPY AND
CHEERFUL PEOPLE
RHYTON
(DRINKING CUP)
• SHAPE OF A LIONS
HEAD
1550 BC—GOLD—8”
MYCENAEAN
CULTURE
KNOWN FOR
ELABORATE BURIAL
CUSTOMS AND
TOMBS
HAD GREAT SUPPLIES OF
GOLD
MASTER GOLDSMITHS
CHACTERISTICS OF THE
AEGEAN CULTURE
• PARALLEL IN TIME WITH EGYPT AND
MESOPOTAMIA
• 3 MAJOR AEGEAN CULTURES
• CYCLADIC
• MINOAN
• MYCENAEAN