Prehistoric Art Lecture 1 PDF

Defining Civilization According to the French historian Fernand Braudel, “civilization” in its modern sense was first used in 1752 by the French scholar Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, who was then writing a history of mankind. Prior to this, expressions like “civilized” and “to civilize” can be fo...

Defining Civilization According to the French historian Fernand Braudel, “civilization” in its modern sense was first used in 1752 by the French scholar Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, who was then writing a history of mankind. Prior to this, expressions like “civilized” and “to civilize” can be found as far back as the 16th century. These words came into use during the Renaissance in the Romance languages, “probably French and derived from the verb civiliser, meaning to achieve or impart refined manners, urbanization, and improvement” (Kroeber and Kluckhohn, 1952:145, cited by Schäfer,2001:305). In its received sense at the time, a “civilized man” was the diametrical opposite of savages. A civilization is composed of constituent elements or “cultures” which are interwoven with one another and are in constant interaction with other civilizations and their cultures in the world outside. These elements not only make up a civilization itself but are exactly what distinguishes one civilization from another. Based on a multiplicity of cultures, a civilization provides identity to those who belong to and are committed to it. Through a common geographical locus and a common set of values and social institutions rooted in that place, a particular civilization enables those belonging to it to identify with one another while differentiating themselves from inhabitants of another civilization. Thus based on a common geographical locus, common codes of conduct, common social institutions, and a common historical memory, a civilization endows cohesion, coherence, and consistency upon its members. PREHISTORIC ART Prehistoric art is divided into three phases that correspond to the periods of Stone Age culture: Paleolithic (the late years of the Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), and Neolithic (New Stone Age). These periods span roughly the years 14,000 to 2000 BCE. Works of art from the Stone Age include cave paintings, reliefs, and sculpture of stone, ivory, and bone. The subjects consist mainly of animals, although some abstract human figures have been found. There is no surviving architecture as such. Many Stone Age dwellings consisted of caves and rock shelters. Some impressive monuments such as Stonehenge exist, but their functions remain a mystery. Paleolithic Art Paleolithic art is the art of the last Ice Age, during which time glaciers covered large areas of northern Europe and North America. As the climate got colder, people retreated into the protective warmth of caves, and it is here that we find their first attempts at artistic creation. The great cave paintings of the Stone Age were discovered by accident in northern Spain and southwestern France. At Lascaux, France, two boys whose dog chased a ball into a hole followed the animal and discovered beautiful paintings of bison, horses, and cattle that are estimated to be more than 15,000 years old. At first, because of the crispness and realistic detail of the paintings, they were thought to be forgeries. But in time, geological methods proved their authenticity One of the most splendid examples of Stone Age painting, the so-called Hall of Bulls (Fig. 1), is found in a cave at Lascaux. Here, superimposed upon one another, are realistic images of horses, bulls, and reindeer that appear to be stampeding in all directions. With one glance, we can understand the early skepticism concerning their authenticity. So fresh, lively, and purely sketched are the forms that they seem to have been rendered yesterday. In their attempt at naturalism, the artists captured the images of the beasts by first confidently outlining the contours of their bodies. They then filled in these dark outlines with details and colored them with shades of ocher and red. The artists seem to have used a variety of techniques ranging from drawing with chunks of raw pigment to applying pigment with fingers and sticks. They also seem to have used an early “spray painting” technique in which dried, ground pigments were blown through a hollowed-out bone or reed. Although the tools were primitive, the techniques and results were not. They used foreshortening and contrasts of light and shadow to create the illusion of three-dimensional forms. They strove to achieve a most convincing likeness of the animal. Fig. 1 Hall of the Bulls at Lascaux Cave. The Hall of the Bulls, also called the Rotunda, is an extension of the entrance zone. It is about 20 metres long, and it varies in width between 5.5 and 7.5 metres. Between the ceiling and the lower part, a corbelled zone contains nearly all of the iconography, which extends uninterrupted for some thirty metres on either side of the hall. The extremely white calcite walls helps to show off the beautiful wall paintings by contributing to the saturation of the colours. The images in the Hall of the Bulls are amongst the most striking in all of Palaeolithic art: 130 figures, including 36 representations of animals and some 50 geometric signs. This extensive frieze is composed of three animal themes – horses (17 individuals), cattle (11 cows and bulls) and deer (6 stags) – which recur consistently in the various parts of the cave. Exceptionally, a bear is also depicted. Why did prehistoric people sketch these forms? Did they create these murals out of a desire to delight the eye, or did they have other reasons? We cannot know for certain. However, it is unlikely that the paintings were merely ornamental, because they were confined to the deepest recesses of the cave, far from the areas that were inhabited, and were not easily reached. Also, new figures were painted over earlier ones with no apparent regard for composition. It is believed that successive artists added to the drawings, respecting the sacredness of the figures that already existed. It is further believed that the paintings covered the walls and ceilings of a kind of inner sanctuary where religious rituals concerning the capture of prey were performed. Some have suggested that by “capturing” these animals in art, Stone Age hunters believed that they would be guaranteed success in capturing them in life. This theory, and others, is unproven.