arh 2050 chapter 1

8/9/2019 Arh 2050 Chapter 1

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/arh-2050-chapter-1 1/7

CHAPTER 1 Primitive vs prehistoric can be misleading, suggests it was crude had

longstanding oral tradition, makes untrue implications in many cases it is

made in connection w/ some magical or mythical belief, shares a lack of concern for the replication of space surface is used as the ground (ex. Wall of

cave is the ground)

+Found objects: Images, materials, or objects as found in the everyday

environment that are appropriated as works of art. Art historians consider

this art to be unmodified by human intervention beyond mere selection

1.2 Waterworn pebble, South Africa, c. 3,000,000 BC

Humankind originated in Africa, where we find the

first evidence of objects/concepts that appear to look like something else. Explorers of a cave at

Makapansgat Valley discovered bones along with a

waterworn reddish brown jasperite pebble that

resembled a human face because of the natural

occurring holes on it. Is it art? Most say no because no

one made it but the recognition is that is it ³found

art.´ The conjecture is someone found it, thought it

was special, took it to cave, and kept it.

³Artwork´ defined by art historians needed to be altered/modified by humanhands

+Paleolithic From the Greek paleo-old and lithos-stone; Old Stone Age,

during which humans started making art purposely with no other purpose

than decoration beginning in 30,000 BC. Creative production increases

dramatically (human and animal form in many forms, jewelry is made,

sculptures, paintings). Animals often depicted in profile (most info). Human

figures almost always female.

+incise: to cut into a surface with a sharp instrument; also, a method of decoration, especially on metal or pottery.

1.5 Venus of Willendorf, Austria, Paleolithic, c. 28,000-

25,000 BC

A 4¶¶ limestone figurine of a nude woman, discovered in

1908. Name of ³Venus´ is misleading because it implies

religious or magical. The anatomical exaggeration of

8/9/2019 Arh 2050 Chapter 1


round, swollen, and voluptuous femaleness suggests fertility, perhaps a

representation of health. Faceless expression indicates anonymity, a

personification of life itself. Pubic triangle is shown. Feet are tapered at the

bottom. Handheld size implies individuality, used as a private charm. It

mimics a sleeping/dead position. It was found with traces of red pigment.

+relief: In sculpture, figures projecting from a background of which they are

part. The degree of relief is designate high, low (bas), and sunken (hollow).

1.6 Woman holding a bison horn, France, Paleolithic,

c. 25,000-20,000 BC

18¶¶ tall, oldest known work of relief sculpture that

projects from a background that it is still a part of.

Originally carved into a large rock at the entrance of

a rock sculpture tells us that the people could becoming back, or a symbol of some sort public work of

art and could be a symbol meaningful to more than

one person could mark the function of the space

itself. The painted limestone different from VoW,

active, animated, stationary, same large, exaggerated

female features, does not have a face, has traces of

red pigment, shared a theme reclining woman relief sculpture, selected the

natural curving form of the rock itself to accentuate his image that implies a

portrait or a model.

1.7 Two bison, France, Paleolithic,

c. 15,000-10,000 BC

A pair of 2¶ long bison modeled in

clay against a large, irregular free

standing rock. A natural geological

feature, largest Paleolithic

sculpture in stone, formed through

specific tools, with volume anddepth, ground line of cave used,

showing a living breathing animal.

+ground line: a painted or carve base line on which figures appear to stand in

paintings and reliefs.

8/9/2019 Arh 2050 Chapter 1


+ground: a coating applied to a canvas or some other surface to prepare that

surface for painting; also, background

+medium: the substance or agency in which an artist works; also, in painting,

the vehicle (usually liquid) that carries the pigment.

1.10 Spotted horses and

negative hand imprints,

France, Paleolithic, c.

22,000 BC

Signs consisting of checks,

dots, squares, or other

arrangement of lines often

accompany the pictures of animals. Painted hands

accompany

representations of spotted

horses. 11¶2¶¶ images overlapped handprints (literally see the artist's hand and

the desire to leave his signature). ³Negative´ handprints means painter blew

pigment around his hand. ³Positive´ handprint means painter placed hand in

pigment first. It¶s unsure of function or meaning desire to tell the viewer that

it was made shows a sense of power ("I made it"). Paint is made out of

mineral pigments, specific place chosen because rock formation looks like

horse. It shows a sense of reality vs. illusion.

+mural: a wall painting; a fresco is a type of mural medium and technique

1.11 Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux, France, Paleolithic, c. 15,000-13,000 BC

8/9/2019 Arh 2050 Chapter 1


A complex of caves were discovered in 1940 by 4 teens who fell into the cave.

Shown is a large stone gallery of bulls and other animals with no natural light,

indicating that it needed to be lit to execute work. Many bulls and bison bulls

are represented by 2 methods: silhouette and outline. The range in size

appears that the images were depicted in different times. The artist uses

twisted perspective descriptive approach. It has subjective function or

purpose (could be magical or the artist trying to convey the world around

him), and described as floating (no representation of space).

+composite view: a convention of representation in which part of a figure is

shown in profile and another part is shown frontally; it is a descriptive, as

opposed to a strictly optical, method of representation.

1.13 Rhinoceros, woundedman, and disemboweled

bison, Lascaux, France,

Paleolithic, c. 15,000 BC

+narrative composition:

elements in a work of art

arranged in such a manner

as to tell a story

Paintings constitute the first depiction of man in prehistoric art, which seems

to have a narrative concept and/or progression of time. Is it documentary or

didactic? The story is enigmatic because we are unsure of the ambiguous

positions of figures. Maleness is exaggerated. Bison is successfully shown with

emotion, full of bristling anger as its innards are disemboweled by a spear the

beak (masked?) man with the erect penis may have thrown. The duck stick is

randomly place, unsure of significance, may suggest power.

+Neolithic from the Greek neo-new and lithos-stone; New Stone Age c. 9000-

2000 BC marks the domestication of animals, development of agriculture andlivestock as a food source, larger art, fixed homes or permanent dwellings

used in clustered villages, simplified accounting. Mesopotamia Fertile

Crescent. The oldest known villages were found bordering Tigress and

Euphrades rivers. Grain, animals, and rain were plentiful. In early

settlements, weaving, metal work, and pottery originated.

8/9/2019 Arh 2050 Chapter 1


Jericho: a plateau in the Jordan River valley with a spring that provided

constant water supply. The site was occupied by a small village that

underwent spectacular development around 8000 BC when the inhabitants

built a new Neolithic settlement covering about 10 acres.

1.14 The Great Stone Tower, Jericho, Neolithic, c.

8,000-7,000 BC

Wealth grew for the settlement so the need for

protection against robbers resulted in one of the

earliest known stone fortifications. Neolithic

Jericho was protected by 5¶ thick walls and at least

one stone tower 30¶ high-an outstanding

achievement that marks the beginning of

monumental architecture. The internal staircasereaches the top. It exudes a sense of property. The

use of it as a defense mechanism creates an ³us vs.

them´ mentality. Elaborate construction suggests

town planning and organization by a group of

builders.

Catal Hoyuk, Turkey, 6150 BC, site of flourishing Neolithic culture, earliest

examples of suburban living: trade in obsidian (glass like volcanic stone use

by Neolithic tool and stone workers because of its durability); town built in a

certain place for commerce and trade

Reconstruction drawing The town is arranged in a particular manner, has no

streets or doors on buildings, access buildings through roofs, security,

windows are up high, compacted, makes a strong defensive unit structure b/c

they were mud and they needed to lean against each other, rooms vary in size,

the interior was plastered and painted (decorated) - desire to make

aesthetically pleasing, some were shrines in which the dead were buried

beneath the floors usually along with arrowheads or jewelry.

8/9/2019 Arh 2050 Chapter 1


+landscape: a picture of a natural setting without narrative content

1.18 Landscape with Volcanic Eruption, Catal Hoyuk, Turkey, Neolithic, c.

6150 BC

Considered one of the first landscapes depicting no figures. Pigment on

plaster. Foreground depicts a little town of thick solid walls with holes in the

roofs and a double peaked erupting volcano (Mt. Hasan) is behind it. In a

sense, it¶s a geographically narrative.

+megalith: literally, ³great stone´; a large roughly hewn stone used in the

construction of monumental prehistoric structures

+lintel: a horizontal beam used to span an opening

+sarsen: a form of sandstone used for the megaliths at Stonehenge

+cromlech: an arrangement of huge stones in a circle, also called a henge+monolith: a large, single block or piece of stone used in megalith structures.

Also, a column that is all in one piece (not composed of drums)

+trilithons: a three stone construction; two vertical monoliths toped with a

lintel

1.20 Stonehenge, Salisbury, England,

Neolithic, c. 2550-1600 BC

Stonehenge is a complex of rough-cut

sarsen stones and smaller bluestonesbuilt in several stages over hundreds

of years. The outer ring is 100¶ in

diameter. Ditch must have been built

first. Holes hold cremated remains so

is it an ancestral place of worship?

Opens out to east. It seems to have

8/9/2019 Arh 2050 Chapter 1


been a kind of astronomical observatory and a remarkably accurate solar

calendar.

Without written record, we don¶t know its purpose, however, we do know

that some sense of control and understanding of how things work must have

been involved. It truly is a testament of megalithic culture, nothing primitive

about it.

arh 2050 chapter 1

Documents