prehistoric art
TRANSCRIPT
Prehistoric Art
PRESENTATION BY: IMPRAIM-SWANZY ENOCK
Prehistoric ArtThe term “ prehistoric” is used to mark the time when there were no written records or verbal accounts of man’s activities, that is between 80,000 BC and 5,000BC.
Prehistoric Art refers to paintings, engravings, sculpture and other forms of art, which were done in the earlier stage of man’s cultural development when there were no written records.It began in 30,000BC and ended in 5,000BC
The Prehistoric Art is divided into three phases.
•Stone Age
•Bronze Age
•Iron Age
The Stone Age
Paleolithic Period
Mesolithic Period
Neolithic Period
30,000 BC – 10,000 BC 15,000 BC – 10,000 BC 10,000 BC – 4,000 BC
•The Prehistoric men lived in caves and natural shelters
•The women gathered wild crops and the men gathered wild honey and hunted large animals
•They used the flesh of animals for food, the skin and furs for clothing and the fat for fuel in lamps made of stone or clay.
•Some of the animals they hunted were:
1. Elephant 2. Bison3. Reindeer4. Bear
5. Horse6. Bull7. Rhinoceros
Sympathetic magicThis is a belief that there is a strange relationship between a living thing and its image.
The images were hurt with weapons, believing that the wounding could result in the power to kill the live animals
The paintings of the wild animals were done on the roofs, walls, and floors deep inside the caves.
THE CAVE PAINTINGS – TOOLS & MATERIALS
• Stones were used for making the tools for painting
• Reddish brown and yellow ochre clay were used as pigments • Fats from the animals killed were mixed with the pigments• Water was also used to mix the pigments
TECHNIQUES
Their artist used the contours of the cave surfaces to enhance realism.
It is believed they got their ideas of picture making from the rough and pumpy surfaces of caves and the rocks in which they made their paintings.
The individual figures were superpose, superimpose or juxtaposed.
The images are naturalistic and are drawn in profile and are of different size.
SCULPTURE
Their sculptures were presented in relief or sculpture in the round, in small forms (miniatures/ statuettes)
They include animal and human figures carved in stone, bone or modeled in clay.
There were more female figures than male figures and were used as fertility doll
A typical example is the “Venus of Willendorf” (stone)
Venus of Willendorf
