Paleolithic Key Works

 Paleolithic context

Related Timeline concepts: 

In Tibet, South central Asia, 200,000 year old handprints

In Southern Africa, Blombos Cave, geometrical markings carved in stone and filled with red ochre

Indonesia, Leang Kuampurang Cave, ~51,000 YA

In India, Indian subcontinent of Asia, Bimbetka Cave has artwork from 40,000 YA to 1500 CE

In Germany, central Europe, portable objects from ~40,000 ya to ....? YA

In the Franco-Cantabrian triangle, between present day France and Spain in central Europe, paintings and portable objects from 37,000 YA to....

In Australia, paintings and carvings are up to 20,000 years old

In Argentina, far South in South America, the Cave of the Hands has paintings from 13,000-9300 YA 

 

Aspects of Paleolithic Culture (Old Stone Age Culture): 

People lived in small nomadic groups, hunted and gathered, made portable objects and wall art, and modest range of artifacts remain 

Artworks typically fall in two categories: portable objects and wall painting or carving

making stone tools 

Much evidence of spiritual beliefs and practices

Most names we have of artworks came from the 19th-21st centuries

Few paintings and carvings are found in places where people lived, tho portable objects are.

Methods of Art History

Leang Karampuang, ~51,000 YA, Sulawesi, Indonesia

Great Tour of the Cave and It's discovery

Lion Man of Hohlenstein-Stadel, 40,000 years old, mammoth ivory, 12", found in present-day Germany

Woman of Hohle Fels, 35,000 YA, ivory, found in south ern Germany

Woman of Willendorf, 24-22,000 bce, along the Danube in present-day austria, 4.3" tall
no confirmation of why her face is invisible. Why? 
they're harder to make
more focus on the body
goddess? of what?  
why so many female figures? 
is it a portrait? self-representation? 
history has frequently romanticized-- sexualized these figures as objects of desire

who is receiving them? 
women? pregnant women? women at puberty? children? men? men at puberty? 
early representational, naturalistic artifact with a highly harmonious presence.. For decades, in the 20th c., the Woman of Willendorf had the status of oldest representational object ever found. One of hundreds of palm-sized or smaller,, losenge-shaped  female figurines from Siberia to Eastern Europe to Southwestern Europe with exaggerated reproductive characteristics and understated or absent hands, feet, faces, heads, sometimes also arms and legs. 

Chauvet Cave, 37,000 YA, France

Rhinos, Chauvet

Horses, Chauvet

"Hall of the Bulls" Lascaux Cave, 22,000-17,000 oldest paintings, over 600 paintings in all

Lascaux Cave

Lascaux Cave

Crossed Bison, Lascaux Cave

Shaft of the Dead Man, so called, Lascaux Cave

Cueva de Las Manos, Argentina, 13,000 -9300YA 

Questions to ask regarding context

how big were the populations of home areas

what considerations were on peoples' minds

• art history? 
• food? 
• health? 
• shelter? 
• desire to be remembered? known in history? 
• religion
• survival
• love
• sexuality
• battle
• power

who are the people making work about? 

were roles gendered? 

why are people making the work? 

where? geographic conditions-- wildlife, plants, climate

Questions to ask regarding form, function, manufacture, meaning : too many. Here are two posts: Questions to ask a work of Art and Formal Qualities that can help you access more about describing.

One comment about the filmmakers' choices; one fact about paleolithic art that we shouldn't forget