prehistoric art

PREHISTORIC ARTPREHISTORIC ART

ART• 1. CAVE ART• 1.1. The Franco-Cabrian region• 1.2. The Levantine area• 2. PORTABLE ART• 3. MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS

3.1 The Atlantic coast3.2 The Mediterranean

1. CAVE ART

• Done on cave walls.• Around 35.000 years ago.• Two main regions:

– Franco-Cantabrian region: Altamira (Cantabria, Spain) and Lascaux (France).

– Levantine area (Iberian peninsula): Valltorta (Castellón) and Cogull (Lérida).

PIGMENTS

The prehistoric artists used materials they had around. Red, brown and yellow pigments were extracted from clay and rust, mixing it with water or egg. Black pigment was extracted from charcoal and white from gypsum.

1.1 FRANCO-CANTABRIAN REGION.• Characteristics:

– Naturalism.

– Polychrome.

– Use of irregularities of the rock to show volume and depth.

– Interior of the caves.

– They represent animals alone, not scenes.

– No human figures.

Altamira Cave

Bison Altamira

Horse Altamira

Deer of Altamira

Altamira Cave. Bisons’ Room

Altamira Cave. Bison

Deer. Altamira

Lascaux Cave. Horse

Lascaux Cave. Bull

Altamira. Bisons

Irregularities that feel it is a 3D painting.

LASCAUX (FRANCE): Bisons

Interior of Lascaux ( 15,000-13,000 B.C.)

3.2 LEVANTINE AREA:• Characteristics:

– Epipaleolithic-Neolithic(9.000-4.000 B.C.).

– In shallow caves.

– Human figures and animals in huntings scenes.

– Movement.

– Smaller figures.

– Schematic, very simpliflied lines.

– Monochrome.

Guerreros de la cueva de Roure (Castellón)

Abrigo dels Cavalls. Cacería de ciervos

Valltorta. Shallow cave

Dancers of Cueva dels Moros (Cogull)

Valltorta. Hunters

VALLTORTA: Hunters.

Gathering honey(Cueva de la Araña).

2. PORTABLE ART

• Its an art can be carried from one place to another.

• Engavings: drawings done on a hard surface by make incisions with a harder tool.

• Figurines of human figures (Venus) or animals.

• Other objects: adornments, batons of command, amulets and talismans,

VENUS OF WILLENDORF – Austria (30.000 B.C.)

Venus of Lespugue – France – 26.000 B.C. (ivory)

Venus of Laussel – France - Paleolithic

Bison of Madeleine (Dordogna, France)

Horse of Les Espelugues (Lourdes,

France)

3. MEGALITHIC ART

Definition: construction of monuments and collective tombs using huge stones. (megas: big; litos: stone)

Location: Europe. In Iberian Peninsula there are some examples

in Andalucia, Extremadura, Portugal, Galicia.

Chronology: beginning of Metale Age (copper).

Historical context: first societies in Atlantic area.

3.1. ATLANTIC COAST

1 – Menhir

2 – Alignment

3 – Cromlech

4 – Dolmen

5 – Passage tomb

Menhir: It is the simplest. It is an upright and vertical stone in the ground. Some standing stones are up to 20 meters. They probably are connected with tombs or monuments to the dead.

Menhir of Carnac

(France)

They are dedicated to the dead or

maybe they connect telluric

forces with the sky

Alignment: a series of menhires forming lines.

Alignments of Carnac

(France)

Eleven rows:-one hundred menhires each. -one kilometre long.

Alignments of Carnac

Cromlech: menhires forming circles. Sometime they can have some horizontal stones at the top.

Cromlech of Swinside (UK)

Cromlech of Castlerigg (UK)

Cromlech of Stonehenge (UK)

CROMLECH of AVEBURY

Dolmen: It’s formed by two or more vertical stones and another which is horizontal. The whole structure forms a chamber. Dolmens were tombs.

Dolmen of Arrízala (Álava)

Dolmen of Dombate ( A Coruña)

Dolmen of Pedra Gentil(Barcelona) and Hechicera in Laguardia (La Rioja).

Antequera ( Málaga)

Passage tombs: consist of gallery. The bottom formed by a false dome built with rows of stones.

False domeTomb of El Romeral (Antequera)

How did they do it?

1 – Talaiotic culture (Balearic Islands).

2 – Cyclopean stonework (Mycenae – Greece)

3.1. THE MEDITERRANEAN

Talaiotic culture (Balearic Islands)

Talaiot

Taula

Naveta

Cyclopean stonework (Mycenae – Greece)

Passage tomb (Mycenae – Greece)

Treasury of Atreus