spanish art. 1- intro; prehistory

“The use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with

others”

“The use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with

others”

ART?

“The quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of

more than ordinary significance”

“The quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of

more than ordinary significance”

The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination

The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination

There is no single definition of art

Is this art?

And in 10,000 years ahead?

ART has not always been what we think it is today

These objects may have been appreciated and often admired, but not as "art" in the current sense

These objects may have been appreciated and often admired, but not as "art" in the current sense

The idea of an object being a "work of art" emerges, together with the concept of the Artist, during the Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries in Italy.

The idea of an object being a "work of art" emerges, together with the concept of the Artist, during the Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries in Italy.

The first manifestation of Hispanic Art

PALEOLITHIC ART

Paleo (Greek) = OldLithic (Greek) = Stone

Paleolithic = Old Stone Age

40,000 BCE – 8,000 BCE in Near East40,000 BCE – 4,000 BCE in Europe

Evidence of the beginning of abstract thought

CAVE ART

CAVE ART THEORIES

Used to ensure a successful hunt?

Ancestral animal worship?

Shamanism? A religion based on the idea that forces of nature can be controlled by a highly regarded religious figure called a shaman

Animals represented are not always the animals they used to hunt…Animals represented are not always the animals they used to hunt…

A successful hunt (sympathetic magic)?A successful hunt (sympathetic magic)?

Animal worship?Animal worship?

Shamanism?Shamanism?

Caves were not dwellingsPrehistoric people lived migratory lives following herds of animals

CAVE PAINTING: CHARACTERISTICS

Paintings are inhard to reach places

CAVE PAINTING: CHARACTERISTICS

Continually paint in the same areas, even over long periods of time;

paint over pre-existing images

CAVE PAINTING: CHARACTERISTICS

CAVE ART

Technics:

Engraving

Paint (one, two or several colors)

Relief (sometimes using the rock itself)

between 11,000 and 19,000 years ago

CANTABRIA

Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola

"¡ Papá, mira, toros pintados¡“(“look daddy, painted bulls!”)

María de Sautuola

Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola

Emille Cartailhac

FORGERY?

“Mea culpa d'un sceptique”“Mea culpa d'un sceptique”

THE CAVE

THE CAVE

270 meters long

Polychrome Ceiling

THE CAVE

Animals at the Polychrome Ceiling

BISON

HORSE

WILD BOAR

GOAT

DOE

THE CAVE

Animals at the Polychrome Ceiling

THE CAVE

Use of

THE CAVE

TECHNIQUEHow did they paint?

TECHNIQUE

Engraving

Drawing

TECHNIQUE

And then, painting

TECHNIQUE

What did they used to paint?

TECHNIQUE

The Venturi effect

TECHNIQUE

PORTABLE ART

Decoration on some utilitarian objects.

Objects used in rituals

MESOLITHIC-NEOLITHIC

In “open” places (rock shelters, not deep in caves anymore) No glacial fauna = no Paleolithic

Three types of styles: Levantine Schematic Macro schematic

10,000 BCE – 1,000 BC

LEVANTINE ART

• Importance of the human figure.

• Representation of clothes, genitals (phallic representations) and weapons (arrows, sticks, quivers, etc.).

• Animals depicted are identifiable as belonging to species we can see in the present day (deer, goat, dog, cattle).

LEVANTINE ART Importance of the human figure

•Frequently the main theme, and when it appears in the same scene as animals, the human figure runs towards them.

•People performing other activities typical of their time such as: hunting, fighting, carrying out agricultural tasks, domestication of animals, gathering honey

SCHEMATIC ART

SCHEMATIC ART

• Associated with the first metallurgical cultures

• Only the basic fragments of each figure are represented

• Very simple and stylized figures

• Monochromatic (red ochre)

SCHEMATIC ART

SCHEMATIC ART

Basically paintings but engravings and pottery too

TECHNIQUE

MACRO SCHEMATIC ART

Big paintings in rock shelters

Wide lines

Use of dark red

Human figures and geometric symbols

Probably the oldest

NEOLITHIC ARCHITECTURE

From hundreds of thousands of years, humans lived following herds of animals

Agriculture changed everything = sedentism, sedentariness houses

Neolithic funerary rites MEGALITHS mega=big lithos=stone Places of worship were built to last!

MENHIR

simple

Vertical

Unknown rituals?

(Menhir Cantabria)

DOLMEN

Group tomb made up of huge stones

CROMLECH

A circle of megaliths with lintels placed on top