Paleolithic Art

Question 1

Answer 1

• Animal facing left; charcoal on stone
• 30,000-10,000 BC
• apollo 11 cave, Namibia
• Profile, all 4 legs shown,
• shaded evenly - simple, depicts things in environment

Question 2

Answer 2

• Bisons
• 30,000-10,000 BC
• Altamira, Spain
• Used shapes of cave to create images
• used natural earth materials (red and black)
• drawings of bison on ceiling (profile, curled up, running of dead?)
• animated inanimate shapes in cave
• used contour line
• sole purpose to represent animals, not where they are - no ground line

Question 3

Answer 3

• Hall of the Bulls
• 30,000-10,000 BC
• Lascaux, France
• large cave with large rotunda
• filled with bull images
• bulls, horses, deer
• groundline (ground for figures) - natural coloration in cave
• profile, contour line for most figures
• some figures are incomplete
• twisted perspective - shows all features of animal by distorting figure (2 horns in profile)
• overlapping figures (painted at different times?)
• Some painted at different times, others at the same time
• smaller figures are blurry - show farther distance?

Question 4

Answer 4

• Rhinoceros, man, and bison
• 30,000-10,000 BC
• Lascaux, France
• in well/shaft area of cave
• depicts bison (with bowels falling out), rhino, and stick figure man
• next to man is spear thrower - atlatl
• what is the story? is the man dead? how did the bison get injured?
• Earliest example of narrative art ever discovered

Question 5

Answer 5

• Horses and negative hand prints
• 30,000-10,000 BC
• Pech-Merle, France
• horses with dots around them
• negative hand prints above horses
• 6 dots (pattern or communication system?) - in multiple paintings
• hand prints - signatures of community members

Question 6

Answer 6

• Animals
• 30,000 BC
• Chauvert Cave, Vallon-Pont-d’Arc, France
• 420 animals depicted on walls
• many bulls on walls
• no twisted perspective - confuses scientists
• black color, shading, overall more sophisticated than lascaux although older than it.
• Shows no development over time
• painted all at once with intention of overlapping to show depth
• picture of shifting shaman
• frontal and 3/4 view of bull’s head

Question 7

Answer 7

• “Venus” of Willendorf
• 30,000-10,000 BC
• Austria
• exaggerated female figure with no face
• abstract, evokes general female
  
  • emphasizes femininity and fertility
• about 4 inches tall

Question 8

Answer 8

• Woman holding a bison horn
• 30,000-10,000 BC
• Laussel, France
• Relief sculpture - attached to background
• fertility figure
• humans appear more often in sculptures

Question 9

Answer 9

• Bison
• 30,000-10,000 BC
• La Madeleine, France
• relief sculpture of bison
• small amount of space in relief forced bison figure to be licking flank - saved space and depicts naturel action

Question 10

Answer 10

• Clay Relief of Two Bison
• 30,000-10,000 BC
• Le Tuc d’Audoubert, France
• carved hair
• left in place - doesn’t serve much purpose
• shows that animals are more prevalent in art back then

Question 11

Answer 11

• Human with feline head
• 30,000-10,000
• Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany
• wooden human figurine with feline head
• “Transformation human” - combining features of different animals
• one of the oldest known sculptures