Pre -history

Before history
 Paleolithic, charted utensils
 Neolithic, polished utensils

 What would be the main difference between

these two?
Lascaux France
Pech-Merle, France
Cave of Niaux
 Activity
 Let's discuss which elements do you think
constitute the formal part of the paintings
inside the caves.
 Make a list in your notebooks.
 Cave art
 Cave art start in the Paleolithic era, it consists
of paintings engravings and reliefs.
 Figurative representations.
 -Naturalistic and schematic (stylized)
 These representations were done far inside the
caves.
 Creation of color through natural pigments
 Styles
Pre-Figurative
Contours, unfinished
Animal figurations and woman representations
More details
Proportion
 Which colors they used ?
 Red, ochre, black, orange
 Why do you think they used these colors?

Material elements.
What are these paintings about?
 No animation
 Symmetrical animation
 Animation by segments
 Coordinated animation
 Venus
 Cult to woman and/or fertility.
 Willendorf Venus, Austria
 Neolithic
 Sedentary culture.
 Looming, pottery, and exchange.
 Evolution in painting techniques
 Developed use of space.
 Religious and magic “architecture”
 Megalithic consutructions

Poulnabrone Megalithic Tomb Clare, Ireland
Menhir
 D
 O
 L
 M
 E
 N
Cromlech
 Which purpose do you think these constructions serve
for?

 Hint of certain kind of cults towards death, religious

perception of death and relation between living and
dead.

 Relation between human and space, inside and

outside.
 Activity
 Draw, following the same formal elements that
prehistoric man used, something that also
follows the material elements from the
paintings but that comes from your personal
experience.
 Class objectives
 To identify the formal an material elements
that constitute prehistoric art.

 The relation between the artistic production

and the mystical dimension in prehistoric art.

 The relation between the artistic production

and the historical dimension in prehistoric art.