ART HISTORY AND

DEVELOPMENT
Part 1:
PRE-HISTORIC ART
INTRODUCTION
Art history is also called art historiography- the
historical study of the visual arts, being concerned
with identifying, classifying, describing, evaluating,
interpreting and understanding the art products and
historic development of the fields of painting,
sculpture, architecture, the decorative arts, drawing,
printmaking, photography, interior design, etc.
19th Century
 In the mid-19th century, art history was raised to the
status of an academic discipline by the Swiss Jacob
Burckhardt, who related to art to its cultural
environment, and the German idealists Alois Riegi,
Heinrich Wolfflin, and Wilhelm Worringer.
 The latter three saw art history as the analysis of
forms and viewed art apart from any function it
serves in expressing, the spirit of its age.
20th Century
 Art historians during this century include Henri
Focillon, Bernard Berenson, Aby Warburg, Emile
Male, Erwin Panofsky, and Ernst Gombrich.
 The succeeding generation has included Michael
Fried, Rosalind Krauss, Donald Kuspit, and Giselda
Pollack.
 Modern art history is a broad field of inquiry
embracing formal questions of stylistic development
as well as considerations of social and cultural
context.
 Since the 1970s, a heightened awareness of
gender, ethnicity, and environmental issues has
marked the work of many art historians.
ART HISTORY
 Cave paintings are also
known as “parietal art.”
 They are painted
drawings on cave walls
or ceilings, mainly
prehistoric origin, dated
to some 40,000 years
ago ( around 38,000
Before Common Era,
BCE) in Eurasia.
 The exact purpose of Cave painting of a bison head.
the Paleolithic cave Altamira cave main gallery.
paintings is not known. Magdalenian parietal art
c.15,000 BCE.
Earliest Types of Prehistoric Art
 The first and oldest form of prehistoric art are
petroglyphs (cupules), which appeared throughout the
world during the Lower Paleolithic.
 Chronologically, they were followed by rock
engravings, then pictographs , after which comes
sculpture (in stone, ivory, bone and wood), cave
painting, relief sculpture, ceramic pottery and
architecture.
 By the end of the Upper Paleolithic, only bronze and
gold sculpture, along with other metallurgical crafts,
remained to be developed during the
Mesolithic/Neolithic.
 The earliest known cave paintings of
animals are at least 35,000 years
old. And were found in caves in the
district of Maros, Bantimurung District,
South Sulawesi, Indonesia, according
to datings announced in 2014.
 Previously, it was believed that the earliest
figurative paintings were in Europe (Ghosh,2003).
The earliest figurative paintings in Europe date
back to the Aurignacian period, approximately
30,000 to 32,000 years ago, and are found in the
Chauvet cave in France, and in the Coliboaia Cave
in Romania.
Red Hand Stencils

 The oldest known

cave painting is a
redhand stencil in
Maltravieso cave,
Caceres , Spain
and was said to
be made by a El Castillo cave art (c.39,000 BCE)
Neanderthal. The red disk below the hand stencils
is the world's oldest painting.
TOP TEN OLDEST ART
1) Bhimbetka and Daraki -Chattan
Petroglyphs (290,000-700,000 BCE)
 Cupules carved on hard
Quartzite.
 Cupule and meander
petroglyph on
a boulder at the
Auditorium Cave,
Bhimbetka, Madhya
Pradesh, India
(c.290,000-700,000
BCE). The world's
Oldest Art.
2) Venus of Berekhat Ram
(230,000-700,000 B.C.)
 Basaltic figurine - oldest
known prehistoric
sculpture
Acheulian Period.
Golan Heights, Israel.
 Venus of Berekhat
Ram, dated from
230,000 to 500,000
BCE.
The earliest art outside
India.
3) Venus of Tan Tan
 Venus of Tan-Tan
(200,000-500,000 BCE)
One of the oldest known
works of prehistoric art.
 The early Stone Age
figurine of Tan-Tan,
discovered by the River
Draa near the Moroccan
town of Tan-Tan, is
considered to be one of
the oldest items
of prehistoric sculpture
known to archeology.
4) Blombos Cave Rock Art (70,000 BCE)
Prehistoric Engravings with Crosshatch
Patterns
 Ochre Stone Incised with
Cross-hatch
Patterns, dating from
70,000 BCE.
One of the earliest
examples of
Prehistoric Art from Africa.
The find consisted of two
pieces of ochre rock incised
with geometric abstract
signs, and a series of
beads made from
Nassarius kraussianus
shells.
5) Diepkloof Eggshell Engravings
Middle Paleolithic Abstract Art, South Africa.

 Engraved Ostrich
Eggshell
Diepkloof Rock
Shelter (c.60,000 BCE)
This prehistoric
crosshatching ranks
alongside the Earliest
art ever created
by anatomically
modern man.
6) La Ferrassie Cave
Dordogne, France: Neanderthal Cupule Art: Description.

 Examples of Prehistoric Cupules

The world's oldest petroglyphs
and the most ubiquitous form of
prehistoric abstract signs.
 The oldest known site of Franco-
Cantabrian cave art, La Ferrassie is a
large Neanderthal cave complex,
situated near Les Eyzies, in the
Perigord region of the Dordogne in
south-west France.
 It is famous for its series of cupules - a
primitive form of rock art - dating
back to Mousterian culture (c.60,000
BCE), which makes it the
oldest prehistoric art in Europe. As well
as its Neanderthal cupules, the cave
also contains a number of rock
engravings dating to the Aurignacian.
7) El Castillo Cave Paintings
 The world's oldest cave
art in the rock shelter
of El Castillo, Spain.
The Red-Ochre Disk or
Large Dot below the
hand stencils is dated
39,000 BCE.
 The hand stencils are
dated to c.37,300 BCE.
8) Sulawesi Cave Art
(c.37,900 BCE)
 Cave paintings of
hand stencils and
animals at the Leang
Timpuseng Cave. The
oldest art in Asia and
the world's oldest
hand stencil.
Early Upper
Paleolithic.
Maros-Pangkep,
Sulawesi, Indonesia.
9) Lionman of the Hohlenstein Stadel
(38,000 BCE)
 This ivory carving of a
human figure with a lion's
head, unearthed in a cave
inside Hohlenstein
Mountain of the Swabian
Jura, is the oldest known
anthropomorphic carving
in the world, and the
oldest piece of sculpture
of the Upper Paleolithic.
Aurignacian Culture.
Ulmer Museum, Ulm,
Germany.
 10) Venus of Hohle Fels
(c.38,000-33,000 BCE)
 Ivory sculpture of an obese female.
The oldest of the Venus figurines
that appeared in Europe during the
Upper Paleolithic.
Aurignacian Culture.
Hohle Fels Cave in the Swabian Jura
of southwestern Germany.
 A unique item of prehistoric
sculpture created during
the Aurignacian culture of the Upper
Paleolithic, the small ivory carving of
a female figure known as The Venus
of Hohle Fels (also called the Venus
of Schelklingen) was unearthed
during excavations in 2008 at Hohle
Fels Cave in the Swabian Jura of
southwestern Germany.
 Other Ancient sculptures

Ivory Carving of Mammoth found in Vogelherd Cave,

Germany (33,000 BCE)
 Relief Sculpture of a
Horse
(15,000 BCE) A
masterpiece of
Franco-Cantabrian
cave art,
from the Magdalenian
period.
It is now in the
collection of the
Musee d'Archeologie
Nationale,
Paris, France.
SHORT GUIDE TO STONE
AGE CHRONOLOGY
Outline of the basic timeline and dates of the Stone
Age
 Paleolithic Stone Age
 Lower Paleolithic (2,500,000 - 200,000 BCE)
Associated with early forms of rock art, like cupules and other
petroglyphs.
 Middle Paleolithic (200,000 - 40,000 BCE)
The earliest figurines appear, along with more complex rock
drawings, ideomorphs and engravings. Neanderthal Man
appears.
 Upper Paleolithic (40,000-8,000 BCE)
The major period of early fine art, exemplified by portable art
like the Venus Figurines, bas-relief sculpture and the
polychrome cave paintings and engravings of Lascaux and
Altamira. Early ceramic pottery also appears. Neanderthal
man replaced by anatomically modern man, like Cro-Magnon
Man.
CHRONOLOGY of the UPPER
PALEOLITHIC AGE
 • Aurignacian Art
(40,000-25,000 BCE)
• Gravettian Art
(25,000-20,000 BCE)
• Solutrean Art
(20,000-15,000 BCE)
• Magdalenian Art
(15,000-10,000 BCE)
The Aurignacian Era: A Summary
 In prehistoric art , the term "Aurignacian" describes the
very earliest period of Upper Paleolithic art and
culture in Europe, which coincided with the entry of
anatomically modern humans into Europe and the
progressive disappearance of the indigenous
Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis).
 Named after the type site of Aurignac in the Haute-
Garonne area of France, the Aurignacian period was
preceded by the Mousterian era of the Middle
Paleolithic, and succeeded by the Gravettian period.
 Up until the 20th century, the
majority of Paleolithic archeologists
doubted that Aurignacian Man was
capable of producing fine art.
 This changed during the 1930s with
the first discoveries ofivory carvings
in the Swabian Jura.
 Indeed, the earliest example of
figurative art, the Venus of Hohle
Fels (38-33,000 BCE) was carved
during the Aurignacian.
 This masterpiece of prehistoric
sculpture was discovered in
September 2008 at the Hohle Fels
Cave in the Swabian Jura of
southwestern Germany.
 The most famous example of cave paintings created
during the Aurignacian culture was found in 1994 at the
Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave, in the Ardeche valley in the
Rhone-Alpes region of southern France.
 However, new Uranium/Thorium tests show that the El
Castillo Cave Paintings (red dot and hand stencils)
and some of the Altamira cave paintings also belong
to the art of the Aurignacian period.
 More recent discoveries of Aurignacian cave art
include the primitive Fumane cave paintings near
Verona and the Abri Castanet engravings in the
Dordogne, both dating to 35,000 BCE.
Gravettian Era (c.25,000-20,000 BCE)
SUMMARY
 In Stone Age art, the term "Gravettian" describes a
5,000-year period of Upper Paleolithic art and culture,
named after the type site "La Gravette", a tongue of
land in the Dordogne.
 Building on Aurignacian traditions, Gravettian artists
took prehistoric sculture to a new advanced level, as
shown by the Venus Figurines which appeared across
Europe.
 Other notable prehistoric art of this period include
the hand stencils in Cosquer Cave (c.25,000 BCE) close
to Marseilles, and the Dappled Horses of Pech-
Merle (c.25,000 BCE) near Cahors.
 In addition, Gravettian expertise in pointed blade
technology led to greater refinement
in petroglyphs and engravings.
 In fact, Gravettian culture is traditionally
separated into two regions: the western Gravettian,
largely known from cave sites in France, and the
eastern Gravettian, known from cave sites like
Buran-Kaya in the Crimea and Kozarnika in
Bulgaria.

 The culture appeared in France about 25,000 BCE,
by which time the species of Homo Sapiens known as
Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) had been
ousted by anatomically modern humans (Cro-
Magnons), who had entered Europe from Africa
and the Middle East some 15,000 years before.
During this process, Neanderthals retreated to the
southern half of the Iberian Peninsula and, by about
20,000 BCE, most were extinct.
Solutrean Era (c.20,000-15,000 BCE)
SUMMARY

 In prehistoric art , the term "Solutrean" denotes a

period of late Upper Paleolithic art and culture , named
after the type-site of Solutre, in the region of
Bourgogne in eastern France.
 Perhaps because of its advanced flint tool-making
techniques, Solutrean rock art is most famous for its
engraved pictographs and stone friezes - in particular
the relief sculpture carved on blocks representing pot-
bellied, short-limbed animals - as found, for instance, in
the Devil's Oven cave at Bourdeilles (c.16,000 BCE) and
at Roc-de-Sers (c.17,200 BCE).
 Indeed, the period witnessed
significant progress in both the
technique and expressiveness
of drawing with stone tools.
 Cave painting was much less
prevalent during this period,
although Solutrean painters were
active at Lascaux (first phase
c.17,000 BCE) and Cosquer
(second phase 17,000 BCE).
 Interestingly, only a handful of
the dated images from this
period are depictions of the
dangerous species that Clashing Ibexes at Roc de Sers.
dominated the earliest art at Exceptional Paleolithic Carving
(say) Chauvet. from the Solutrean (17,200 BCE).
Roc-de-Sers Cave.
A beautiful example of parietal art
from the Solutrean era.
 Thus the preference for lions, rhinos and bears has been superceded
by pictures of large herbivores, such as horses, aurochs and bison.
 Was Solutrean man growing less afraid of dangerous predators?
Was it because of his skill at making blades for his javelins?
 Meanwhile, pictures of signs, symbols and other expressions
of concrete art , remained popular, with some imagery being
interpreted as evidence of an early knowledge of astronomy.
Solutrean Stone Age Art coincided with the coldest period (Last
Glacial Maximum) of the Ice Age (c.20,000-17,000 BCE), and with
the displacement of Neanderthal man by the new modern species of
Cro-Magnon man and Chancelade man.
 As yet we have no clear idea how these factors affected either the
parietal or the mobiliary art of the time, although continuing
research will doubtless provide some answers.
Magdalenean Era
(c.15,000–10,000 BCE)
Summary

 In prehistoric art, the term "Magdalenian" refers to

a late period of Upper Paleolithic art and culture,
named after the type site "La Madeleine", a rock
shelter at Plazac in the Dordogne. Magdalenian
tool culture is best known for its denticulated
microliths, as well as its uniserial and biserial
projectile points.

 Nicknamed the "Age of the
Reindeer" in 1875 by
Edouard Lartet and Henry
Christy, the archeologists who
first investigated the type site,
Magdalenian parietal art is
exemplified by the Lascaux
cave paintings in the French
Dordogne, the Altamira cave
paintings in Cantabria, Spain,
and the Font de Gaume Cave
paintings in the Perigord.
Paleolithic man.
The Tuc d'Audoubert Bison
Reliefs
(c.13,500 BCE)
 An important influence on Magdalenian rock art was
the climate.
 To begin with, Magdalenian man lived as a hunter-
gatherer, living off the herds of reindeer on the
continental tundra, just outside the ice pack.
 Then, between about 13,000 and 10,000 BCE, the Ice
Age came to an end and a period of global warming
began.
 This precipitated the extinction of certain ice age
megafauna, such as the mammoth and the woolly
rhinoceros, and the disappearance northwards of the
reindeer herds.
 All this had a hugely damaging effect on Magdalenian civilization,
which proved unable to adjust.
 Already, well before this, Franco-Cantabrian cave art had begun to
run out of steam, as new painters and sculptors found themselves
unable to maintain the innovation of their predecessors.
 Around the start of the Holocene epoch (10,000 BCE),
Magdalenian culture was superceded by two other microlithist
cultures: the "Azilian" in Spain and southern France, and the
"Sauveterrian", in northern France and Germany.
 With Neolithic civilizations on the horizon, it wouldn't be long
before ancient art began to decorate the tombs and cities of
Antiquity instead of the caves and rock shelters ofof Paleolithic man.
LATE STONE AGE
Mesolithic Art
Neolithic Art
MESOLITHIC ART
The Dance of Cogul.
 The term "Mesolithic art"
10,000-7,000 BCE El Cogul Caves
refers to all arts and crafts
created between the end of Roca dels Moros, Catalonia, Spain.
the Paleolithic Ice Age
(10,000 BCE) and the
beginning of farming, with its
cultivation and animal
husbandry.
 The length of this interim
"Mesolithic" period varied
region by region, according
to how long it took for
agriculture to become
established now that the Ice
Age was over.
 The Mesolithic is the first era of the Holocene epoch,
which succeeded the Pleistocene, and it ushered in a
new approach to Stone Age art: for example, with the
arrival of a warmer climate, cave art starts to
disappear as rock art takes to the open air.
 [Note in passing the Coa Valley Engravings (22,000
BCE), the one major exception to the rule that Paleolithic
engravings were only done in caves.] Also, the need
for mobiliary art is gradually reduced and domestic
crafts become more important.
Neolithic Art
 In Prehistoric art , the
term "Neolithic art"
describes all arts and
crafts created by
societies who had
abandoned the semi-
nomadic lifestyle of
hunting and
gathering food in
Thinker of Cernavoda
favor of farming and (5,000 BCE)
National Museum of Romania.
animal husbandry. A magnificent example of
terracotta sculpture from
the Neolithic era.
 Not surprisingly therefore, ancient
pottery including terracotta sculpture was the major
artform of the Neolithic, although human creativity
of the age expressed itself in a good many
different types of art, including prehistoric
engravings and hand stencils, as well as a variety
of mobiliary art (sculpted statuettes, personal
adornments).
 In addition, the construction of
religious temples, shrines and tombs
to serve the new sedentary culture
led to the development of megalithic
art and a form of monumental stone
architecture
using megaliths (petroforms).
BRONZE AGE ART
(c.3000-1100 BCE)
 The Bronze Age was characterized by the
production of the metal bronze (an alloy of copper
and tin), the development of a wide range of
functional and precious metalwork, and an increase
in economic productivity and the consequent
emergence of skilled workers, many of whom were
involved in artistic activity, albeit of a semi-
functional nature.
  Art from the Bronze
age (c.3000-1100
BCE), an important
period linking
the Stone Age with
the Iron Age, was a
Bronze Age Cauldron
(National Museum of Ireland)
reflection of the
environment of the
time.
 The Bronze Age was characterized by the production of the
metal bronze (an alloy of copper and tin), the development
of a wide range of functional and precious metalwork, and
an increase in economic productivity and the consequent
emergence of skilled workers, many of whom were involved
in artistic activity, albeit of a semi-functional nature.
Ornamental and decorative designs on helmets, body
armour, swords, axe-heads and other weapons became
more widespread. Ceramic designs became more elegant,
and a new range of ceremonial/religious artifacts and
artworks began to emerge. Also, late prehistoric
sculpture blossomed, taking full advantage of bronze
casting methods.
 Ornamental and decorative
designs on helmets, body
armour, swords, axe-heads
and other weapons became
more widespread.
 Ceramic designs became
more elegant, and a new
range of
ceremonial/religious
artifacts and artworks
began to emerge. Also,
late prehistoric
sculpture blossomed, taking Monumental Bronze Head (c.1100 BCE)
full advantage of bronze Overlaid with gold foil. One of the
casting methods. extraordinary Sanxingdui bronzes:
masterpieces of the Bronze Age
in China.
 Minoan Vase
(1700-1425
BCE)
A masterpiece
of ancient
pottery
from Bronze
Age Crete.
IRON AGE ART
(c.1100-200 BCE)
 In contrast to the Stone
Age and the Bronze Age,
development during the Iron
Age (c.1100-200 BCE) was
much faster and more visible.
 It witnessed the widespread
use of iron and iron tools,
resulting in greater prosperity
and a huge upsurge
in metalwork, especially
around the eastern
Mediterranean.


Dying Gaul (c.232 BCE) by Greek

Sculptor Epigonus.
 During the period of
the Iron Age,
the Minoan and Mycen
ean civilizations
declined, while Greek
art dazzled the
Mediterranean basin,
especially Greek
The Vix Krater (c.500 BCE)
sculpture and Wine-mixing vessel discovered in
painted Greek the famous grave of the "Lady of Vix"
pottery. in Burgundy. It is the largest known
metal vessel of antiquity.
 At the same time the
first Etruscan art also
appeared, but it was
the Hellenic culture of
ancient Greece which
dominated, along
with Egyptian and Persia
n art.
 In central Europe, Celtic
art proved influential, Broighter Collar (1st Century BCE)
notably in the field of A delicate tube of gold decorated in
the Celtic La Tene style.
metallurgy. (National Museum of Ireland)