ART IN EARLY

CIVILIZATION &
GREEK EGYPTIAN
ART
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
• Discuss how art was used by prehistoric people to depict
everyday life.
• Identify the central themes of prehistoric art
• Differentiate the techniques used during the three
kingdoms of early Egypt, and explain how art is linked
with religion in early Egyptian civilization.
 TOPIC OUTLINE:
PREHISTORIC ART
➢ The Stone Age
➢ Paleolithic Art
➢ Mesolithic Art
➢ Neolithic Art

EGYPTIAN ART
➢ Old Kingdom
➢ Middle Kingdom
➢ New Kingdom
➢ Amarna Evolution
 WHAT IS THE MEANING OF
PREHISTORIC ART?

Prehistoric art refers artifacts made before there was a

written record. Long before the oldest written
languages were developed, people had become expert
at creating forms that were both practical and beautiful.
Prehistoric art refers to all art that was created
before cultures had developed more complex
forms of expression and communication such
as a written language. Prehistoric art can not
only be described as art found on cave walls,
but also prehistoric sculpture such as the
Venus figurines.
WHAT DO THE VENUS FIGURINES
REPRESENTS?

The Venus figurines are statuettes depicting

obese women that, up until now, were
thought to have been associated with fertility
and beauty. A recent study published in
"Obesity" has suggested instead that the
figurines are totems of survival in extreme
conditions.
PREHISTORIC ART
 THE STONE AGE
The Stone Age has witnessed how humans were able to lead
more stable lives and eventually come up with permanent shelters
and tools for survival.
The Stone Age began about 2.6 million years ago, when
researchers found the earliest evidence of humans using stone
tools, and lasted until about 3,300 B.C. when the Bronze Age began.
It is typically broken into three distinct periods: the Paleolithic Period,
Mesolithic Period and Neolithic Period.
STONE AGE
 PALEOLITHIC ART (CAVE ART)
Is a broad term for the earliest known art-making in human
history. This movement is perhaps best-known today for the
paintings found on the walls of many prehistoric caves, rich
in depictions of animals, human figures, and forms that are a
combination of man and beast.
 WHEN WAS THE FIRST PALEOLITHIC
ART DISCOVERED?
Archeologists that study Paleolithic era humans, believe that
the paintings discovered in 1994, in the cave at Chauvet-
Pont-d'Arc in the Ardéche valley in France, are more than
30,000 years old. The images found at Lascaux and Altamira
are more recent, dating to approximately 15,000 B.C.E.
 HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE
PALEOLITHIC ART?

Paleolithic art concerned itself with either food (hunting

scenes, animal carvings) or fertility (Venus figurines). Its
predominant theme was animals. It is considered to be an
attempt, by Stone Age people, to gain some sort of control
over their environment, whether by magic or ritual.
 THE THREE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF
THE PALEOLITHIC AGE ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. The inhabitants were dependent on their environment.

Men were hunters and women were gatherers.
2. Used simple tools.
3. Nomadic style of life was practiced.
 WHAT CHARACTERIZED THE
PALEOLITHIC ART?

The Paleolithic is characterized by the use of stone tools,

although at the time humans also used wood and bone tools.
Cave paintings can be grouped into three main categories:
animals, human figures, and abstract signs. The most
spectacular examples of cave paintings are in southern
France and northern Spain.
WHAT IS AN EXAMPLE OF PALEOLITHIC
ART?

Art of the European Upper Paleolithic includes rock

and cave painting, jewelry, drawing, carving, engraving
and sculpture in clay, bone, antler, stone and ivory,
such as the Venus figurines, and musical instruments
such as flutes.
PALEOLITHIC ART
 WHAT IS MESOLITHIC ART?

The term "Mesolithic art" refers to all arts and crafts

created between the end of the Paleolithic Ice Age
(10,000 BCE) and the beginning of farming, with its
cultivation and animal husbandry.
CHARACTERISTICS OF MESOLITHIC ART

Far from being realistic, the humans shown in rock painting

are highly stylized, rather like glorified stick figures. These
humans look more like pictographs than pictures, and some
historians feel they represent the primitive beginnings of
writing.
MESOLITHIC ART
 ROCK PAINTINGS

Rock paintings, or rock art, are one of the most

common types of art in the Mesolithic Age. But unlike
the cave paintings of the Paleolithic Age, Mesolithic
rock paintings depicted a wide variety of events from
hunting to farming to dancing.
 WHY IS MESOLITHIC ART IMPORTANT?

• Also known as “Middle Stone age”, the Mesolithic period

covers a brief time span of about 2,000 years. It served as
an important bridge between the upper Paleolithic and the
Neolithic age, the art of this period had no relevant artistic
connotations in the form of representation in comparison
with predecessor times.
WHAT ARE THE 3 MAIN CHARACTERISTICS
OF MESOLITHIC AGE?

Some characteristics of the Mesolithic Age are (1) a transition from

large chipped stone tools and (2) hunting in groups of large herd
animals to smaller ( microliths ) chipped stone tools and (3) a more
hunter-gatherer culture. It ends with the introduction of the growing
of crops and husbandry of animals in the Neolithic.
 WHAT WAS INVENTED IN THE MESOLITHIC
AGE?

The most important discovery of the

Mesolithic age was the microlith. It was a
small pointed stone used for arrowheads,
knives and spears. It represented a
technological advancement in terms of
major departure from the crude tools of
the Paleolithic age.
 WHAT ARE THE TOOLS USED IN
MESOLITHIC AGE?

Scrapers were used for cleaning animal skins

in the process of making leather. Burins were
used for carving or engraving wood and bone,
like a chisel. Blades were used as knives and
microliths were tiny flints that were glued/fixed
to wooden shafts to make arrows or spears for
hunting.
How did the Mesolithic Age impact human history?
The Mesolithic Age was an age of transition. During the Mesolithic people began farming and herding
animals. This led to the settling of communities. Mesolithic tools show that the people of that time were in a
transition period.

What is Mesolithic culture?

Mesolithic, also called Middle Stone Age, ancient cultural stage that existed between the Paleolithic (Old Stone
Age), with its chipped stone tools, and the Neolithic (New Stone Age), with its polished stone tools.

What changed in the Mesolithic Age?

One of the major changes that occurred during the Mesolithic Age was improvements in gathering food. In
addition to innovative methods of hunting and gathering, man learnt to domesticate animals such as goats,
sheep, pigs etc.
 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 favor
of farming and animal husbandry.
(Nomadic-a person or people who are part of a tribe or group that moves from
place to place without a permanent home)
NEOLITHIC AGE
 WHAT IS THE CHARACTERISTICS OF
NEOLITHIC ART?

• Neolithic artwork consists mostly of

pottery, terracotta sculptures,
statuettes, various smaller pieces that
were utilized as adornments, Neolithic
drawings like engravings and wall
paintings, pictograms, and most
notably megalithic structures.
WHAT ARE THE 3 MAIN CHARACTERISTICS
OF NEOLITHIC AGE?

It was characterized by (1) stone tools shaped by polishing or

grinding, (2) dependence on domesticated plants or animals,
settlement in permanent villages, (3) and the appearance of such
crafts as pottery and weaving.
 WHAT WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT
DISCOVERY OF THE NEOLITHIC AGE?

One of the remarkable achievements of the

Neolithic Period was the invention of wheel. It
brought a rapid progress in man's life. The
wheel was used in horse-carts and bullock-
carts that helped man a lot to carry heavy
loads.
 EGYPTIAN ART
What is Egyptian art called?
One of the most well-known types of drawings to come out of ancient
Egypt was hieroglyphics. Existing as a form of pictorial writing and
drawing, hieroglyphics had an inherent sense of aesthetic beauty.
These symbols were typically used on ancient Egyptian monuments as
a way to describe what the artwork meant.
WHAT DID HIEROGLYPHICS MEAN?
• The word hieroglyph literally means
"sacred carvings". The Egyptians first
used hieroglyphs exclusively for
inscriptions carved or painted on
temple walls. This form of pictorial
writing was also used on tombs,
sheets of papyrus, wooden boards
covered with a stucco wash, potsherds
and fragments of limestone.
 WHAT IS EGYPT ART KNOWN FOR?
• Ancient Egyptian art includes painting,
sculpture, architecture, and other forms of
art, such as drawings on papyrus, created
between 3000 BCE and 100 AD. Most of
this art was highly stylized and symbolic.
 WHAT IS EGYPT ART KNOWN FOR?
Egyptian art is known for its distinctive figure
convention used for the main figures in both relief
and painting, with parted legs (where not seated)
and head shown as seen from the side, but the torso
seen as from the front. Egyptian art is known for
its distinctive figure convention used for the main
figures in both relief and painting, with parted legs
(where not seated) and head shown as seen from
the side, but the torso seen as from the front.
• Egyptian artisans during the Old Kingdom perfected the art of sculpting and carving intricate
relief decoration out of stone. Early sculptors created the first life-sized statues and fine reliefs
in stone, copper, and wood.

• Although within the norms of Egyptian representation, southern Theban art at the very
beginning of the Middle Kingdom displays distinct local traits, including figures with attenuated
limbs and emphasized eyes, and forms with a high degree of interior patterning

• Sculpture in the New Kingdom continued in the traditional Egyptian style, with many great
works produced by pharaohs over the years. However, during the later Amarna period, it
underwent a drastic shift in style to emphasize more naturalistic (and less idealistic) human
figures, such as those with drooping bellies.
 AMARNA EVOLUTION
Dr. David Neiman describes the Amarna age in
Egyptian history as a revolution in which ideas and
attitudes manifested themselves through art. The
Pharaohs were no longer depicted as flawless
demigods, but as mortals with families and defects.
 WHAT IS THE AMARNA PERIOD BEST
KNOWN FOR?

The Amarna Period is known for its religious

iconoclasm. The pharaoh Amenhotep IV changed his
name to Akhenaten to reflect his worship of a sole god,
the Aten. He built a whole new capital and cemetery at
the site of Tell el-Amarna in Middle Egypt.
What did Egyptians use for art?
Ancient Egyptians painted with brushes, just like we do now. Their brushes were made out of bundles of plant
materials like grasses and reeds, using a string to bind brush materials together
How did Egyptians create art?
Flint and copper tools were used to carve the wood. Pigment, which could be used to paint either wood or stone,
was created from common materials such as ochre from the desert, lapis lazuli, gypsum or soot. Blues could also
be made from a mixture of desert sand, azurite and malachite.
How does Egyptian art reflect its culture?
The perfect balance in Egyptian art reflects the cultural value of ma'at (harmony) which was central to the
civilization. Ma'at was not only universal and social order but the very fabric of creation which came into being
when the gods made the ordered universe out of undifferentiated chaos.
 WHAT TYPE OF ART WAS IN EGYPT?
Ancient Egyptian art includes
1. Papyrus drawings
2. Faience
3. Ivory works
4. Architecture,
5. Sculptures,
6. Paintings,
7. Jewelry, and more.
While it covers an enormous timeframe in history, the style of art did not change
much over the centuries.
 IVORY FAIENCE PAPYRUS

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