Art history as history?

Is art a reliable record of the past?

! Why or why not? ! Are written sources more reliable?

With both written and visual sources, you are always getting a single, particular perspective, as well as someone s interpretation of that perspective. No history is absolute truth. However, some interpretations are better than others!
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Paleolithic = Old Stone Age

Lower Paleolithic Middle Paleolithic Upper Paleolithic ca. 2.5 million years ago (first stone tools) ca. 200,000 - 40,000 BCE (Neandertals in Europe) ca. 40,000 8,000 BCE (Painted caves in Europe)

Lower Paleolithic figurine resembling a woman, from Berekhat Ram, Israel. Ca. 250,000 years old. Shaped stone.

Paleolithic = Old Stone Age

Lower Paleolithic Middle Paleolithic Upper Paleolithic ca. 2.5 million years ago (first stone tools) ca. 200,000 - 40,000 BCE (Neandertals in Europe) ca. 40,000 8,000 BCE (Painted caves in Europe)

Paleolithic = Old Stone Age

Lower Paleolithic Middle Paleolithic Upper Paleolithic ca. 2.5 million years ago (first stone tools) ca. 200,000 - 40,000 BCE (Neandertals in Europe) ca. 40,000 8,000 BCE (Painted caves in Europe)

Prehistoric Europe

Upper Paleolithic huts made of mammoth bones (reconstructed)

Fig. 1-5

Cave used as shelter during the Upper Paleolithic

I-6 Lion-Human, from HohlensteinStadel, Germany, ca. 30,000 26,000 BCE. Mammoth ivory, 11 5/8 high. Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany.

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I-7 Woman from Willendorf (Venus of Willendorf), from Willendorf, Austria, ca. 24,000 BCE. Limestone, approx. 4 1/4 high. Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna.

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I-9. Woman from Brassempouy. Grotte du Pape, Brassempouy, Landes, France. ca. 30,000 BCE. Ivory. 1 1/4 . Musee des Antiquites Nationales, St.-Germain-en-Laye, France.
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Bison with turned head, fragmentary spearthrower, from La Madeleine, Dordogne, France, ca. 12,000 BCE. 13 Reindeer horn, approx. 4 long. Muse des Antiquits Nationales, Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

Spearthrower made of antler with a crouching ibex and birds.

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I-14. Bison. Le Tuc d Audoubert, France. ca. 13,000 BCE. Clay. 25 long.

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What those first artists invented was a language of signs for which there will never be a Rosetta stone; perspective, a technique not rediscovered until the Athenian Golden Age; and a bestiary of such vitality and finesse that, by the flicker of torchlight, the animals seem to surge from the walls, and move across them like figures in a magiclantern show!.
- Judith Therman, First Impressions, The New Yorker (6-23-08)

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I-10 Wall painting with horses, rhinoceroses, and aurochs. Chauvet Cave, Vallon-Pont-d Arc, Ardche, 19 France, ca. 30,00028,000 BCE. Approx. half life-size. Paint on limestone.

Lions, Chauvet Cave

Rhinoceros, Chauvet Cave

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Illustration of an archaeologist replicating prehistoric painting techniques.

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1-1 Spotted horses and negative hand imprints, wall painting in the cave at Pech-Merle, Lot, France, ca. 22 22,000 BCE. Approx. 11 2 long.

Lascaux, Diveriticule axial room where scaffolding was used. Horses, auroch.

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I-15 Lamp with ibex design. La Mouthe Cave, Dordogne, France. ca. 15,000 -13,000 BCE. Engraved stone.

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Drawing of a horse on a cave wall.

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1-13 Bison, detail of a painted ceiling in the Altamira cave, Santander, Spain, ca. 12,000 11,000 BCE. Each bison approx. 5 long.

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Bison, from Niaux Cave in the French Pyrenees.

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1-11 Hall of the Bulls (left wall), Lascaux, Dordogne, France, ca. 15,00013,000 BCE. Largest bull approx. 11 6 long. 28

Detail, Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux, Dordogne, France, ca. 15,00013,000 BCE.

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1-12. Man, injured bison. Lascaux, Dordogne, France, ca. 15,00013,000 BCE.

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Common interpretations of Paleolithic image making: 1.! art for arts sake 2.! totemism / hunting magic / fertility magic
! totemism, in which a human group is associated with a particular animal spirit ! sympathetic magic, in which creation of the image was for hunting success ! fertility magic, in which fertile female figures were to help the good animals

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Was it related to hunting?

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Common interpretations of Paleolithic image making: 1.! art for arts sake 2.! totemism / hunting magic / fertility magic
! totemism, in which a human group is associated with a particular animal spirit ! sympathetic magic, in which creation of the image was for hunting success ! fertility magic, in which fertile female figures were to help the good animals

3. structuralist theories 4. shamanism

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Was it related to shamanism?

Two portrayals of composite figures: animal headed humans.

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