History of Art p.1

HISTORY OF ART

 

 

 

DEFINITIONS

 

a) Art is a true living product of its time - an expression of life and character.

 

b) Art is in the beginning a thing of immediate utility.

 

PALEOITHIC AGE-500,000-20,000 B.C.

         

          Self protection the first instinct of man, so he lived in caves and long rivers. Europe then connected. Cold or Ice age drove man south-type of man and animal changed.

 

          First discovery of art in Altamira, Northern Spain, 1879. Many drawings found on cave walls in Spain and France- animals- mammoths, reindeer, long tooth tigers, bisons.

 

          Early man

 

               500,000- first man

               300,000- Peiping (China)

               200,000- Heidelberg man

                 45,000- Neanderthal man- (central Europe)

                 25,000- Cromagnon man- (Cave man artist)

 

               Gradually early man disappeared, leaving no trace- many conjectures but none proven.

 

               Characterists of Paleolithic Art

              

               Art was

                

                 Sober, sincere, full of life and motion- clear in technique (orderliness), accurate- (man absolutely familiar with his subject).

 

NEOLITHIC AGE-12,000-3,000 B.C.

 

               Temperate Climate- man more advanced- used fire and the potter's wheel. He cultivated

               his fields and moved into villages for protection.

               Chief of village was head man in war and religion.

               Weapons more sharp and decorated.

               Dolmen and monoliths- Stonehenge- signs of worship.