martes, 31 de mayo de 2011

Unit 2.1 Prehistoric art

Key concepts: paleolithic art, mesolithic, neolithic art, sculpture, mural painting

Referring to prehistoric times, makes us be really precised in the definition of what Prehistory is. Prehistory refers to the time before people developed writing systems, therefore, before the existance of written documents.
Basically, the main evidences of artistic objects appeared on the period known as Stone Age. But this simple period lasted around 50,000 years b.c. So, historians have divided this large period in three main ages:
1. Paleolithic or Old Stone Age (50,000 - 8,000 b.c.)
2. Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age (8.000 - 6,000/4,000 b.c.)
3. Neolithic or New Stone Age (6,000 - 4,000 b.c)

It is important to remember that the knowledges we have from these eras, are based in the few evidences left, so many come from inferences made by scientists. In the early twentieth century, scholars rejected the idea of the nineteenth ones, they proposed that prehistoric cave paintings might be the conclusion of rites performed to enhance the fertility of the animals on which people dependend for food. In 1909, an anthropologist proposed that cave paintings were expressions of "sympathetic magic". He suggested that the painters may have thought that producing a picture of a bison lying down would ensure that hunters found the animal asleep and ready to be hunted.  Read the following article and try to find at least three ideas that could be the origin of art production.

Let´s see how they imagine life could have been on those times:

Paleolithic or Old Stone Age

Paleolithic cultures were nomadic, subsisting by hunting or gathering, and moving from plaxce to place in search of food. They made shelters in caves or tents made from animal skins. Fire have been discovered thousands of years before and although the invention of  writing was still a long way off, there are some evidence that language had been developed. The expression media were mainly through painting and scultpture

Paleolithic Painting:
Two of the great evidences of the works that are also mentioned as the Sixtine Chapel of prehistoric times are Lascaux caves in France and Altamira Caves in Spain.The materials used in both are very similar and include basically animal fat and blood.


Take a tour to these extraordinary evidences by getting into the two webpages.

Paleolithic Sculpture.

Artists of the paleolithic produced a wide range of small sculptures made od ivory, bone, stone and limestone (kind of clay). Perhaps the most famous paleolithic sculptures are the ones known as the Venuses. The main example is the Venus of Willendorf from Austria, calculated to have around 30,000.


Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age
This was a period of transition more important cultural and environmental changes that for its artistic legacy. The circumstances that surrounded this era made people to change their habits and activities. This was the time that followed the end of the ice Age, thus the animals that they used to hunt disappeared so people started to gather around ponds where fishing turned to be their main activity. Also these led to a partial settlement of small group starting the transition from nomadic life to settlement.

Neolithic or New Stone Age
As people adopted a settled, agricultural way of life, they needed formal shelters, so they began to build walls, storage spaces, and animal shelters. Also, the first tombs and monuments built from huge stones appeared in the Neolithic period. Many megalithic tombs are preserved throughout Europe. Three main ones are recognized: menhir, dolmen and cromlech.

The most famous of these monuments is Stonhenge in Salsbury plain in England. Take a tour to this marvelous place.

Also, you can review the contents of the presentation about Prehistoric art

After reviewing these materials, please make a contribution talking about the motivation that led prehistoric humans to leave this painting, and according to your answer why do you think they created this "style"


33 comentarios:

  1. please make a contribution talking about the motivation that led prehistoric humans to leave this painting, and according to your answer why do you think they created this "style"

    The motivation of the prehistoric humans was in teling evrivody that got to see the paintinges that they made on the murales was to tell evryvody of ther histori of how the got food or how they live , also i think that they created this style because they only coud painted the caves with blode and it was of the only thinges that they had .

    Sebastian Arana Quintana A01370237

    ResponderEliminar
    Respuestas
    1. Your answer is very good if only you are able to understand it. Please be careful. Next time I will low grade for spelling.

      Eliminar
  2. After reviewing these materials, please make a contribution talking about the motivation that led prehistoric humans to leave this painting, and according to your answer why do you think they created this "style" :

    Well the first motivation was that they need to show their story, this was the way they found to tell their way to live, an tell other persons if in that place was food or something like that. They have this style 'cuz they don't have many materials like in other time, they paint in caves 'cuz they live there and also use de form of the cave to make somo efects in the paint like natural curves, the colors were made with plants or animals.
    A01169747

    ResponderEliminar
  3. After reviewing these materials, please make a contribution talking about the motivation that led prehistoric humans to leave this painting, and according to your answer why do you think they created this "style"

    I think that those artist all the time experiment that kind of cultural and enviromental changes. They want to all the people to know how they eat, how was her type of life, what does they do?, what does they do, everything of his culture that were plassmed in murals and also in history. I think they create those styles wit this materiales ( animal fat and blood) because that was that they have, and it´s cause impact for those era.

    Miguel Angel Araiza 1169708

    ResponderEliminar
  4. The purpose of painting in the caves was to let the people know how was their lives, they used to draw the animals and how they hunt them, they draw some landscapes and what they saw outside. I suppose that they counted a history while they were drawing, so that all the community understood of what the drawing was.

    I think they leave their paints for all the people who visit their caves might know more about them. Also i think that they didn't want to create a style, they just want to let their people know about the outsides or maybe the paints were used like maps.

    ResponderEliminar
  5. After reviewing these materials, please make a contribution talking about the motivation that led prehistoric humans to leave this painting, and according to your answer why do you think they created this "style

    I think They created this style becuase the animals and plants were the only thing they know the paint killing animals because were kinds of stories that they draw everytime they move to place to another because they were nomads.

    they don´t want weren't searching for beauty only to tell a story

    ResponderEliminar
  6. I don't really think that they had a motivation because they only wanted to express their feelings by painting what they used to live in everyday life, like haunting or exploring through the jungle, so that is what they represented in their mural paintings .

    The Style I think that it Was the only way to represent their skills, it Was the only material available and discovered in that times, so their styles can not be very representative to a modern Style of art.
    VincentAlcaraz A01371088

    ResponderEliminar
  7. Martin Lira Martinez
    A01169916

    After reviewing these materials, please make a contribution talking about the motivation that led prehistoric humans to leave this painting, and according to your answer why do you think they created this "style


    I think that one of the biggest motivation is to pass their culture and teach to their people the important and correct use of war and also the correct use the animals, I think that their style is 100% related with the purpose of the paints and is also related with the materials and the pigments that were available in that time and in the zone

    ResponderEliminar
  8. i think that this culture want to represent their view ,but in different way , or maybe they tried to make their sculpture perfect, but they cant do that because they dont have the correct material to do all those things.

    ResponderEliminar
  9. Please make a contribution talking about the motivation that led prehistoric humans to leave this painting, and according to your answer why do you think they created this "style".
    People who lived in the past were not good artists but they made mural paintings and some sculptures to talk about them and leave something, their essence. Their art was about their lives, when they were hunting or the fertility. They didn't thought about perfection, they only wanted to communicate the things they used to do at that momment. They wanted to express themselves too.

    ResponderEliminar
  10. I think that they wanted to represent what they were living, how they hunt and everything that they had. They didn't know about art but they wanted to express themselves so they use blood to paint. Their art was about pregnancy and hunts basically

    ResponderEliminar
  11. well from what i´ve seen in class an by the material I just read i can say that they used it with comunicacion porpouses at first,if the paintings and are analized well and considering that at those times they were nomads is possible to say that they might as well be consious of the fact that there were other tribes that might go throught there or because they had no especific language they might as well use drawings or painting to comunicate between them,but then they might just took consideration that they could draw with more detail and they could also draw humans to comunicate stories of big huntings and that kind of things.

    ResponderEliminar
  12. I think that they created this style becuase the animals and plants were the thing they see every day and was something they like and the paint killing animals because were kinds of stories that they draw everytime they move to place to another because they were nomads.
    Were like their stories and that was the way they represent it.

    ResponderEliminar
  13. I think they just wanted to tell stories about their times and to preserve the figures of their animals ,because it was the animals were the most important for them because it was the only thing they used for living and what they knew.

    ResponderEliminar
  14. ---Alejandro Garcia Hurtado A01370748---

    After reviewing these materials, please make a contribution talking about the motivation that led prehistoric humans to leave this painting, and according to your answer why do you think they created this "style"

    I think that those artist all the time experiment that kind of cultural and enviromental changes.They didn't thought about perfection, they only wanted to communicate the things they used to do at that momment.

    ResponderEliminar
  15. Este comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.

    ResponderEliminar
  16. i thing that what they want to do is expresing what they where watching and what they do in this period of transition.

    the art of the prehistoric persons was almost perfect

    Alejandro Resendiz Ramirez A01370080

    ResponderEliminar
  17. The motivation of this period was that they panted what they do in that time and theire ordinary live.
    they porpuse was comunicated waY they lived and how they made

    ResponderEliminar
  18. In my opinion, I would say that in that time the expression wasn't their art basis. As they were nomads, was so much important to communicate their lifestyle to other tribes than to express feelings.
    The style provides by the kind of pigments they had in reach on that time, and the idea to show how do they lived.

    ResponderEliminar
  19. After reviewing these materials, please make a contribution talking about the motivation that led prehistoric humans to leave this painting, and according to your answer why do you think they created this "style":

    -They were trying to comunicate how did their life was, how people lived and their interaction or link with animals. They paint about the woman, fertility, their dialy life. In that times the wanted to left some evidences. I think they created that style because of the resources of the moment. Their pigments were made by plants, blood, and more. And they did not have a brush, like us, so there was no way to make sophisticated paintings.

    María José García 1370363

    ResponderEliminar
  20. Prehistoric Art:

    Prehistoric art can be several things, from megaliths to little stone figurines, to paintings on the walls of caves. The term prehistoric indicates that the culture that produced the artwork did not have a written language. Some of the more famous examples are Stonehenge, the Nasca lines in Peru, and Lascaux Cave. Prehistoric artifacts and artwork can be found all over the world.

    The very earliest human artifacts showing evidence of workmanship with an artistic purpose are the subject of some debate, it is clear that such workmanship existed by 40,000 years ago in the Upper Paleolithic era.

    Daniel Alejandro Gómez Guzmán A01370749

    ResponderEliminar

  21. Prehistoric people often represented their world- and perhaps their beliefs- through visual images. Art emerged with the appearance and dispersion of fully modern people
    through Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas. Paintings, sculptures,engravings and pottery reveal not only a quest for beauty but also complex social systems and spiritual concepts.

    I think that the prehistoric people create this paintings to show to the future generations, the world that they live in their times. They represent principally how men´s hunts animals for food, and hoe they survived in that environment.


    ResponderEliminar
  22. I don't think that they want to created a style, they just wanted to tell their story. How do they live, what kind of animals they hunt, woman's in fertility.
    They also found a way to be able to paint using plants, animals and blood, this was his way of expressing and realizing the development of life.

    ResponderEliminar
  23. What inspired humans was their animal house they had, thats why they decided to paint for remembering their exploits. in this paints we usually found their struggles with animals. can be several things, from megaliths to little stone figurines, to paintings on the walls of caves. The term “prehistoric” indicates that the culture that produced the artwork did not have a written language. Some of the more famous examples are Stonehenge, the Nasca lines in Peru, and Lascaux Cave. Prehistoric artifacts and artwork can be found all over the world

    ResponderEliminar
  24. I think that they did these paintings because they want to show to the next generation their history and they want to leave their mark in the history, also with that paintings they showed to everybody their culture, food, etc.

    Also i think that they paint their arts like that because they didnt have the materials that we have right now, It was another Era and they only had caves, rocks, etc.

    ResponderEliminar
  25. The main purpose was to communicate an idea with other tribes. Their style was a very simplistic one, I think they painted this way because it was easier that with any other materials and because it was fast. They painted on the wall of a cave and left a few days later, then, when another tribe arrived, they could see and undertsand the simple drawings that were left for them. It was an objective style, no point of view was needed for other people to understand the message.

    ResponderEliminar
  26. prehistoric don´t means that dosen´t make art, the venus is a sculpture of a woman. Venus means god of fertility.
    and the paintings were in caves in the paleolithic and in stones in neolithic

    ResponderEliminar
  27. I think that the egiptians are so samrt because they did some sculptures perfectly also the paints for exaple the egiptians piramids

    ResponderEliminar
  28. The papiro is so impressionant because is like some seda and paper well is paper in that year but know is so impressionant

    ResponderEliminar
  29. All the motivation of this period was about daily activities and hunting, aslo because they focused on the women as the sign of fertility and that's why they made venus on that way because it expressed how women where the root of life.

    Andrés Sánchez A01016461

    ResponderEliminar
  30. the ziguratt were like piramids and they had a lot of colors and sculprues, they are so impressionants because his architecture is so perfect

    ResponderEliminar