Subject Matter: There are paintings of animals in different shapes and forms. Most of the animals are the hunting animals but not all of them. The animals included are bison, bull, cows, reindeer, boar, wild horses and deer. There are also some birds and fishes in the back.
Style: The style is simple and yet so featured as the images are very realistic. Pictures are illustrated through kind of shades to give 3D look even though they are not on the flat surface. They used bold dark outline and some shows disconnection to show the space between the front and the back of leg. It’s painted that way to show action and movement in images as some of the paintings are large and powerful and some are small, helpless or slender and frail. Some painting shows animal in sleeping mode and some in galloping and crouching. The painters actually used the bulge parts and uneven surface of the cave to represent these actions.
Medium: There is only two color used in the paintings which are black and brown, and also shades of reddish brown. Paintings are outlined with the black pigment made out of clay and soft stone turned into powder. They were also mixed with animal fat and blood and probably some other medium to give the thickness and stickiness for it to stay longer and shine.
Techniques and Location: The two Cave paintings are located in Dordogne of France and Northern Spain. As being relatively close to each other they also have similar used techniques. Both were outlined with dark color, black, and afterwards shaded with reddish brown pigment. However, the Cave Altamira in Northern Spain are more advance in technique as the outline were carved in the cave wall with some sharp stone or object and then filled with the dark black pigment for them to stay longer. To apply the paint they not only used their hands but also used reed and bristle in use of brushes. There was also use of moss pad as a sponge and bone straw later on to blow the paint on the paintings. They were painted way down in cave rather than at the entrance.
Reasons/purpose: There are some reasons that are predicted through the clues found through paintings and objects of pre-historic time. Some of the reasons are that they hunt the animals for food. It is believed that they used the paintings for hunting rituals which help them hunt the animals rather than just be decoration to the cave. There were symbols which could be representing magic for successful hunting. However, not all the drawn animals in the cave were used for food and hunted; it is still mystery to us.
6. Key Works: Pre-Historic cave paintings of Altamira in Spain, circa 15,000-10,000 B.C and Lascaux (Dordogne), France around the same time period. The largest size of the paintings was bulls 10- 12 feet long, the deers were about 6.5 feet long and other animals average around 5 feet.
Prehistoric Sculpture
Subject Matter: It is a famous sculpture of the human from pre-historic era. It’s actually a women figure with emphasize on the fertility areas like huge breasts, big bulging stomach and thick thighs and huge hips. Artist even added the belly button and made it very descriptive. It doesn’t emphasize the arms and hands that are over the breasts from the side and are hardly noticalbe from the front view and also there were no feet to begin with as it had nothing to do with the overall of image.
Style: It’s a figurative art in very detailed and could also be very meaningful. . It has been painted with reddish brown color, less in shades and in hues.
Medium: The Sculpture is actually carved in limestone with use of some carving tools. Artist has probably taken his time to carve the details with other sharp rocks and the carving tools. They probably used blood and other stone powder for the color.
Techniques and Location: As said that Venus of Willendorf is made of very high degree of artistic ability which could be made by very skilled artist. As the details on the small stone is carved very beautifully. Especially the head it seems like the women is wearing a knitted hat of some kind and it shows no features of nose, eyes or lips making it insignificant or maybe having a totally different meaning and again leaving it very mysterious. The sculpture is found in Australia but is actually not from that region of Australia. It probably has been brought from another location because the stone is not from that region.
Reasons/purpose: Artist used a figure of a woman and with the given features it has described the importance of women as fertility figure. It could relate to every woman in that era or it could be meant to only one figure in the society who is very significance to all of them. It also captures the women ability to give birth and people carried it around to bring fortunes or charms. It could be some kind of amulet of some kind or a religious figure as for women in connection with fertility. It could also represent to them, as a figure of God and Beauty as named Venus, as in Roman goddess of love. It was carried around probably was to bring the individual with lots of luck, food or an heir. Again, the reasons vary.
Key Works: Pre-Historic sculpture of ‘Venus of Willendorf’ from Austria circa 25,000-20,000 B. It’s only 11 cm tall, and is very small enough to carry it around.
No comments:
Post a Comment