CAS AH 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Apollo 11 Cave, Chauvet Cave, Woolly Mammoth

• School: Boston University
• Department: History of Art & Architecture
• Course: CAS AH 111
• Professor: Kleiner Fred

Document Summary

Art before history: the caves of western europe. Paleolithic period (40,000 to 30,000 bce) representation, not just recognition. Africa earliest evidence of human recognition of pictorial images (three-million-year-old pebble) usually portable objects. Apollo 11 cave: charcoal on stone, rendered the forms with care and in the identical way, strict profile. Facing left, carved wooly mammoth ivory, one of oldest preserved sculptures, human with a feline head, odd bc subject usually animals or women (meaning?) Willendorf: venus of willendorf: limestone, emphasize female anatomy (fertility), faceless, hair texture. Laussel: woman holding bison horn, painted limestone, earliest relief sculpture, emphasis on arm (meaning?) Le tuc d"audoubert: two bison, built-up clay, strict profile. La madeleine: bison licking flank, spear thrower/antler, 180 profile head. Pech-merle: spotted horses and negative hand imprints, (signatures? take advantage of medium shape. Chauvet cave: aurochs, horses, and rhinoceroses, oldest known paintings, yet advanced features such as overlapping bull horns (narrative? disprove theory of evolving/improving art (before lauscaux)