Western Art History and

Movements
[Paleolithic and Egypt]
Why study the history of art?
What is its relation to the study
of humanities?
Paleolithic Period

Ancient times (30,000 BCE – 3,500 BCE)

“Paleo” meaning old and “lithic” meaning “stone”

Crude tools of man became more shaped, thinner
and sharper – which became conducive to the
development of art.
After the ice age ended, man became wholly
human – imagination, concepts of identity and
meaning came along.

The stone man achieved the

invention of “representation” –
probably the most important
contribution of prehistoric man. It
paved the way to the
development of art.
Pa le o lith ic S ub -Pe r io d
A. Upper / Early Paleolithic
Aka: Later Stone Age

Man lived in caves = artworks were in caves

Poses captured were fleeting or indicating movement – not

stiff or stationary.

Human figures were treated differently in representation.

Representation of animals was descriptive rather than

optical. This representation is called twisted perspective.
Animals were in profile but both horns are visible. They
wanted to be as accurate as possible.
Twisted Perspective: horns, eyes and hooves are
shown as seen from the front, yet heads and bodies
are rendered in profile.
PURPOSE
Purpose of art seems to be of a
ritualistic/religious/magical nature. A group of
paintings sometimes indicate that area was used
as a shrine/for magical rituals.

EXAMPLES
First cave art in Altamira Cave in northern Spain

The caves at Lascaux, Dordogne, France

Venus of Willendorf ,
from Willendorf,
Austria,
ca. 28,000–25,000 bce.
Limestone, 41–4″ high.
Naturhistorisches
Museum, Vienna.
Left wall of the Hall of the Bulls in the cave at Lascaux, France, ca.
16,000–14,000 bce. Largest bull 11′ 6″ long.
Two bison, reliefs in the cave at Le Tuc d’Audoubert, France, ca. 15,000–10,000 bce.
Clay, right bison 2′ 7–8″ long. Animals are far more common than humans in Old
Stone Age art. In both relief sculpture and painting, they always appear in profile,
the only view completely informative about the animals’ shape.
Spotted horses and negative hand imprints, wall painting in the cave at Pech-
Merle, France, ca. 23,000–22,000 bce. 11′ 2″ long. Many Paleolithic paintings
include abstract signs and handprints. Some scholars think the Pech-Merle
painted hands are “signatures” of cult or community members or, less likely, of
individual painters.
Pa le o lit h ic S ub -Pe r io d

B. Middle / Mesolithic
“meso” meaning middle

Hunters left their caves to make rock shelters, semi-nomadic

existence. They did not have permanent shelters but were able
to make dwellings of light wooden materials or in rock
shelters.

Man became gatherers as well as hunters.

Change in art forms: human form appeared and usually in

groups
CHARACTERISTICS OF ART
Human themes - Could have been pictorial records
of memorable events

Styles became more abstract; more symbol than

picture (symbolic rather than pictorial) = in the East
this culminated in the invention of writing

ARTWORK
Rock shelter paintings
Microliths
Petroglyphs
Rock-shelters
Rock-shelter paintings
Rock-shelter paintings, Australia
Microliths – “small stones”, small blades of various
shapes; made of stone; used in hunting; under 2 inches in
length, also used as tools and ornamentation
Petroglyph – images on rock made by carving into
the rock and exposing a lighter color underneath
Pa le o lit h ic S ub -Pe r io d

C. Neolithic
New stone age

Man learned to actually control his environment

and settled into fixed abodes, domesticated
animals and started planting

Changed from hunter to herdsman/farmer

Built communities, villages with cultivated fields
Human figure,
from Ain Ghazal, Jordan,
ca. 6750–6250 bce.
Plaster,
painted and inlaid with
cowrie shell and bitumen,
3′ 53–8″ high. Musée du
Louvre, Paris.
At Ain Ghazal,
archaeologists
have uncovered dozens of
large white plaster
Neolithic statuettes with
details added in paint and
shell. They mark the
beginning of monumental
sculpture in the history of
art.
Megalith – “great stones”

Aerial view of Stonehenge (looking northwest), Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire,

England, ca. 2550–1600 bce.
One of the earliest examples of monumental architecture in Neolithic Europe,
the circle of 24-foot-tall trilithons at Stonehenge probably functioned as an
astronomical observatory and solar calendar.
Check-up questions:

What are the art forms of Early Paleolithic?

Mesolithic? Neolithic?

How did prehistoric man’s way of life affect

or influence the kind of art that he made?

How did prehistoric man’s art forms reflect

his development – personally and as a
people?
EGYPT

The Nile
The Pharaohs
The Gods
Life After Death
EGYPT
The Gods: Horus, Seth, Thoth, Anubis, Isis, Ra, Osiris
EGYPT
Paintings

The image was frequently

identified by inscription,
resemblance with the
depicted was not necessary,
infirmities and old age are
rarely shown. Most images
are glowing examples of
prosperity, youth, and good
health.
The head of the
character was always
drawn in profile, while
the body is seen from
the front. “Frontalism”

Every figure in
paintings either stands
or sits with a formal,
stiff, and rigid posture.
The stance of the body
is severe, but the faces
are calm and serene.
Slaves and animals were painted more natural and relaxed,
and with a smaller scale in drawings to show their limited
importance.

There was no attempt at linear perspective.

Artists made colors from raw materials around them and

therefore worked in a limited number of shades. Color was
applied in flat tones - strict rules often applied to the use of
a particular color for particular purpose. For example, men's
skin was colored red while women's was yellow.

There were no individual artists with originality. Imitation

and strict adherence to rules required.
Ti watching a
hippopotamus hunt,
relief in the mastaba of
Ti, Saqqara, Egypt, Fifth
Dynasty, ca. 2450–2350
bce. Painted limestone,
4′ high.

In Egypt, a successful
hunt was a metaphor for
triumph over evil. In this
painted tomb relief, the
deceased stands aloof
from the hunters busily
spearing hippopotami.
Ti’s size reflects his high
rank.
EG YPT

Sculpture

Menkaure and Khamerernebty(?), from Gizeh,

Egypt, Fourth Dynasty, ca. 2490–2472 bce.
Graywacke, 4′ 61–2 ″ high. Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston.

This double portrait displays the conventional

postures used for Egyptian statues designed as
substitute homes for the ka. The frozen
gestures signify the man and woman are
husband and wife.
The canopic jars
were four in
number, each for
the safekeeping
of particular
human organs:
the stomach,
intestines, lungs,
and liver, all of
which, it was
believed, would
be needed in the
afterlife. There
was no jar for the
heart: the
Egyptians
believed it to be
the seat of the
soul, and so it
was left inside
the body.
Amenhotep III Representation at Karnak Temple Complex, Luxor
Sunken relief of Thoth – Luxor
temple
EGYPT
Architecture

Post and lintel construction

Walls immensely thick and sloping - structural
requirement for balancing (vertical walls of stone
are unstable)
Stone columns closely spaced - Large spans
were not possible
Buildings had no mortar so stones or pieces had
to be cut precisely so they fit together.
Flat roofs - Domes and vaults were unknown in
Egypt
Small Openings - large doors and windows are
not possible in stone construction, this also
secured privacy to the religious structures
inaccessible to the public
Hieroglyphs - recording of historic events in stone
obelisks, columns and walls
Religious symbols - (scarabs, solar disk) essential
component for the decoration of all architectural
elements
Karnak Temple pylon
Model of the hypostyle hall, temple of Amen-Re, Karnak, Egypt, 19th Dynasty,
ca. 1290–1224 bce. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The two central
rows of columns of Karnak’s hypostyle hall are 70 feet high, with capitals 22
feet in diameter. The columns support a clerestory that admitted sunlight to
illuminate the hall’s interior.
Facade of the temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel, Egypt, 19th Dynasty, ca. 1290–
1224 bce. Sandstone, colossi 65′ high. Four rock-cut colossal images of Ramses
II dominate the facade of his mortuary temple. Inside, more gigantic figures of
the long reigning king depict him as Osiris, god of the dead and giver of eternal
life.
In the hypostyle hall of the Temple of Rameses, are 8 colossal figure-as columns of
Rameses. These are called “reserve” columns. This is the first time that this kind of
column is seen in architecture.

“Reserve” columns are columns that do not offer any structural support but are mainly
for decorative purposes.
EG YPT s ub -p e r io d

Amarna Period
 Akhenaton, from the temple of Aton,
Karnak, Egypt, 18th Dynasty, ca. 1353–
1335 bce. Sandstone, 13′ high. Egyptian
Museum, Cairo.
Akhenaton initiated both religious and
artistic revolutions. This androgynous
figure is a deliberate reaction against
tradition. It may be an attempt to portray
the pharaoh as Aton, the sexless sun disk.
Check-up questions:

What do you call the unique way of representation of

human forms in Egyptian art? Describe.

What are the characteristics of Egyptian architecture?

How did their belief in the afterlife show in their art?

Why was it necessary to spend so much money in

moving the temples along the Nile?

What were the changes in art during the Amarna

period?