Prehistoric art

PREHISTORIC ARTPREHISTORIC ART

ART
• 1. CAVE ART
• 1.1. The Franco-Cabrian region
• 1.2. The Levantine area
• 2. PORTABLE ART
• 3. MEGALITHIC MONUMENTS
3.1 The Atlantic coast
3.2 The Mediterranean

1. CAVE ART
• Done on cave walls.
• Around 35.000 years ago.
• Two main regions:
– Franco-Cantabrian region: Altamira (Cantabria, Spain)
and Lascaux (France).
– Levantine area (Iberian peninsula): Valltorta (Castellón)
and Cogull (Lérida).

PIGMENTS
The prehistoric artists used materials
they had around. Red, brown and
yellow pigments were extracted from
clay and rust, mixing it with water or
egg. Black pigment was extracted
from charcoal and white from gypsum.

1.1 FRANCO-CANTABRIAN REGION.
• Characteristics:
– Naturalism.
– Polychrome.
– Use of irregularities of the rock to
show volume and depth.
– Interior of the caves.
– They represent animals alone, not
scenes.
– No human figures.

Bison Altamira
Horse Altamira
Deer of Altamira

Altamira. Bisons
Irregularities that feel it is a
3D painting.

Interior of Lascaux ( 15,000-13,000 B.C.)

3.2 LEVANTINE AREA:
• Characteristics:
– Epipaleolithic-Neolithic(9.000-4.000
B.C.).
– In shallow caves.
– Human figures and animals in
huntings scenes.
– Movement.
– Smaller figures.
– Schematic, very simpliflied lines.
– Monochrome.
Guerreros de la cueva de Roure
(Castellón)
Abrigo dels Cavalls.
Cacería de ciervos

Dancers of Cueva dels Moros (Cogull)

Gathering honey
(Cueva de la Araña).

2. PORTABLE ART
• Its an art can be carried from one place to another.
• Engavings: drawings done on a hard surface by make
incisions with a harder tool.
• Figurines of human figures (Venus) or animals.
• Other objects: adornments, batons of command,
amulets and talismans,

VENUS OF WILLENDORF – Austria (30.000 B.C.)VENUS OF WILLENDORF – Austria (30.000 B.C.)

Venus of Lespugue – France – 26.000 B.C. (ivory)
Venus of Laussel –
France - Paleolithic

Bison of Madeleine
(Dordogna, France)

Horse of Les Espelugues
(Lourdes, France)

Definition: construction of monuments and
collective tombs using huge stones. (megas: big;
litos: stone)
Location: Europe.
In Iberian Peninsula there are some examples
in Andalucia, Extremadura, Portugal, Galicia.
Chronology: beginning of Metale Age (copper).
Historical context: first societies in Atlantic area.

3.1. ATLANTIC COAST
1 – Menhir
2 – Alignment
3 – Cromlech
4 – Dolmen
5 – Passage tomb

Menhir: It is the simplest. It is an upright and vertical stone in the
ground. Some standing stones are up to 20 meters. They probably
are connected with tombs or monuments to the dead.
Menhir of Carnac
(France)
They are dedicated to
the dead or maybe
they connect telluric
forces with the sky

Alignment: a series of menhires forming lines.
Alignments of
Carnac
(France)
Eleven rows:
-one hundred
menhires each.
-one kilometre long.

Cromlech: menhires forming circles. Sometime they can have some
horizontal stones at the top.
Cromlech of Swinside (UK)

Dolmen: It’s formed by two or more vertical stones and another
which is horizontal. The whole structure forms a chamber.
Dolmens were tombs.
Dolmen of Arrízala
(Álava)

Dolmen of Dombate ( A Coruña)

Dolmen of Pedra Gentil(Barcelona) and
Hechicera in Laguardia (La Rioja).

Antequera ( Málaga)
Passage tombs: consist of gallery. The bottom formed by a false dome built
with rows of stones.

False dome
Tomb of El Romeral (Antequera)

1 – Talaiotic culture (Balearic Islands).
2 – Cyclopean stonework (Mycenae – Greece)
3.1. THE MEDITERRANEAN

Talaiotic culture (Balearic Islands)
Talaiot
Taula
Naveta

Cyclopean stonework (Mycenae – Greece)

Passage tomb (Mycenae – Greece)
Treasury of Atreus

Prehistoric art

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