FEATURES of the most important prehistoric art

The earliest artistic achievements of human creativity date back more than 100,000 years. Some artistic representations, basically marks with ground red ocher on stones, which are a sample of what is known as rock art and that, together with the furniture art and the megalithic architecture make up the so-called prehistoric art.

An art created prior to the invention of formal writing, at which time different populations migrated, spreading throughout the world. Thus, by the year 20,000 BC, humans had already settled on all continents, finding remains of cave paintings in Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia, this last continent being one of those that treasures some of the most ancient cave paintings ancient. In this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we offer you a selection of the main important features of prehistoric art.

Index

1. What is prehistoric art?
2. Most important characteristics of prehistoric art
3. Characteristics of movable art in Prehistory
4. Cave painting characteristics
5. Characteristics of megalithic architecture

Before starting to list the important characteristics of prehistoric art, it is important that we know what type of art we are dealing with. The prehistoric art refers to the artistic and sensitive creations of the human being during Prehistory, that is, in the period prior to the development of writing.

According to prehistorians, prehistoric art, especially erock art would be the first language, the first way to convey ideas and concepts. An art in which the intention to last is appreciated for the first time, although its ultimate purpose is not yet clear, there is a variety of hypothesis, since they were fictional stories, expression of a magical or religious thought or mythological narratives that are repeated in each cave.

From the chronological point of view, Prehistory is usually divided into three major stages:

• Paleolithic (32,000 to 9000 BC). A time of nomadic societies dedicated to hunting and gathering wild fruits.
• Neolithic(9,000 to 3,000 BC). One of the most important periods in the history of mankind when agriculture and agriculture were discovered. livestock, spreading sedentary lifestyle among populations, causing a remarkable cultural development and Social.
• Age of metals (3,000 to 700 BC), period in which the first urban societies emerged.

Although prehistoric art presents diverse periods and numerous artistic creations in different and distant parts of the world, it does present a series of important and common characteristics that bring a unity of style. Thus, among the main characteristics of this type of art, the following stand out:

• Tendency to schematism
• Symbolism
• Abstraction
• They have a ritual or mythical and religious purpose that goes beyond the aesthetic.

Some characteristics that we can also notice in the different manifestations of prehistoric art: rock art, furniture art and megalithic art.

We are going to discover, now, the important features of prehistoric art within movable art, that is, as designed by our ancestors. They are as follows:

• These works were made in the form of engraving or sculpture in ivory, bone or stone.
• They have their origin in the Upper Paleolithic.
• They were portable, that is, they could be taken from one place to another,
• They were small in size.
• They are associated with the cult of female fertility and mother earth, although there are also batons with figures of animals such as horses or bison and abstract symbols.
• Feminine figures are abundant, little goddesses of fertility, in which the shapes of the belly and breasts are exaggerated, symbolizing both feminine and earthly fertility.
• Some female sculptures that receive the name of prehistoric Venus.

The paintings They are one of the best known manifestations of art in Prehistory. The characteristics of this first pictorial art are the following:

• They are paintings and engravings made on the walls of rocks or shelters or in caves.
• The two main periods are the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic.
• During the Paleolithic the paintings were made in caves and secluded and dark places such as, for For example, the caves of Altamira or El Castillo, in Cantabria, or in the south of France such as Lascaux and Font Gaume. They are polychrome paintings, in ocher, red or black, with naturalistic representations, a sensation of movement and use of the shapes of the rocks.
• During the Neolithic they were made in rocky shelters in the open air, being monochrome and schematic.

We finish this review of the important characteristics of prehistoric art by talking about the architecture. The most defining elements of this period are the following:

• The first architectural manifestations appeared at the end of the Neolithic and the Metal Age at the settlements settle down and the first cities emerge with monuments built with large stones.
• These constructions are religious, ritual or funeral.
• The main constructions were:
• The menhirs, large vertical stones driven into the ground, alone or aligned.
• Dolmens are constructions made up of vertical stone blocks covered by a horizontal slab and used for burial.
• The corridor tombs or tombs. Some tombs formed by several dolmens in a row.
• The chromlech are formed by several menhirs forming a circle, the best known being that of Stonehenge, in the United Kingdom, a temple dedicated to the cult of the Sun.

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If you want to read more articles similar to Prehistoric art: important features, we recommend that you enter our category of History.

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