Art Notes

Art – advertise instruct, record ideas and images, supernatural/religious, ceremonial, self-expression, social or political comment or protest

Reasons used for quite a long time, advertising more recently

Cave painting, Chauvet cave, Pont d’Arc, France, c. 28,000 B.C.
  Donkeys, rhinos, bison   Fig. 346/8th ed.; 335/9th ed.

From here on notes will designate figure numbers like this:   346/8; 335/9

c. = circa, or approximately   B.C. = before Christ, before the year 1
  politically correct trying to get away from B.C. and A.D. and change to B.C.E. & C.E
  (before common era and common era)
we’ll stick with B.C. and A.D. to keep it simple

*common abbreviations
  1. i.e. = id est, Latin for “that is”
  2. e.g. = exempli gratia, Latin for “for example”
  3. etc. = et cetera, Latin for “and so on”
  4. N.B. = Nota Bene, Italian for “note [this] well”

Bison out of reindeer antler, example of Neolithic art, c. 10,000 B.C. – not in book
Woman (Venus) of Willendorf, c. 25,000 – 20,000 B.C,   example of Paleolithic Art, Fig. 344/8; 333/9
Carbon dating doesn’t work on stone – it tells you how old the stone is, not the art on it.
Willendorf assumed to be fertility object because of emphasis on breasts and pelvic triangle.   No face, either.   Stylized hairdo or knitted cap.   This object can be held in one hand.   A few years ago a geologist said that this type of stone has a natural tendency to produce holes, like the navel – could be possible that artist found the stone with the hole in it.

Neolithic – new stone age, begins c. 10,000 B.C.
Paleolithic – old stone age, begins c. 30,000 B.C.
Monolith – a single large stone
LITH – stone

How old is the oldest surviving art?   C. 30,000 years old

Earliest art made probably to serve this purpose:   D. Religious or supernatural
Supernatural means something intangible here.   People didn’t know how to write, so art (visual images) was a way of communicating.
Cave paintings are believed to be made...