Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

forms in the natural environment to the representation (literally, the

presenting again—in different and substitute form—of something

observed) of humans and animals. The immensity of this achieve-

ment cannot be exaggerated.

Africa

Some of the earliest paintings yet discovered come from Africa, and,

like the treasured pebble in the form of a face found at Makapansgat,

the oldest African paintings were portable objects.

APOLLO 11 CAVEBetween 1969 and 1972, scientists working

in the Apollo 11 Cave in Namibia (MAP15-1) found seven fragments

of stone plaques with paint on them, including four or five recogniz-

able images of animals. In most cases, including the example illus-

trated here (FIG. 1-3), the species is uncertain, but the forms are al-

ways carefully rendered. One plaque depicts a striped beast, possibly

a zebra. The charcoal from the archaeological layer in which the

Namibian plaques were found has been dated to around 23,000 BCE.

Like every artist in every age in every medium, the painter of the

Apollo 11 plaque had to answer two questions before beginning work:

What shall be my subject? How shall I represent it? In Paleolithic art,

the almost universal answer to the first question was an animal—bison,

mammoth, ibex, and horse were most common. In fact, Paleolithic

painters and sculptors depicted humans infrequently and men almost

never. In equally stark contrast to today’s world, there was also agree-

ment on the best answer to the second question. Artists presented vir-

tually every animal in every Paleolithic,Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age),

and Neolithic (New Stone Age) painting in the same manner—in strict

profile. The profile is the only view of an animal wherein the head,

body, tail, and all four legs can be seen. A frontal view would have con-

cealed most of the body, and a three-quarter view would not have

shown either the front or side fully. Only the profile view is completely

informative about the animal’s shape, and this is why the Stone Age

painter chose it. A very long time passed before artists placed any pre-

mium on “variety” or “originality,” either in subject choice or in repre-

sentational manner. These are quite modern notions in the history of

art. The aim of the earliest painters was to create a convincing image of

the subject, a kind of pictorial definition of the animal capturing its

very essence, and only the profile view met their needs.

Western Europe

Even older than the Namibian painted plaques are some of the first

sculptures and paintings of western Europe (MAP1-1), although ex-

amples of still greater antiquity may yet be found in Africa, bridging

the gap between the Makapansgat pebble and the Apollo 11 painted

plaques.

16 Chapter 1 ART BEFORE HISTORY

1-2Waterworn pebble resembling a human face, from Makapansgat,

South Africa, ca. 3,000,000 BCE. Reddish-brown jasperite, 2^3 – 8 wide.

Three million years ago someone recognized a face in this pebble and

brought it to a rock shelter for safekeeping, but the stone is not an

artwork because it was neither manufactured nor modified.

1-3Animal facing left, from the Apollo 11 Cave, Namibia, ca. 23,000 BCE.

Charcoal on stone, 5  4 –^14 . State Museum of Namibia, Windhoek.

Like most other paintings for thousands of years, this very early

example from Africa represents an animal in strict profile so that the

head, body, tail, and all four legs are clearly visible.

MAP1-1Prehistoric sites in Europe.

Newgrange

Skara Brae

Stonehenge

La Madeleine

La Magdelaine

Laussel Lascaux

Brassempouy

Pech-Merle

Vallon-

Altamira Pont-d’Arc

Le Tuc d’Audoubert

Hohlenstein-

Stadel Willendorf

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

North

Sea

North

Sea

Mediterranean SeaMediterranean Sea

ENGLAND

IRELAND

GERMANY

AUSTRIA

ITALY

MALTA

FRANCE

SPAIN

AFRICA

0 250 500 miles

2500 500 kilometers

1 in.

1 in.