(GPWA) Module Overview

Global Prehistory Works of Art

Introduction

Sit and imagine going back to the dawn of man.... back to the earliest things made by man: shelter, spear, knife, and fire. Think back to what it was like before we realized the potential of the wheel... we are all just going around in circles.

The earliest forms of painted art depict scenes of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. These paintings, located in sacred places around the world, offer a glimpse of a common ancestral heritage shared by every person who lived on Earth for millions of years prior to the creation of the paintings. These works of art predate religion, ideas of ancient monuments, the written word, the wheel, agriculture and every other marker of civilization, except fire, by tens of thousands of years. There's no way for us to appreciate this scale of time using words, but to put it into perspective, had you put $.01 into a savings account back then and let it accrue at 3% interest you would have $146,000,000 today. - The Mindful Word

Painting of CavemenThis module, Prehistory, introduces the possible ways of reconstructing and interpreting these global cultures of prehistory. Long before word, there existed artistic expression. From 30,000 BCE - 5,000 BCE, wonderful yet enigmatic representations of animals were painted on cave walls, rock facings, and carved in rock or antler. Exaggerated female sculptures, given the term "Venus figures", are carved and found throughout Europe. With the beginnings of agriculture, societies begin to develop and the art changes. The Neolithic saw the transformation of nomadic settlements into agrarian societies needing permanent shelter. Early rock art first appeared in the Neolithic period. With the rise of permanent architecture, permanent cities like Jericho develop, and monumental structures like Stonehenge are erected for eternally questionable reasons. What were these prehistoric artists trying to express or accomplish?

Module Lessons Preview

In this module, we will study the following topics:

  • What is art?
  • Why do people create art?
  • What are the building blocks of art?
  • How do form, content and context express and influence meaning?
  • How do elements and principles facilitate visual communication?
  • How do we use critique to inform art?

Key Terms

In this module, we will study the following key terms:

  1. Composite View - Composite view is a convention of representation in which part of a figure is shown in profile and another part of the same figure is shown frontally; sometimes known as frontality.
  2. Cromlech - A cromlech is a circle of monoliths. They are known as henges.
  3. Ground Line - In paintings and reliefs, a painted or carved baseline on which figures appear to stand.  
  4. Incise - Incising is the cutting into a surface with a sharp instrument; also, a method of decoration, especially on metal and pottery.
  5. Megalith - (Greek, “great stone.”) A megalith is a large, roughly hewn stone used in the construction of monumental prehistoric structures.
  6. Mesolithic - The Mesolithic Period is the “middle” Stone Age, between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic ages.
  7. Monolith - A monolith is a column shaft that is all in one piece (not composed of drums); a large, single block or piece of stone used in megalithic structures.
  8. Narrative - A narrative is art that is designed to represents elements of a story. Narrative art is art that tells a story, either as a moment in an ongoing story or as a sequence of events unfolding over time.
  9. Naturalism - Naturalism is a style in which an artist intends to represent a subject as it appears in the natural world as opposed to being represented in a stylized or intellectually manipulated manner.
  10. Neolithic - The Neolithic Period is the “new” Stone Age.
  11. Paleolithic - The Paleolithic Period is the “old” Stone Age, during which humankind produced the first sculptures and paintings.
  12. Post and Lintel - In architecture, a post-and-lintel refers to the use of horizontal beams or lintels, which are borne up by columns or posts.
  13. Radiocarbon Dating - Radiocarbon dating is the method of measuring the decay rate of carbon isotopes in organic matter to provide dates for organic materials such as wood and fiber.
  14. Relief - In sculpture, figures projecting from a background of which they are part are known as a relief. The degree of relief is designated high, low (bas), or sunken. In the last, the artist cuts the design into the surface so that the highest projecting parts of the image are no higher than the surface itself.
  15. Trilithon - A trilithon is a pair of monoliths topped with a lintel; found in megalithic structures.
  16. Twisted Perspective - Twisted perspective is the convention of representation in which part of a figure is shown in profile and another part of the same figure is shown frontally. 

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