5-Minute Art History: Paleolithic Art

I’m a big fan of Crash Course videos, and I have been dying for them to make an art history crash course forever! So, I decided to take matters into my own hands and make a new video series–5-Minute Art History. I start at the beginning with Upper Paleolithic Art.

This series will have a 5 minute (or so) video summarizing the main points of the art movement along with a corresponding conventions printable handout that you can download here on The Art Class Curator!

Paleolithic Art Conventions

Time:

Upper Paleolithic Period, 40,000-10,000 B.C.E.

Paleolithic Key Points:

• Main art forms were cave painting and small sculpture.
• Primary themes in art were animals/hunting and fertility.
• Art was either stationary (cave paintings) or portable (Venus figurines).
• Hunter-gatherer lifestyle
• Prehistory means we have no written records from this period.
• Although the art represents a big jump in human development, we can only guess why they created art.

Paleolithic Artistic Conventions:

“Venus” Figurines:

• Figurative, mostly representing females and sometimes animals
• Small, usually can fit in one hand
• Exaggerated breasts, belly, and hips could represent fertility
• Minimized face, feet, and hands

Cave Paintings:

• Paint made from natural materials (ochre, blood, minerals, charcoal, etc)
• Mostly represented animals with few humans
• Realistic style for animals, stick figure humans
• Evidence they were created over a long period of time

Important Artworks:

• Venus of Willendorf
• Caves of Lascaux

Image Credits:
Venus of Dolní Věstonice: Petr Novák, Wikipedia
Venus of Hohle Fels: Thilo Parg / Wikimedia Commons, License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Venus of Laussel: User 120, Wikipedia

This was originally posted on October 1, 2015.