The development of depicting the human form

The development of depicting the human form from Paleolithic art

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1. 3-5 typed pages double-spaced.

2. citing this textbook (no online research)

3. Make sure to have a thesis statement and use examples from images that i attached.

4. Make sure you include examples from the majority of chapters covered.

5. no plagiarism.

6. Here are the topics

Describe the development of depicting the human form from Paleolithic art through the arts of Ancient near-East, Ancient Egypt, the Aegean and Greek cultures.  Think about how humans are represented and what functions representation of humans have served.  Is there in fact a clear “development”?

PALEOLITHIC and NEOLITHIC

-PALEOLISTHIC (OLD STONE AGE) ART, ca. 30,000–9000 BCE

Para 1

VENUS OF WILLENDORF The composite feline-human from Germany is exceptional for the Stone Age. The vast majority of prehistoric sculptures depict either animals or humans. In the earliest art, humankind consists almost exclusively of women as opposed to men, and the painters and sculptors almost invariably showed them nude, although scholars generally assume that during the Ice Age both women and men wore garments covering parts of their bodies. When archaeologists first discovered Paleolithic statuettes of women, they dubbed them “Venuses,” after the Greco-Roman goddess of beauty and love, whom artists usually depicted nude (FIG. 5-62).

Para 2

The nickname is inappropriate and misleading. It is doubtful that the Old Stone Age figurines represented deities of any kind. One of the oldest and the most famous of the prehistoric female figures is the tiny limestone figurine of a woman that long has been known as the Venus of Willendorf (FIG. 1-5) after its findspot in Austria. Its cluster of almost ball-like shapes is unusual, the result in part of the sculptor’s response to the natural shape of the stone selected for carving. The anatomical exaggeration has suggested to many that this and similar statuettes served as fertility images.

Para 3

But other Paleolithic stone women of far more slender proportions exist, and the meaning of these images is as elusive as everything else about Paleolithic  Art 3 1-4 Human with feline head, from Hohlenstein-Stadel, Germany, ca. 30,000–28,000 BCE. Mammoth ivory, 11 5 – 8 high. Ulmer Museum, Ulm. One of the oldest known sculptures is this large ivory figure of a human with a feline head. It is uncertain whether the work depicts a composite creature or a human wearing an animal mask. 1-5 Nude woman (Venus of Willendorf ), from Willendorf, Austria, ca. 28,000–25,000 BCE. Limestone, 4 1 – 4 high. Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna. The anatomical exaggerations in this tiny figurine from Willendorf are typical of Paleolithic representations of women, whose child-bearing capabilities ensured the survival of the species.