5.1 A brief history of art ART: A BRIEF HISTORY 36,000 BC 5500 BC: PREHISTORY PAINTING SCULPTURE ARCHITECTURE Prehistoric men painted caves with figures representing animals, handprints and humans coloured with black and red ochre pigments. Examples of cave paintings are all over the world, in Europe the most visited are in France (Lascaux) and Spain (Altamira). Primitive men carved images reproducing female bodies, icon of fertility and of the survival of the tribe. They used flint tools to carve fragments of limestone. The same type of little statues in marble and with more gentle and abstract forms were produced by the population of the Cyclades (group of islands in the Aegean Sea) about 5,000 years ago. The Neolithic architecture reached Europe from Southwest Asia between 7000 BC and 5500BC. The Neolithic men were great builders, they used dry mud bricks for houses and villages, and stones for megalithic temples and tombs. Numerous tombs have survived in Ireland (Newgrange). 3,000 BC 5th century AD: CLASSICAL ART PAINTING The ancient civilizations of Egyptians, Greeks and Romans developed their own style. Egyptians painted walls and columns of temples and buildings and illustrated linen and papyrus manuscripts; favourite subjects were the afterlife and celebrations of gods and pharaohs. Very little has survived from Roman and Greek painting, they both used to paint frescoes (painting on walls); examples of the ability of Greek painters can be found on the pottery while the most complete Roman frescoes are found in the houses of Pompeii and Herculaneum. 276 SCULPTURE ARCHITECTURE Egyptians developed a peculiar bas relief style: human faces are shown in profile but the rest of the body is seen from the front; bas relieves decorated temples and palaces with war and religious scenes to celebrate pharaohs and gods. They were skilful sculptors able to produce colossal works like the Sphinx (2500 BC) and impressive statues of sitting and standing gods and pharaohs like the front of Abu Simbel temple (1250 BC). The Egyptian architects (3050 BC to 900 BC) planned sacred spaces with enormous palaces and temples dedicated to Gods outside cities and villages. They wanted to show the respect to the supernatural and the afterlife, religion was the first interest of the members of the community, priests represented the top social class after kings. Architects proved to have high technical skills in building enormous obelisks and pyramids. The basic feature of classical Greek Art (5th 4th century BC) is heroic realism: sculptors represented perfect human bodies in movement or repose. Men and Gods were reproduced with forms and traits of exceptional beauty and perfection in dramatic and noble moments. The material used was white marble. Very few bronze statues have survived and some of them are known in Roman marble copies. The mid-5th century was the peak of Greek sculpture: sculptors were engaged to decorate public buildings like the Parthenon with statues that had to narrate stories of Gods and Men. Greek architecture. Religious and civic life were both important for the members of the Greek community. The most important form of religious architecture was the temple. It had a rectangular plan surrounded by colonnades and was built to house the statue of a God. As to civil life, the agorà (an open space surrounded by public buildings) was built for people to carry out political debates. The Romans (1st 6th century AD) developed the theme of narrative sculpture that had to tell stories of victorious wars and battles and of heroic deeds by emperors and generals. They also used to carve portraits and statues depicting people s traits as real as possible and in triumphal and heroic postures, unlike the Greeks, who used to idealise forms. The Romans (850 BC to 476 AD) adapted architecture to their pragmatic and materialistic way of life. The forum, the Roman agora, became a beautiful public square decorated with statues and buildings. New complex constructions were built thanks to new achievements and developments in engineering like the arch (originally an Etruscan invention), the vault and the dome. The invention of the concrete facilitated the building of public structures like aqueducts, baths and amphitheatres.