Art and Symbolism

What are the 2 main types of UP art?

• Portable/Mobiliary
  - hunter gatherers mobile lifestyle

• Parietal

Name some locations of parietal art

• Chauvet

• Lascaux

What is commonly represented in Mobiliary art?

• Animals
  - herbivores and carnivores
  - Pech Merle horses

• Zoomorphic sculptures
  - e.g. statuette of the Lion-man of Staudel cave

what was an important development in Mobiliary art?

• Human figures

• Stylised depictions of the female body
  - exaggerated secondary sexual characteristics
  - very few with facial features

• e.g. Willendorf Venus 26ka
  - but many found across Europe and date from 30-23 Ka

• Brassempouy
  - c. 25 Ka
  - head → could suggest headress or hair net

interpretations of Venus figures

• self portraits

• deities
  - mother-goddess

• fertility symbols

• Education

• pornographic?
  - put forward in the 70s - anachronistic

What is relatively rare in Parietal art?

• representations of complete/whole humans
  - hands/handprints are more common
  - Chauvet Cave

Example of early cave art

• Indonesia
  - oldest hand stencil in the world
  - 39.9 ka