‘Naturalism’ and the interpretation of cave art

Abadía, Óscar Moro; Morales, Manuel R. González; Pérez, Eduardo Palacio

doi:10.1080/21500894.2012.689258

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…More to the point, when the term "art" is employed to describe the paintings and engravings of prehistoric man, a whole series of implications are evoked, more or less consciously, regarding what art is in modern industrialized societies: for example, that works of art are made for others to see, that they are things to contemplate but not to use, and so forth. All these implicit analogies, for the most part misleading when applied to Paleolithic cave art, are often uncritically interiorized, influencing the way in which scholars interpret the data from prehistory (Moro Abadía et al 2012; Palacio-Pérez 2013) [3,4]. The suggestion that the Cantabrian caves could be envisaged as "cathedrals" of prehistory, as is still advanced in recent works (Aczel 2009) [5], is emblematic evidence of the persistence of the problem.…”

Section: Methodological Premisementioning

confidence: 99%

Amerindian Cosmologies and European Prehistoric Cave Art: Reasons for and Usefulness of a Comparison

Comba

2013

Arts

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Several anthropological studies conducted in recent years among different Native American cultures have revealed a series of common features in ontological premises and cosmological frameworks. These features seem to be shared by most of the Native peoples in both North and South America. They include: a system of relationships between humans and non-human beings based on an ontology "of persons" as contrasted to the ontology "of things" typical of the Western attitude towards Nature; a structure of the cosmos made by superposed layers, which express the idea of a reality represented as comprising hidden dimensions and invisible domains; and the key role played by ecstatic practitioners in establishing relationships with and acquiring knowledge from these multiple dimensions of the universe. Here, the idea is suggested that these elements could be profitably utilized to interpret the meaning of Paleolithic cave art, not simply implying a series of typological likenesses, but suggesting the possibility of historic (pre-historic) links. It should be remembered that the main settlement of the Americas occurred in a period (from 30,000-20,000 years B.P.) which is contemporaneous with the creation of the masterworks in the caves of France and Spain.

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Section: Methodological Premisementioning

confidence: 99%

Amerindian Cosmologies and European Prehistoric Cave Art: Reasons for and Usefulness of a Comparison

Comba

2013

Arts

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“…Before continuing, it is important to note that we do not mean to impute that Natufian artisans were committed to a form of naturalism, slavishly searching for novel patterns to convert into art (cf. Abadía et al 2012). As Gombrich (1968, 304) put the matter, 'the question is not whether nature "really looks" like these pictorial devices but whether pictures with such features suggest a reading in terms of natural objects'.…”

Section: Case Studies From Wadi Hammeh 27mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Natural Inspiration for Natufian Art: Cases from Wadi Hammeh 27, Jordan

Edwards

Major²,

McNamara³

et al. 2019

CAJ

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The likelihood that Palaeolithic artisans sometimes used natural objects as models for their image-making has long been suggested, yet well-contextualized and stratified examples have remained rare. This study examines a series of natural and fabricated items from the Natufian settlement of Wadi Hammeh 27 in Jordan (12,000–12,500 cal. bc) to propose that the site occupants collected a variety of found objects such as fossils, unusually shaped stones and animal bones, which they utilized as templates in the production of geometric art pieces. Natural and fabricated objects were woven into complex schemes of relation by Natufian artisans. Existing patterns were copied and applied to a variety of representational images. Found objects were sometimes subtly modified, whereas at other times they were transformed into finished artefacts. The scute pattern on the tortoise carapace, in particular, appears to have formed the basis of important ritual beliefs across the Natufian culture area. At Wadi Hammeh 27, it was evoked in various media and at various scales to form interrelating tableaux of representation.

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“…Consequently, variability in artistic modes of representation was seen, to a great extent, as the result of a chronological succession of styles (e.g. Beltran Martínez 1982; Leroi-Gourhan 1965; Ripoll Perelló 1983; see Moro Abadía et al 2012 for a critique of the naturalistic prejudice that supported the chronologies proposed by twentieth-century European archaeologists). The incidence of the chronological factor was also applied in relation to portable art, as is the case of Serrano (1961) in the archaeology of Paraná River.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Naturalistic Parrots, Stylized Birds of Prey: Visual Symbolism of the Human–Animal Relationship in Pre-Hispanic Ceramic Art of the Paraná River Lowlands, South America

Ottalagano

2022

CAJ

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The pre-Hispanic art of the Lowlands of Paraná comprises very realistic to extremely simplified ceramic figurines made by complex hunter-gatherer groups during the Late Holocene. In particular, the article seeks to discuss the differences found between parrot and raptor figures, which are the most frequent motifs. Alternative styles of representation were involved in the visual symbolism of the two groups of birds with well-differentiated morphological and behavioural attributes. Whereas parrot images were elaborated with greater naturalism in sites mostly located in the middle Paraná, birds of prey exhibit a higher degree of stylization and schematization, especially in the lower Paraná. It is proposed that the differences in the artistic modalities used to represent these groups of birds could be related to the positioning of these animals within different metaphorical domains and opposable conceptual categories. It is also suggested that this iconography could be specifically linked to a totemic ontology, which implies a particular attitude towards nature. This study attempts to contribute to broadening our knowledge about the symbolic relationships between humans and animals in pre-Columbian America.

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‘Naturalism’ and the interpretation of cave art

Cited by 11 publications

References 14 publications

Amerindian Cosmologies and European Prehistoric Cave Art: Reasons for and Usefulness of a Comparison

Amerindian Cosmologies and European Prehistoric Cave Art: Reasons for and Usefulness of a Comparison

The Natural Inspiration for Natufian Art: Cases from Wadi Hammeh 27, Jordan

Naturalistic Parrots, Stylized Birds of Prey: Visual Symbolism of the Human–Animal Relationship in Pre-Hispanic Ceramic Art of the Paraná River Lowlands, South America

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