The Eternal Present, Volume I: The Beginnings of Art (The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, 6)

A groundbreaking reevaluation of paleolithic art through the lens of modernism, from the acclaimed historian of art and architecture In The Beginnings of Art , Sigfried Giedion, best known as a historian of architecture, shifts his attention to art and its very origins. Breaking with an earlier, materialistic approach, he explores paleolithic art by bringing abstraction, transparency, and simultaneity into play as modern art has revealed them anew. Focusing on the dual concepts of constancy and change, he examines paleolithic paintings, engravings, and sculpture, as well as modern art and recent examples of “primitive art.” He argues that the two keys to the meaning of prehistoric art are the symbol , portraying reality before reality exists, and the animal as humankind’s superior in the unified primordial world in which both human and animal were embedded. The result is a highly original and important study of prehistoric art. Cover Title Copyright Acknowledgments Contents Introduction Part I: Art a Fundamental Experience The framework The symbol The animal The human figure Space conception Constancy and change Part II: The Means of Expression in Primeval Art Abstraction Abstraction in the form of signs and symbols Abstraction by the simplification and concentration of a natural form Abstraction as a concept The two divergent concepts of abstraction Abstraction involving totality Abstraction involving specificity Abstraction and Gestalt psychology Abstraction Throughout Prehistoric Art Is primeval art naturalistic? The outline in primeval art Types of abstraction in primeval art Late phases of abstraction Abstraction Today Annunciation of a poet Annunciation of an art historian Types of abstraction in contemporary art Transparency, Simultaneity, Movement Approach to primeval mentality Transparency in primeval and contemporary art The superimposition of bodies Transparency of bodies Simultaneity Movement Movement today Part III: Symbolization The Symbol in Primeval Art Approaching an age of symbolism The reawakening of symbols The symbol as a concept The beginnings of the symbolic approach Symbols and archaeology Symbol and existence Symbol and myth The potent symbol Hands as Magic Symbols Preliminary stages Hands outlined in color Hands in groups The single hand On the meaning of hands On hands and animals Right and left hands Hand and arm at Santian The gestures of the hand The gesture of warding off evil The gesture of imparting strength The symbol of the hand today Manifold Meanings of Circular Forms Stone Balls of The Mousterian Period A cairn of Mousterian stone balls Cupules The cupules of La Ferrassie Cupules in the Aurignacian and Magdalenian periods Further development of the cupules On the significance of late neolithic cupules Colored Dots and Disks Round forms, the drum, cosmic significance Ritual drums of the Lapps The ritual drum of the goddess Inanna Perforations Artificial rings Perforated circular slabs Perforated bone staves: batons de commandement On the form of batons de commandement On the material of the staves On the significance of the pierced staff Fertility Symbols Vulva The female figure as cult symbol The vulva as cult symbol Head and vulva Abstract vulvas Phallus The phallus as cult symbol Phallus, fish, and lozenge The feather as phallus symbol An Indian ceremonial rattle Ithyphallic figures lihyphallic tradition in Egypt and Greece Breast The symbol of the breast The breast and the transformation of a deity Asiatic origin of Artemis Ephesia Bisexuality Androgynous symbols The baton de commandement and androgyny The symbol of the two-in-one The sign of life Bisexual figurines The double figure from Laussel The Great Symbols Climax of abstract symbols Claviforms as a female symbol? Groupings of tectiforms Symbols with approximately straight lines Part IV: The Sacred Animal Animal cult and high civilizations The Animal and The Religious Impulse Religion and rites Mystical experience The ambivalence of the sacred The Animal and Totemism Totemism and changes in its concept Totemism and the psychic factor Totemism and prehistory The Earliest Animal Rites The bear cult at Drachenloch Bear cult and circumsolar culture The cults of the skull and of the sacred post The Animal And The Evolution of Primeval Art The Earliest Beginnings of Art Outlines Impressed In Clay The giant stag of Pech-Merle The musk ox of Altamira The cavern of Homos de la Pena The bison of Niaux Outlines Painted In Color The cavern of Baume-Latrone Outlines Incised In Rock The rock shelter of Belcayre The cavern of Ebbou The snow owls of Les Trois Freres The cavern of La Mouthe Ritual Imagination In The Aurignacian-Perigordian Era The sanctuary of Le Combel, Pech-Merle Late Aurignacian-Perigordian Engravings A horse from Pair-non-Pair A pebble from La Colombiere A horse from Hornos de la Pena The bison from La Greze The Magdalenian Era The engraving of small objects: art mobilier On The Chronology Of The Magdalenian Era Treatment of the head as a possible clue Sculpture Painting Modulation of The Outline The charging bison of Pech-Merle The engravings of Le Gabillou Modulation of The Body Surface The engravings of Les Combarelles Two animals at Font-de-Gaume A group at Le Portel Engraving, sculpture, and stalagmites The Age of Sculpture Differences between classical and prehistoric reliefs High reliefs of the Solutrean period High reliefs of the Magdalenian period Solutrean Rock Friezes La Chaire a Calvin Le Roc de Sers Le Fourneau du Diable Monumental Magdalenian Reliefs The horses of Cap Blanc The horse of Commarque The bison of Le Tuc d'Audoubert The Great Compositions Compositions In Line The Chapel of the Mammoths, Pech-Merle The Salon Noir at Niaux Compositions In Color The paintings of Lascaux The gigantic bulls The axial gallery and early Magdalenian art The nave of Lascaux The scene in the "well" The painted ceiling of Altamira Inadequate precedents The painted ceiling Techniques and simplification The use of color On the significance of the ceiling Part V: The Human Figure Sculpture in relief and in the round Venus Figurines The profile type of Venus figurines La Poire, Brassempouy La Polichinelle, Grimaldi The Savignano Venus The Venwes of Sireuil and Tursac The frontal type of Venus figurines An abstract figure from Pfedmosti The Lespugue Venus The Venus of Abri Pataud The female figure from El Pendo The Vibraye Venus Later development of the frontal type Chronology of the Venus figurines Significance of the Venus figurines Figures Without Heads Pech-Merle Les Combarelles La Roche Abri Murat Cougnac The "prehistoric archer" of Pech-Merle An interpretation of the headless figures Female and Male Reliefs The Venus of Laussel The relief of the standing man, Laussel The female figures at La Magdeleine The female figures at Angles-sur-Anglin Masks and Hybrid Creatures On religious concepts in prehistory Antennae and intermediaries Longing for the form of an animal Masks and reality Heads in the rock, Altamira Fantastic head upon a human body, Les Combarelles Hybrid creatures Two personages, one following the other, Terme Pialat Male and female figures, La Madeleine Human figurations, Abri Murat Human figure with upraised arm, Homos de la Vena Red figure with snarling mouth, La Pasiega Various hybrids of Les Trois Freres Bird-headed figures Bird-headed female figures, Tech-Merle Dancing figure with beaked head, Addaura Bird-headed shaman, Lascaux On the significance of masks and hybrid figures Part VI: The Space Conception of Prehistory The intangibility of space The priority of the sense of space The nature of space conception Was there a space conception in prehistory? The space conception of primeval art Eskimo perception and primeval art On the structure of caverns and architecture Acoustic space Light and the art of the caverns Freedom of approach to all surfaces Vaulted surfaces Irregular surfaces Sloping surfaces The coming change Prehistoric space conception and contemporary art The eternal present The maps List of Illustrations List of Works Cited Index