Fine Art / Visual Art · Lesson 9

Cave art, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic

JAMBWAECNECO

What the syllabus asks

JAMB: Pre-historic art (Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic), Ancient Egyptian art (Old, Middle, New Kingdoms), Greek art (Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic), Medieval art. JAMB Section B 1(a): Prehistoric, Greek and Roman art; Medieval architecture, surface decoration and calligraphy; B 2: Egypt.

WAEC: Pre-historic art (Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic), Ancient Egyptian art (Old, Middle, New Kingdoms), Greek art (Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic), Medieval art. JAMB Section B 1(a): Prehistoric, Greek and Roman art; Medieval architecture, surface decoration and calligraphy; B 2: Egypt.

NECO: Pre-historic art (Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic), Ancient Egyptian art (Old, Middle, New Kingdoms), Greek art (Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic), Medieval art. JAMB Section B 1(a): Prehistoric, Greek and Roman art; Medieval architecture, surface decoration and calligraphy; B 2: Egypt.

What you will learn

Describe prehistoric art and its possible functions.
Explain Egyptian beliefs and art conventions by kingdom.
Classify Greek art by period with artists and works.
Identify Greek orders and Roman innovations.
Describe medieval architecture, decoration and calligraphy.
Compare periods.

Key points

Prehistoric art: caves, animals, earth pigments, magic theories.
Mesolithic: human groups; Neolithic: pottery, megaliths.
Egypt: afterlife, pharaoh, composite view, canon, hierarchy.
Old Kingdom pyramids; New Kingdom temples, Amarna, Tutankhamun.
Greek: Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic.
Black-figure then red-figure pottery.
Orders: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian.
Rome: concrete, arches, domes, veristic busts, Pompeii.
Medieval: Byzantine, Islamic, manuscripts, Romanesque, Gothic.
Calligraphy: uncial, Carolingian minuscule, Gothic blackletter, Kufic, Naskh.

Start here: Prehistoric art: the Palaeolithic

Prehistoric art is art made before writing. WAEC calls it “Early Man’s art” and divides it into the Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age), Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) and Neolithic (New Stone Age). The syllabus quotes “20,000–2000 BC”; modern research shows cave painting began even earlier, at least 40,000 years ago, so treat the WAEC dates as a simplified range.

Cave painting

Lascaux (south-west France): discovered in 1940 by teenagers; paintings about 17,000 years old; the “Hall of the Bulls” has huge aurochs, horses and deer.
Altamira (northern Spain): discovered 1879 by Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola and his daughter María; ceiling of bison painted in red and black, using the bulges of the rock to give form.
Chauvet (France, discovered 1994): among the oldest, over 30,000 years; lions, rhinoceroses, horses.
Africa: engraved ochre at Blombos Cave (South Africa, about 75,000 years old) shows very early symbolic marking; painted slabs from the Apollo 11 Cave (Namibia) are about 27,000–30,000 years old; Tassili n’Ajjer (Algeria) and the Sahara hold thousands of later rock paintings showing cattle herding when the Sahara was green.

Materials and techniques

Pigments from ochre (iron oxide: red, yellow, brown), charcoal and manganese (black), and white clays, mixed with water, animal fat or saliva; applied with fingers, pads of fur or moss, chewed-twig brushes, or blown through hollow bones (hand stencils). Light came from stone lamps burning animal fat.

Sculpture

Small carved figures, such as the Venus of Willendorf (Austria, about 25,000–30,000 years old, limestone), exaggerate breasts, belly and hips, probably as symbols of fertility.

Worked example 9.1 Paper 2 Section C: “Describe the materials and techniques of Palaeolithic cave painters.” (15 marks)

Pigments: red and yellow ochre (iron oxides), black from charcoal and manganese oxide, white from kaolin/chalk; ground on stone (4 marks).
Binders: water, animal fat, blood or plant juices; some pigment used dry as crayons (2 marks).
Tools: fingers, pads of moss or fur, frayed twig or hair brushes; hollow bird bones or reeds for blowing pigment (hand stencils, dotted outlines) (4 marks).
Techniques: engraving outlines with flint before painting; using rock bulges for form; overlapping images; shading by varying pigment density (3 marks).
Lighting and access: stone lamps with animal fat and juniper wicks; scaffolding marks in Lascaux (2 marks).

Answer: A five-paragraph answer with a sketch of a hand stencil and a bison outline.

Worked example 9.1 Paper 2 style: “State four characteristics of Palaeolithic cave paintings.”

Subjects: mainly animals (bison, horses, deer, mammoths); few humans, often stick-like.
Materials: earth pigments (ochre, charcoal, manganese) mixed with animal fat, water or saliva; applied with fingers, pads, brushes or blown through hollow bones.
Use of the rock surface: bulges were used to give the animals volume.
Location: deep inside caves, away from daylight, suggesting ritual use.

Answer: Animal subjects; earth pigments; use of rock contours for form; deep cave locations (any four).

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Practice questions

1. Cave paintings at Lascaux were discovered in

1940
1879
1994
1922

Show answer

A: 1940
France, 1940.

2. The painted cave of Altamira is in

France
Egypt
Nigeria
Spain

Show answer

D: Spain
Found 1879.

3. Palaeolithic cave paintings mainly show

buildings
landscapes
animals
kings

Show answer

C: animals
Bison, horses, deer.

4. Dynastic Egyptian art began about

AD 100
3100 BC
11,000 BC
500 BC

Show answer

B: 3100 BC
The WAEC syllabus date is wrong.

5. In Egyptian figures, the head is usually shown

in profile with a frontal eye
fully frontal
from above
from behind

Show answer

A: in profile with a frontal eye
Composite view.

Key words

Palaeolithic: Old Stone Age.
Ochre: Iron-oxide earth pigment.
Megalith: Large standing stone.
Pharaoh: Egyptian god-king.
Hieroglyph: Egyptian picture-sign.
Composite view: Mixed profile/frontal figure.
Canon: Rule of proportion.
Register: Horizontal band of images.
Kouros: Archaic nude youth statue.
Contrapposto: Weight-shift pose.
Pediment: Triangular gable.
Entasis: Swelling of a column.

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