Essay 1b: Perception and Reality

Essay 1b: Perception and Reality

Question: Is it possible for a modern viewer’s "perceptions" to either create or alter the "reality" of a specific Paleolithic, Mesolithic or Neolithic Period cave painting or carving?

Part One

Summary: While writing this essay I felt confused and unsure of what direction to take because I don't have that much prior knowledge of the subject, which is why it took me so long to hand it in. I'm an indecisive person in the first place so I thought I should continue to read up on the subject until I felt sure of what I had written.

Reason: The reason this question was created was to get the writer to think objectively in the future when looking at different pieces of art from different periods of time. It was made to have the student learn about Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic cave paintings and carvings.

Purpose: The purpose of this question is to open the students mind and help them think differently in the future towards art and also other things.

Direction: Writing this essay has led me in a new direction. I already had an open mind when it came to viewing art but now I acknowledge that many people don't have this knowledge naturally, but it doesn't take much to open your mind.

Impressions: I leave this essay wondering how ancient Egyptians built pyramids just simply with physical labor. I find this extremely hard to believe and will always wonder about how they did it.

Part Two

A person views the world based on what they've witnessed throughout their life, so it's only natural for one to alter the “reality” of any work of art from any time period. For many, it might be almost impossible to imagine what people from these Periods of time may have experienced, based on how spoiled and dependent our culture has become. For some people, it seems to be difficult to see things from another's point of view, let alone someone from another time period.

Chauvet Cave. Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, Ardeche Gorge, France. c. 32,000-30,000 BCE. Paint on limestone)(http://filmshotfreezer.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/chauvet_cave_paintings1.jpg)

“The earliest known site of prehistoric cave paintings, discovered in December 1994, is the Chauvet Cave near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc in south-eastern France-a tantalizing trove of hundreds of paintings. The most dramatic of the images depict grazing, running, or resting animals, including wild horses, bison, mammoths, bears, panthers, owls, deer, aurochs, woolly rhinoceroses, and wild goats” (Art History, Marilyn Stokstad, Michael W. Cothren, Pg. 9). A modern person might see any of these Paleolithic cave paintings and think they were just painting what they saw every day while trying to hunt for food. But, people thought differently back then, and they were drawing these animals for very different reasons than purely entertainment. They drew these animals because of what is referred to as target bonding; they thought when they killed an animal to eat it they were capturing its spirit and to create a new life they had to paint hundreds of animals. Modern people may see this as slightly insane, but it was a time where Homo sapiens brains were evolving and new ways of thought were emerging.

(Lascaux Cave. Dordogne, France. c. 15,000 BCE. Paint on limestone.) (

http://genealogyreligion.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/lascaux.jpg)

Another example of a cave filled with Paleolithic paintings is the Lascaux Cave in southern France. “Painters worked not only in large caverns, but also far back in the smallest chambers and recesses, many of which are almost inaccessible today. Small stone lamps found in such caves- over 100 lamps have been found at Lascaux- indicate that the artists worked in flickering light from burning animal fat.”(Art History, Marilyn Stokstad, Michael W. Cothren, Pg. 10). To me, this implies that the people who painted in these caves worked very hard to do so. They went deep into the caves to almost inaccessible places just to depict the animals that they hunted and saw everyday. Many people may view these cave paintings and think they did it merely to pass the time and entertain themselves, but it was almost the complete opposite of this. This seems almost impossible to think- why would these people feel the need to work so hard to just simply draw on cave walls? They felt that they needed to paint these animals to give their spirit back, which would explain why there is so many. When people started drawing cave paintings, people also starting thinking in different ways.

(Lascaux Cave. c. 15,000 BCE. Paint on limestone.) (

http://www.donsmaps.com/images25/manbisonrhino.jpg)

Another example of a Paleolithic painting found in the Lascaux Cave, depicts a hunter that killed a bison and a woolly rhinoceros escaping. The bison and rhinoceros are accurate, while the hunter is described as a stick figure. (Art History, Marilyn Stokstad, Michael W. Cothren, Pg.11). This also shows how much care was put into the cave paintings of animals. This might imply that people painted in caves to leave behind an interpretation of simple everyday events to work as a learning tool for the next people to see them. If people just evolved to have conscious thought they're going to think about a lot of things and of course naturally look for ways express these thoughts, but what it all comes down to at the end of the day is survival- and that's really all. So these cave paintings were based on survival. “...There has always been agreement that decorated caves must have had a special meaning because people returned to them time after time over many generations, in some cases over thousands of years” (Art History, Marilyn Stokstad, Michael W. Cothren, Pg.8). This shows that people received something meaningful when visiting these cave paintings, otherwise the story wouldn't be passed on.

Something many people nowadays may have trouble to understand is the connection that humans had with nature and how much they relied on it just to exist on a daily basis. “ ...They balanced hunting, gathering, farming, and animal breeding in order to maintain a steady food supply.” (Art History, Marilyn Stokstad, Michael W. Cothren, Pg.13). We still rely on the earth for food, but people don't even realize this fact, because people are so removed from everything. Also during the Neolithic period housing structures began to become more complex. “...Simple but durable structures made of clay, mud, drung, and straw interwoven among wooden posts.” (Art History, Marilyn Stokstad, Michael W. Cothren, Pg.13). This is where everything we have in our modern world began, by these occurrences which took place thousands of years ago. They relied on nothing but what the Earth had given them at that time, and no one in the modern world seems to acknowledge this. They may understand the concept, but could never fully comprehend what these people had to do to survive.

In conclusion, it is possible for a modern viewer's perceptions to create or alter the reality of any cave painting or carving. I don't think it's possible for a viewer to not alter the reality of a cave painting or carving because the viewer is not and never will be a person from the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, or Neolithic period, therefore they could never truly understand how that person felt. I have dreams of living on a farm, but I still can't begin to imagine what it's like to hunt, kill, sleep, bathe, and exist merely from what is on the planet Earth. Unfortunately there are definitely people who still have to live like this everyday of their lives.