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Ancient art. Chronology of the oldest works of art

Romanesque art. What cathedrals, castles, monastic complexes looked like.

Sculpture and painting in Romanesque art.

Gothic art. Architecture, sculpture, and more

Term "Roman style" that arose in the nineteenth century. It is applied to Western European ancient art of the 19th-10th-12th centuries. (in a number of countries - XIII century.)

Architecture. Architecture is the leading form of art of that time. The Romanesque style in architecture combines classical elements and elements of local "barbarian" architecture. Temples, monastic complexes, castles are the most widespread. The appearance of Romanesque buildings is distinguished by simple massive forms, clearly readable objects, solemn severity, monolithic integrity. Narrow slit-like loophole windows reinforced the impression of heaviness and imposingness of the building.

The center of life in the early Middle Ages were the castles of powerful secular and church feudal lords. The knight's castle, usually built on a hill, in a hard-to-reach place, was surrounded by powerful fortress walls, topped with battlements and towers, along the walls not protected by relief, there was a deep moat, usually filled with water. The entrance to the fortress was a fortified portal with a folding bridge.

The powerful Donjon tower, which served as the compositional center of the castle, was the refuge of the feudal lords; residential and service premises were located around it.

The monasteries of that time were very reminiscent of castles in their appearance. The center of the monastery complex was the temple - the most significant creation of Romanesque architecture. The most widespread are temples of the basilica type, which inherited the form of the basilica from the Romans. The Romanesque temple in plan was a Latin cross, formed by the intersection of longitudinal rooms (naves), which were usually three or five, with transverse ones - transepts.

The central nave, higher than the side ones, ended in the west with an altar apse. The entrance to the church was usually made in the form of a perspective portal, lined with successively decreasing to the project, semicircular arches cut into the thickness of the wall. The space of the walls above the entrance, limited by the semicircle of the arch (tympanum), was usually decorated with relief images.

The appearance of the Romanesque cathedral is severe, simple, laconic. The center of the composition was usually a tower crowned with a spire, set in the crossroads. An example of such a temple is the Cathedral of Notre Dame La Grande a Poitiers (France).

Sculpture. Monumental sculpture, which was often painted with crosses, taught widespread use in Romanesque ancient art. Romanesque plastic is subordinated to architecture, it is used mainly in the external design of cathedrals. Relief images for plots

“Holy writings” were placed on the western facade, in tympanums, on pillars and columns, they obeyed the shape of the elements of the building: on the columns, the proportions of the image were elongated, elongated, in friezes they acquired squat forms.

The central image of Romanesque sculpture is Christ. The themes of good and evil are developed, embodied in the images of heaven and hell; the sublime is opposed to the base, the tragic-comic-grotesque. For example, the tympanum of the Cathedral of St. Lazarus in Autun (1130-1140), in the scene of the Last Judgment, the formidable and majestic image of Jesus Christ is contrasted with an almost comedic plot: an angel and a devil, depicted at the same time terrible and funny, weigh the good and evil deeds of the dead.

Gradually, the images of peasants, ordinary citizens, comedians with their daily affairs and worries penetrate into the temple sculpture, heroes of folklore appear, generated by folk fantasy: chimeras, demons, in a half-human half-animal guise. Romanesque sculptors, developing the problem of the ugly, gravitated toward fantastic, monstrous images.

Painting. Painting, like sculpture, is subordinate to architecture. The focus of all kinds ancient arts is a temple. The most common type of technique is fresco, stained glass begins to develop (a type of painting made of colored pieces of glass connected by a lead frame). Stained-glass windows fill the window openings of the apses (this type of painting is more widespread in Gothic art).

Multi-colored frescoes on the subjects of the "Holy Scripture" covered the surfaces of the walls. The planar nature of the paintings gave the powerful walls even more massiveness. An example of such murals is the frescoes of the temple of Saint-Savin sur Gartan in Poitou (end of the 11th-12th centuries). One of the best compositions is the fresco “Building the Tower of Babel”.

gothic ancient art

Gothic- the next step in the development of medieval art. It strikes with a variety of forms, unity and integrity in all its manifestations. Like all medieval art culture, art Gothic is deeply religious, but it tends to life, nature, man. Masters of the new style are interested in a specific person with his feelings, the beauty of nature.

The high spirituality of the images of Gothic, their amazing harmony, prepared the arrival ancient art Renaissance.

Architecture. Architectural appearance of free cities Western Europe, who achieved relative independence from large feudal lords in a stubborn struggle, is being transformed. Along with monasteries, churches and wealthy landowners, hospitals, stock exchanges, covered markets, and residential buildings are being built with the money of handicraft communities that have become customers.

Gothic art reached its highest achievements in temple architecture. The majestic Gothic cathedrals differ sharply from the Romanesque ones. Higher, elegant lungs, they struck with grace, dynamism and picturesqueness. The dynamic upward aspiration of all forms of the Gothic temple personified the aspiration of a person to the sublime, of the soul to God.

Gothic masters continue to develop the basilica type of the temple. One of the main achievements of Gothic architecture is the selection of a stable frame system in which the cross ribbed vaults play a constructive role (ribs are stiffeners that support the vault), internal abutments (columns) and external supports - (buttresses carried out beyond and beyond the cathedral, restraining the expansion of the wall transmitted to the buttress through the flying buttress). This design made it possible to cover large spans and raise the vaults to dizzying heights.

Sculpture. The development of Gothic plastic is inseparable from architecture. Sculpture belongs to the primacy in the Gothic pictorial

art. It occupies a leading place in the decorative decoration of the cathedral. The portals of temples were decorated with sculptural compositions, where the visitor was greeted by images of prophets, apostles, saints, whose impressive size reminded believers of their place in wide world created by god. Tympanums, arches of portals, our turrets, wimpergi were decorated with decorative reliefs and round sculptures.

Gothic art reached its highest achievements in temple architecture. The majestic Gothic cathedrals differ sharply from the Romanesque ones. Taller, smarter, lighter, they struck with grace, dynamism and picturesqueness.

Gothic masters continue to develop the basilica type of the temple. One of the main achievements of Gothic architecture is the allocation of a stable frame system, in which the cross vaults play an important role.

One of characteristic features gothic building - lancet arch,

which is repeated many times in the sketches of vaults, portal windows, niches, with its shape emphasizes the lightness and dynamic upward aspiration of the entire architectural structure. interior Gothic cathedral, the walls of which, unlike the Romanesque, are cut through by large windows, become lighter, amazes with its splendor. The air itself, filled with multi-colored jets of light sifted through stained-glass windows, makes a strong impression.

The greatest building of the early Gothic - the cathedral Notre Dame of Paris(Notre Dame de Paris). In terms of the cathedral, it is a five-nave basilica with a weakly pronounced transept. The entrance to the cathedral is a perspective lancet portal. The central nave is marked by a rose window.

A remarkable monument of Gothic architecture is the Roman Cathedral (founded in 1211) the cathedral in Amiens (about 1236)

A striking example of Italian Gothic is the Doge's Palace in Venice. The palace amazes with the festive magnificence of the decorative marble carvings that adorn the facades with stone lace. The continuous series of lancet arches on the first and second floors make the construction extremely easy.

10 oldest works of art of its kind

Art is one of the defining traits of humanity, and creating art uses a whole set of skills that are unique to Homo sapiens: pattern recognition, visual and motor coordination, opposable thumbs, and the ability to plan. Art, including paintings, stories, and music, was used by prehistoric people long before the invention of writing, and since then, every culture has developed its own versions of art. But in every kind of art there has always been something first, with which it all began.

1. First cartoon (1908)

The roots of animation can be traced all the way back to the 1650s with the magic lanterns of the time. In the 1800s, this genre began to develop due to the emergence of devices for creating optical illusions such as thaumatrope, zootrope and kineograph. Then, when film was invented, some films would insert a few seconds of animation between actual frames. The first fully animated film (cartoon) was created only in 1908 by the French cartoonist Emile Cole and it was called Phantasmagoria. In all, Kohl used 700 shots and it took him several weeks to complete the cartoon. "Phantasmagoria" lasts about 80 seconds and has no specific storyline. It starts with a hand drawing of the protagonist, and then that character goes through various fairy tale adventures that constantly turn into other bizarre scenes.

2. First feature film (1903)

The technology that would later lead to motion pictures began to develop in the 1880s, and the first films were essentially documentaries. For example, two of the most famous of the early films were a tape showing a train arriving at a station and an 18-second clip of people kissing. Also, due to the limitations of the technology, early films tended to be less than a minute long and usually showed only one scene.

The film that changed it all by being the first feature film with a plot, was a short story, "The Great Train Robbery." The 12-minute film, which was directed by Thomas Edison and directed by Edwin Porter, tells the story of four thugs who rob a passenger train and then die in a chase and shootout.

The Great Train Robbery revolutionized the film industry for several reasons. It was the first time that many different technologies were used. It was also the first action film and western.

3. First comic (1827)

Today everyone is used to comics about superheroes, but the world's first comic had nothing to do with them. It is generally accepted that these were "The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck" on 40 pages with 6-12 drawings on each, created by the Swiss artist Rudolf Töpfer in 1827. There were no "clouds" of words flying out of the characters' mouths, instead the text was written below the drawing.

The comic tells the story of Obadiah Oldbuck, who falls in love with a very obese woman who subsequently loses weight. By hook or by crook, he is trying to ensure that his passion returns to its former forms. Critics at the time, and even Toepfer himself, did not believe the work would be groundbreaking. They just thought it would be "reading" for children and illiterate people of the "lower classes".

4. First photograph (1826)

With the advent of digital cameras, photography has become an integral part of life. In 2013, 250 billion images were uploaded to Facebook, and 350 million new photos were added every day. And this is only one social network, how many of them there are. The popularity of photography can be traced back to the Frenchman Nicephore Niepce and his invention, the camera obscura.

The problem with the camera obscura was that it took eight hours of exposure to capture an image, and usually the image would then fade out over time. One of the few surviving first-ever photographs is “View from the Window at Le Gras”, taken by Niépce in 1826.

5. Theatrical play (472 BC)

It is believed that the plays were developed by the ancient Greeks and at first only one character was shown in them, who was called the protagonist. The actor, who has always been a man, stood in front of a group of people called "the choir" and the choir asked the protagonist questions to advance the plot.

The famous Greek playwright Aeschylus was the first to add a second character to the play. He is also the author of the oldest surviving complete play, The Persians, which was first performed in 472 BC. This tragedy has four characters and tells the story of Atossa, mother of Xerxes, who is waiting for the return of her son from his campaign in Greece. The main theme of the play is that even the most powerful states can be destroyed due to aggression.

6. The oldest book (600 BC)

The oldest multi-page book consists of six linked pages made of 24 carat gold and held together with rings. The book was found over 70 years ago in a cave near the Struma River in southwestern Bulgaria. It contains illustrations and symbols of such things as the rider, the soldier, the lyre, and the mermaid.

The book, dating back to 600 BC, was created by the Etruscans, who are considered one of the most mysterious ancient peoples of Europe. They are believed to have migrated from Lydia (modern Turkey) and settled in northern and central Italy about 3,000 years ago. Unfortunately, many of the Etruscan records were destroyed by the Romans, who conquered them in the fourth century BC. A total of 30 similar gold plates have been found around the world, but none of them are linked together like the Etruscan gold book.

7. The oldest surviving poem (2100 BC)

Although poems are most commonly associated with love and romance today, they were first used to tell stories. The oldest surviving poem, also the oldest literary work, is the "Epos of Gilgamesh" of the ancient Sumerians. The poem, written on 12 stone tablets (which have survived incompletely), describes a former ruler of Sumer who ruled the city of Uruk in Mesopotamia. Although it is believed that Gilgamesh was a real person, the story about him written on the tablets is fictional.

In the poem, Gilgamesh is described as a demigod, a great builder, warrior, and sage. He fights a savage named Enkidu who lived among animals and was created by a god. Gilgamesh wins and they become friends and then both have a series of crazy adventures like killing a magical bull and surviving a huge flood.

In 2011, the Sulaimani Museum in Kurdistan acquired 60-70 tablets from smugglers, among which 20 more lines of the world's oldest poem were found on one.

8. The oldest surviving song (3400 BC)

Music has always been a part Everyday life for many people, because she has an amazing ability to excite a wide range of emotions in a person.

It is believed that people invented music as a way to bring people together in a community, which was incredibly important in early groups hunters and gatherers. The sense of community with fellow tribesmen was important because everyone needed to work as a team in order to survive.

Before the invention of writing, most songs were transmitted orally, so most early music was lost. The oldest fragment of the song was found in the early 1950s in Ugarit, Syria. It was written on a clay tablet by the Hurrians, who disappeared towards the end of the second millennium BC.

9. The oldest surviving sculpture (33,000 - 38,000 BC)

In 2008, in southwestern Germany, archaeologists found the oldest sculpture in the world, estimated to be between 35,000 and 40,000 years old. The statue, called the Venus of Hole Fels, is the size of a finger and is carved from a mammoth tusk.

The figurine is made in the form of the body of a hypertrophied woman; she has no arms, legs and head, but it is easy to see very large breasts, buttocks and genitals. Today, the purpose of this sculpture is no longer known. Some claim that it is a representation of fertility and reproduction, while others believe that it is a symbol of health and longevity. But until people invent a time machine and learn to speak the language of Aurignacian culture, no one will probably know what the sculpture actually meant or what it was used for.

10. The oldest surviving painting (37,000 - 39,000 BC)

It is believed that humans first appeared in Africa around 200,000 years ago. About 50,000 years ago, they migrated to the territory of modern Australia, stopping along the way on the island of Sulawesi (Indonesia), where the most ancient cave paintings were found. Today, using modern methods based on the decay of uranium, the age of the substance that covered the drawings for thousands of years has been verified. It is a calcite mineral that is formed when water flows through limestone in a cave. The results of the study showed that some of the paintings are at least 39,000 years old.

The most ancient rock paintings are stencils of hands. Artists created them by placing their hand on the roof or wall of a cave and spraying dye over the top, leaving the outline of the hand.

Another painting found in the cave, dated 35,400 years, depicts a babirus animal. It is possibly the oldest known figurative drawing in the world.

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Man began to create from the moment of his appearance. Paintings, sculptures and other artifacts whose age is impressive are still found by scientists today. We have collected 10 oldest works of art found in different time and in different corners peace. And there is no doubt that women were the source of inspiration for the ancient masters.

1. Prehistoric rock art - 700 - 300 thousand years BC

The oldest samples The prehistoric rock art found to date is a form of pictogram called "cups" by archaeologists, which are sometimes carved with longitudinal grooves. Cups are depressions carved into walls and rock tops. At the same time, they are often ordered in rows and columns. Such rock artifacts have been found on all continents. Some indigenous peoples in Central Australia still use them today. The oldest example of such art can be found in the Bhimbetka cave in central India.

2. Sculptures - 230,000 - 800,000 BC

The oldest human sculpture is the Venus of Hole Fels, which is 40,000 years old. However, there is a much older statue, around the authenticity of which there are heated debates. This statue, discovered on the Golan Heights in Israel, was named Venus from Berehat Ram. If this is in fact a real sculpture, then it is older than the Neanderthals and probably made by the predecessor of Homo sapiens, namely Homo erectus. The figurine was found between two layers of volcanic stone and soil, radiological analysis of which showed staggering figures - from 233,000 to 800,000 years. The debate around the discovery of this figurine intensified after a figurine called "Tan-Tan" was found in nearby Morocco, which was between 300,000 and 500,000 years old.

3. Drawings on the shell of ostrich eggs - 60,000 BC

Ostrich eggs have been an important tool in many early cultures, and decorating their shells has become an important form of self-expression for people. In 2010, researchers from Deepcloth in South Africa discovered a large cache containing 270 fragments. ostrich eggs, on which decorative and symbolic drawings were applied. The two different main motifs in these designs were hatched stripes and parallel or converging lines.

4. The oldest rock paintings in Europe - 42,300 - 43,500 BC

Until recently, it was thought that Neanderthals could not create works of art. That changed in 2012 when researchers working in the Nerja Caves in Malaga, Spain discovered drawings that predate the famous drawings in the Chauvet Cave in southeastern France by more than 10,000 years. Six drawings on the walls of the cave were made with charcoal, and radiocarbon analysis showed that they were created between 42,300 and 43,500 years before our era.

5. Oldest handprints - 37,900 BC

Some of the oldest drawings ever made have been found on the walls of the Sulawesi caves in Indonesia. They are almost 35.5 years old and almost as old as the drawings in the cave of El Castillo (40,800 years old) and cave drawings in the Chauvet cave (37,000 years old). But the most original image in Sulawesi is 12 handprints made with ocher, which are at least 39,900 years old.

6. The oldest bone figurines - 30,000 BC

In 2007, archaeologists from the University of Tübingen were excavating on a plateau in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. They discovered a cache of small animals carved from bone. Bone figurines were made neither more nor less - 35,000 years ago. Five more figurines carved from mammoth tusk were discovered in the Vogelherd Cave in southwestern Germany. Among these finds were the remains of two lion figurines, two fragments of mammoth figurines, and two unidentified animals. Radiocarbon analysis and the rock layer in which they were found show that the bone sculptures were made during the Aurignacian culture, which is associated with the first appearance. modern man in Europe. Tests show that the figurines are 30,000 to 36,000 years old.

7. The oldest ceramic figurine - 24,000 - 27,000 BC

The Vestonica Venus is similar to other Venus figurines found around the world, and is a 11.3 cm nude female figure with large breasts and wide hips. This is the first known ceramic sculpture made from fired clay, and is older than the period in which fired clay began to be widely used to make pottery and figurines by 14,000 years. The figurine was discovered during excavations on July 13, 1925 in Dolni Vestonice, South Moravia, Czechoslovakia.

8. The first landscape painting - 6000 - 8000 BC

Chatal-Hyuyuk painting is the oldest known in the world landscape painting. However, this claim is disputed by many scholars who claim that it is a depiction of abstract shapes as well as leopard skin. What it really is, no one knows. In 1963, archaeologist James Mellaart was excavating at Çatal_Hüyük (modern Turkey), one of the largest Stone Age cities to have been found. He discovered that one of the many frescoes used to decorate the dwelling depicts, in his opinion, a view of the city, with the Hasan Dag volcano erupting nearby. A study in 2013 partly confirmed his theory that this is actually a landscape. It was discovered that there was a volcanic eruption near the ancient city at that time.

9. Earliest Christian illustrated manuscript - 330-650 AD

In medieval times and earlier, books were an extremely scarce commodity, and were considered virtually treasures. Christian scribes decorated book covers with precious stones and painted pages with calligraphy patterns. In 2010, in a remote monastery in Ethiopia, researchers discovered the gospel of Garima. This Christian manuscript was originally thought to have been written in the year 1100, but radiocarbon dating has shown the book to be much older, dating from 330-650 AD. This wonderful book may be related to the time of Abba Garima, the founder of the monastery where the book was discovered. Legend has it that he wrote the gospel in one day. To help him with this task, God stopped the movement of the Sun until the book was finished.

10. The oldest oil painting is from the 7th century AD.

In 2008, scientists discovered the world's oldest oil painting in a Bamyan cave monastery in Afghanistan. Since 2003, scientists from Japan, Europe and the United States have been working to preserve as much of the art as possible at Bamiyan Monastery, which was dilapidated by the Taliban. In the labyrinth of caves, walls were found covered with frescoes and paintings that depict the Buddha and other characters of mythology. The researchers believe that the study of these images will provide invaluable information about cultural exchange along different parts of the world along the Silk Road.

It is worth noting that today among peaceful pastorals, noble portraits and other works of art that evoke only positive emotions, there are strange and shocking canvases, such as.

In Egypt, the development of art was closely connected with the construction of cities, religion and the cult of the dead. Architecture was influenced by religious beliefs and ideas about the divinity of the monarch. The Egyptians erected monumental tombs in which they left clothes, jewelry, weapons of the deceased - the tomb was supposed to serve as an eternal refuge for the pharaoh. The oldest burial structures that appeared in the predynastic period were mastabas - rooms made of stone or brick, which looked like a trapezoid in section.

A new type of tomb was the stepped pyramid. Its first builder is Imhotep, the vizier of Pharaoh Djoser. This construction option appeared as a result of the arrangement of several mastabas of different sizes one above the other. Filling the voids between the steps led to the emergence of the classical type of pyramids, which became symbols of Egyptian civilization. The most famous pyramids were built in Giza. Most scientists believe that the pyramids were built as tombs (graves) for the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom of Cheops, Khafre and Mykerin. After them, the size of the pyramids began to decrease, and during the Middle Kingdom they were erected very rarely.

In the period of the New Kingdom, to protect against tomb robbers, hypogees began to be carved in the rocks - royal tombs, which consisted of many rooms and long corridors. The entrances to them were decorated with bas-reliefs and statues. Similar burial structures are located in the Valley of the Kings near Thebes.

Outstanding monuments of Egyptian architecture are temples, impressive in their gigantic size, composition and magnificence.

The remains of temples built in honor of the god Amun-Ra in Luxor and Karnak have been preserved. These complexes consist of more than 100 spacious rooms, courtyards, statues of gods, sphinxes, obelisks. A special type of temples are sanctuaries carved into the rocks. Among them stands out the temple of Ramses II in Abu Simbel. Its facade faces the Nile, on both sides of the entrance are colossal statues of a seated pharaoh.

Egyptian sculpture is represented by statues and reliefs that adorned palaces, tombs and temples. The craftsmanship of Egyptian artists is evidenced by products made of gold and precious stones found in the tombs of the pharaohs. The walls of the buildings were covered with images of pharaohs and gods, scenes of the afterlife, etc.

In Mesopotamia, architecture was monumental. In the south of Mesopotamia, there was a shortage of stone and wood, but clay was in abundance. It was used in unfired form at all construction sites. Public and religious buildings were built of blue, white, green, yellow bricks, which gave them a special look. In Mesopotamia, art was placed at the service of kings and temples. Huge temples - ziggurats amaze the imagination.

They were pyramidal in shape an odd number terraces tapering to the top, each of which was painted in different colors using ceramic tiles. Ziggurats served as sanctuaries and astrological observatories. In the future, the construction of palaces gained scale. In Babylon they were built of brick, and in Assyria of stone. In the center of the palace there was a courtyard through which light penetrated, ceremonial rooms, the chambers of the monarch, utility and administrative premises were located around. Particular attention was paid to the magnificent decoration of temples and palaces with images of people, animals, fantasy creatures. The stone palaces of the Assyrians were surrounded by high walls with towers, the ruins of which have survived to this day. Cities were also protected by fortress walls. For example, in Uruk (2300 BC) there was a double wall 9 km long with 800 towers.

The inhabitants of Mesopotamia were skilled craftsmen in creating bas-reliefs, decorative items, weapons and jewelry.

The oldest architectural monuments in India belong to the Indus civilization. In the basin of this river, the cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were discovered, in which there were houses of two or three floors, paved streets, water supply and sewerage systems, sanctuaries, ritual pools. Indian temples impress with their size, a large number of internal and external decor details. There were several types of religious buildings in this region: hypogee temples, stupas, temples made of wood. The early period is characterized by sanctuaries carved into the rocks, with images on the columns and internal walls. In the III century BC. e. there are monuments of Buddhist art - stupa. They were built of stone and decorated with statues and bas-reliefs, reflecting the plots of Buddhist legends. In the views of Buddhists, the temple embodied the structure of the universe: the dome symbolized the vault of heaven, the top - a symbol of faith, the room with four entrances - the four cardinal points. Temples made of wood - pagodas - had the shape of a very high prism, their roof was pointed. This type of structure was adopted by the Chinese.

In China, architecture reached its peak in the 1st millennium BC. e. Wood and brick were widely used as building materials in this country. Temples - pagodas - consisted of several floors with balustrades and terraces. The Great Wall of China, which began to be built in 215 BC, is a colossal protective structure. e. forces of 300,000 people by order of Emperor Qin Shi Huang in order to protect against invasions from the north. The length of the wall is 2000 km, and the thickness is so great that two riders could freely pass on its crest. Great Wall was reconstructed in the XV century, acquiring a modern look.

Art of Greece and Rome

The Greek world made a fundamental contribution to the development of European art. Being in close connection with religion, Greek art reached the highest level. The apogee in its development falls on the 5th century BC. e. The Greek people, inspired by their victories, erected magnificent temples with statues, public buildings. Stone and marble were used in their construction. by the most beautiful monuments Greek architecture are temples that do not look like either Egyptian sanctuaries or ziggurats. The Greek temple was a monumental structure containing only the statue of the god and the treasury; it was not designed to receive many believers. The lines of this building are simple and harmonious, one of its main elements is the column. According to the shape and ornamentation, three styles of columns are distinguished: Doric, Ionian and Corinthian. The Doric style is simple and powerful. The capital (the upper part of the column) is strict, geometrically correct. The Parthenon was built in the Doric style - the temple of the goddess Athena on the Athenian Acropolis, as well as the sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi.

In the Ionian style, the forms are lighter, the column becomes more graceful, and the capitals are characterized by scroll decoration. The Erechtheion dedicated to the goddess Athena, the temple of Athena Nike (Victorious Athens) and the sanctuary of Artemis in Ephesus were created in this style. The Corinthian style became widespread at the end of the 5th century BC. e. Its main features: a slender column with flutes (grooves) and a capital, embraced by a bouquet of leaves. This style was used in the construction of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, at the foot of the Athenian Acropolis.

Especially many monumental buildings - temples and public buildings - were built in Athens under Pericles. The work was supervised by the architect and sculptor Phidias. As a result, in 20 years Athens has become one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Sculptors, like architects, looked for inspiration in mythology and in the world around them. The image of man, his physical and spiritual beauty began to come to the fore. The creations of the great Greek sculptors are distinguished by harmony and tranquility. Phidias created from ivory and gold a statue of Olympian Zeus, attributed in antiquity to the seven wonders of the world, and the goddess Athena the Virgin (Parthenos). The Greeks erected statues not only of gods, but also of athletes - winners Olympic Games. Works in bronze by Myron ("Disco Thrower") and Polikleitos ("Doriphorus", or "Spearman") depict athletic figures in motion. Polykleitos developed the canon classical art, defining the ideal proportions of the human body.

In the Hellenistic era, sculptures of a new type began to appear, reflecting emotions and moving away from religious aspects. New, graceful images emerged from under the chisel of Praxiteles. This marble statues"Eros", "Hermes with the baby Dionysus", "Aphrodite of Cnidus". Lysippus was a master in bronze casting and in depiction of movement. He left a series of bust portraits of Alexander the Great, statues of the gods. The sculptor and artist Skopas expressed passion, anxiety and pain in his works. Greek painting on ceramics went from geometric, vegetative and zoomorphic motifs to images of people in scenes from myths, episodes from the Iliad and the Odyssey. The vases were two-tone: black background and red figures or red background and black figures. Greek art of the 6th-5th centuries, characterized by respect for proportions, balance, harmony with nature, is called classical. Hellenistic art was different from classical art, it combined Greek and Eastern traditions.

The Romans achieved outstanding success in architecture, laying its foundations in Etruscan period, which was of an applied, town-planning nature, being subordinate to public needs. The Romans introduced elements such as vault and dome. They were widely used in the construction of large buildings. Public life in Rome was centered on the central square - the Forum. The palace of the Senate, administrative buildings, the basilica were built here, where court sessions were held and deals were concluded. In Roman urban planning, there was a tendency to concentrate in one place all the buildings of public, religious and administrative purposes. All emperors decorated Rome with monumental forums. Built to commemorate Roman victories triumphal arches and columns (Trajan's column, Marcus Aurelius' column). Roman amphitheatres are impressive structures. There were performances that gathered a huge crowd of people. The most famous among them is the Colosseum, where about 50,000 people could watch gladiator fights at the same time.

The oldest temples in Rome were built according to Etruscan models. In subsequent periods, monumental sanctuaries made of marble appeared. Among the public buildings can be noted the terms (public baths), where citizens met to talk about politics and philosophy. Important structures were bridges that connected communication lines, and aqueducts that provided water supply to the city.

In Roman sculpture, represented by statues and bas-reliefs, realism dominated. Of all the genres, the Romans preferred portraits, and it is not for nothing that numerous busts of famous people have come down to us. Roman painting can be judged from the bright, multi-colored frescoes in Pompeii and Herculaneum, depicting scenes from myths. The art of floor mosaics with geometric black and white ornaments or stylized images of people and animals was also developed. Unlike Hellenistic, in Roman painting, preference was given to eventful, historical or everyday aspects.

Although the topic of this article is primarily related to anthropology and, in particular, to anthropogenesis, nevertheless, art and its manifestations are extremely important part human society throughout its history. Art is an integral part human mind and in primitive times, it was it that formed what can be called the information space of those distant times. That is why I want to talk about the chronology of the oldest works of art discovered at the moment by archaeologists.

Pebbles from Makapansgat.

This archaeological find belongs to the oldest of known evidence"inappropriate actions". It is natural that our ancestors were only concerned with purely utilitarian things, issues related to survival. The activities that we now call art do not help in any way in survival. However, in the Makapansgat cave in the territory of modern South Africa, an amazing pebble was discovered - a red, round pebble with natural holes that look like a face. Pebbles were found among the remains of the so-called African Australopithecus, which lived in South Africa from 3.5 to 2.5 million years ago. Australopithecus are so distant ancestors of people that they are united with us only by a common family - they and we are hominids (great apes). Australopithecus were not even completely upright, not to mention intelligence, although they used the most primitive tools.

Australopithecus African. Reconstruction by Roman Evseev (1)

Scientists who explored the Makapansgata cave and, in particular, this funny stone, found that the rock of which it consists is not characteristic of that area, and was transported by ancient hominids to their site at least 30 kilometers away.

Makapansgata Cave (2)

Although that pebble weighing about 250 grams cannot be called a work of art of the ancients, but in view of the fact that they moved it to such a considerable distance, and its only natural feature is the similarity with the face, we can conclude that this is what attracted our ancient ancestors. Despite the natural origin of pebbles, the representative of the ancient hominids treated him unnaturally and performed an inappropriate action with her, especially considering that the African australopithecines did not have bags and, moreover, clothes with pockets in which all sorts of trinkets could be carried. Such a find shows the presence of a certain artistic vision, the appearance of imagination and abstract thinking in Australopithecus. Appearance in hominids artistic perception, of course, is associated with the development of the brain and visual system. As the anthropologist, candidate of biological sciences Stanislav Drobyshevsky notes in his work on the development of the brain of primitive people: “The occipital lobe is mainly responsible for vision. Obviously, it was the evolution of the occipital lobe (of course, together with the frontal lobe) that made possible development visual images.”(3)

Head stones.

During excavations of various sites of ancient people, archaeologists discovered many stone artifacts resembling human heads or faces. The most famous can be considered stones from Olduvai (Tanzania, about 1.8 million years ago) and Pampau (Germany, about 400 thousand years ago). Of course, such finds could be considered simple pebbles, which by chance took such a shape, but the abundance of artifacts of the same type near the sites of the ancients makes it possible to judge their non-randomness. Most likely, our ancestors saw in them the same thing that we do, so they were collected, and possibly made. In addition, literally made monuments of symbolic thinking began to appear about 400 thousand years ago - various bones with incisions in the form parallel lines, and a certain schematic ornament, sometimes reminiscent of figures of people. All these finds, including the most ancient one from Tanzania, already date back to the time of the appearance of the first people, namely the skilled man. Around the same time (about 1.9 million years ago) people began to use fire for cooking. It should be noted that there are so many finds from Olduvai and they were of such importance for science that a whole cultural layer was named after this place. The Olduvai culture is the most primitive stone-working culture and dates back from 2.7 to 1 million years ago.

Stone heads from various places and times.

Notched bone

Paleolithic Venus.

In more late period(about 200 thousand years) the so-called Paleolithic Venus- the first man-made works of artistic activity, which are anthropomorphic stone figures. These figurines depict women, hence the name "Venus". The first figure, Venus from Berekhat Rama (Dimensions: 3.5 by 2.5 by 2.1 cm) 150 - 280 thousand. The second - Venus from Tan-Tan (Dimensions: 5.8 by 2.6 by 1.2 cm .) has not yet been carefully analyzed, and it would be risky to name its age. Although both figures are clearly visible some kind of notches that give them a characteristic shape, their man-made origin is questioned by some archaeologists.

Venus from Berekhat Rama and Venus Tan-Tan.

The first manifestations of art.

In the future, starting from about 85 thousand years ago, art began to firmly enter the life of ancient people (4). All kinds of jewelry in the form of beads made of shells, bones and teeth are found everywhere. Basically, these finds are concentrated in South, North and East Africa, the homeland of modern people, in particular, in Taforalta in Morocco and Blombos Cave in South Africa. It was then that the first burials of people with signs of ritual behavior were discovered - separate graves with certain symbolic things in them, for example, horns and jaws of animals in the hands of those who died from the burials of Kafzeh 11 and Skhul 5 (Israel, 90 thousand years ago). However, this is not a confirmed fact - there is no certainty that the dead were buried in this way, and not that these objects got there by accident, or is it just a mistake during excavations and further interpretation. In the same places, the first burial of two people, similar in antiquity, was found in one grave - a mother with a child.
The first archaeological finds of ocher (a natural dye found in the form of stones of different densities) in ancient caves date back to about 78 thousand years ago. And although, later, ocher was widely used to make paint, there is no evidence that it was used for the same purposes even then. Ochre could also be used for tanning skins, and applied to leather to protect against insects. But there are finds of pieces of ocher with a primitive ornament applied to it. However, wooden sticks with traces of powder ocher are also found, apparently something was painted with them. For it is difficult to imagine their other application.

Shell beads from Blombos Cave
Ocher with ornament

The use of red ocher by girls from Namibia today

Neanderthal jewelry.

It should be noted that most of the finds of that time belong to Africa. The Neanderthals living in Europe and Asia had practically no signs of artistic activity, although bones and stones were also scratched (4). In a later period, Neanderthals also began to make beads from drilled teeth, but this was a very rare occurrence, and it dates back to about 30 thousand years ago, i.e. already by the period when they had been coexisting with the Cro-Magnons for quite a long time.

Neanderthal beads

Of interest is the "mask" from La Roche-Cotard (France). It is a piece of stone with a natural hole and a piece of animal bone planted in it. In principle, this design may resemble a human face, but it is important to note that now we are judging from the point of view of a modern person, but it is completely unclear what the Neanderthals saw in this. Perhaps this find has nothing to do with artistic activity. Although it is hard to believe that this artifact appeared by chance due to some other actions, since the bone inserted into the hole was fixed there with small pebbles.

"Mask" from La Rocher-Cotard. The same fixing stones are visible in the left "eye socket"

But, despite the "neglect" of art, the Neanderthals developed their minds to a primitive understanding of ritualism and some spiritual manifestations. So, in the parking lots in the mountains of Switzerland and Yugoslavia, monuments called the “cult of bear skulls” were discovered - caches with skulls of cave bears. Meanwhile, Neanderthals still practiced the burial of their dead, although no utensils or burials of several people were found in their graves. The oldest burial was discovered in Sima de los Huesos in Atapuerca (Spain) about 325 years ago (5). It was simply a deep mine where corpses were dumped. This burial is called "hygienic" - presumably the mine was used to move the corpses away from the dwelling, because animal corpses were also dumped there. However, which is characteristic, only the bones of carnivorous animals were found in the mine, and not a single one of a herbivore. This hints that those who lived there associated themselves with predators. Neanderthals, in the period from 68-78 thousand years ago. they literally dug graves for each deceased (exclusively single ones) and even sometimes put some kind of “monuments” on them in the form of stone slabs of an uncharacteristic shape or noticeable objects. But we cannot say that these were precisely the monuments in our understanding. With the same success, it could have been just marks about the location of the grave, so as not to dig it up accidentally in the future. By the way, they were buried in some kind of cemeteries - a place specially designated for this, at a distance from the parking lot.

The origin of ancient painting.

by the most famous monuments Artistic activities of ancient people are undoubtedly rock paintings. Of course, they look the most vivid and memorable, but at the same time, the oldest drawing from the Apollo 11 site in Namibia, in principle, is not so old. This small limestone slab with an image of some animal, probably a predator, was originally dated to about 26-28 thousand years ago, but subsequent, more thorough analysis showed that its age is 59 thousand years ago.

The oldest drawing from the site of Apollo 11 in Namibia

Of course, looking at this drawing it is difficult to understand what exactly it depicts, but one cannot fail to note the relatively good quality of the drawing - the artist clearly tried to keep the proportions and reflect the anatomical details of the depicted animal. Theoretically, one cannot exclude the presence of some kind of painting and in more early periods, because ocher, the main dye of the ancients, is found in sites many tens of thousands of years before. But material evidence of this has not been preserved, or they have not yet been found.
Virtually all rock paintings were created by sapiens, the most ancient, of course, are in Africa. In Europe, they begin to meet about 40 thousand years ago, from the moment the first sapiens migrated. The Neanderthals who lived there earlier had no artistic inclinations. Recently found the oldest drawing of Neanderthals in the caves of Spain near Malaga, dates back to 43 thousand years ago. This is reported by the New Scientist magazine (6), and it is important to note here that this is not an official scientific article, therefore the age data is not official.

Drawing from a cave in Malaga

The article says that seals are depicted here. However, looking at this extremely primitive drawing, it is difficult to understand what it is, although some resemblance to seals is still visible. But the aforementioned Drobyshevsky in his commentary article doubts the involvement of Neanderthals in the drawing. He recalls that the first sapiens appeared in Europe about 42 thousand years ago. and could very well be in Spain. In addition, sapiens, unlike Neanderthals, loved the sea and seafood. Neanderthals, on the other hand, practically did not use such food. (7)
From about 30 thousand years ago. rock paintings begin to become almost commonplace for ancient people. Now we can observe a huge variety of similar monuments of different quality of execution. It is noteworthy that sometimes we see very good artwork, which could now be called paintings, such as the images of animals from the Chauvet cave, (France, about 30 thousand years ago) where the use of composition and perspective is clearly visible. Or color paintings from Font-de-Gaume (France, about 17 thousand years ago), in which a peculiar style used by the artist is visible. Along with this, there are also much more “simple” drawings that a teenager or even a child could easily depict now, as in the Kapova cave (Bashkiria, 36 thousand years ago).

Chauvet cave

Font-de-Goume Cave

Kapova cave

There is also an interesting trend in the motifs of ancient rock art. So, on the territory of Europe, images of animals predominate. Whereas in Africa, images of a person and geometric shapes. At the same time, hunting scenes are the main motif of the images. Still everywhere there are prints of human hands. Ritual meaning is not ruled out in handprints, although perhaps this is only the simplest way to depict some relatively complex texture.

African cave paintings hunting

Cueva de las Manos, Cave of the Hands. Argentina, circa 9000 BC

Of particular interest are those drawings that, oddly enough, were not intended for general attention. Many of them have also been found. Such drawings are made in deep and narrow crevices inside the cave, where sometimes a person can hardly fit.

Archaeologists Dirk Hoffman and Alistair Pike. Left assistant Gustavo Sanz Palomera.
Photo: Department of Education, Culture and Sports of the Government of Cantabria, Spain.

The photo above shows the explorers of the Arso Bi Cave in Cantabria, Spain (8) examining one of these drawings. The photo clearly shows that the drawing on the vault would now even be problematic to photograph. It is completely unclear for what purpose such paintings were made. Perhaps they are related to some kind of initiation rituals or something like that. Or it was really done “for oneself,” say, as personal diaries are now kept.
Rock art actively existed for a very long time, until about the Bronze Age, and in some places until our era. However, even now, rock paintings are used in shamanic practices by various tribes of Indians and Africans.

Ships in the cave of Laja Alta, Spain (probably around 6000 BC)

Rock paintings from the Tassilin-Adjer plateau, Algeria. Dated to around 200-700 AD. These drawings belong to the "camel period" according to the periodization of the rock art of Africa.

Man-lion and ancient sculptures.

But we must not forget about the development of sculpture, which was given very little space in this article. In general, its development proceeded in a similar way, although it was associated with certain difficulties in the processing of hard materials, especially stone. Ancient sculptures, as well as drawings, were mainly carved images of animals, often made from mammoth tusks. Particular attention should be paid to the figurine called "Man" (9).
The man-lion (German: Löwenmensch, English: Lion-man) is a figurine carved from mammoth ivory found in the Swabian Alb near Ulm, Germany. The age of the figurine is approximately 40 thousand years. What is interesting about it is that it is the oldest zoomorphic image discovered. At 29.6 cm tall, the figurine is a cross between a man and a lion - almost human body with a pronounced lion's head. Initially, the researchers regarded Manlion as a man, but further research by Elisabeth Schmid suggested that it was a woman. However, there is no objective data that speaks about the gender of the figurine; all these assumptions are mainly of an ideological nature. As with the vast majority artwork ancient people, it is now impossible to establish its purpose, although it is easy to assume some kind of sacred meaning, the connection between man and nature, the mystical ideas of ancient people.

All these figurines are united by one characteristic feature - pronounced genitals and breasts, as well as a large belly, possibly reflecting pregnancy, while little attention is paid to the limbs and head, or they are completely absent. Perhaps the most likely meaning of Venus is mystical - the amulet of fertility and fertility. Although, again, this is just an assumption, which may be contradicted by the fact that not absolutely all "Venuses" pay so much attention to feminine aspects.
It is also worth mentioning that during excavations in Hole Fels, next to the Swabian Venus, another interesting artifact was discovered - a bird bone with holes, most likely serving as a flute. The age of the flute is also about 35 thousand years. It is probably the most ancient musical instrument. However, this is a topic for a completely different story.

Swabian bone flute

In conclusion, it should be noted that, in principle, the title of this article is incorrect and is put here "for the red word." Those monuments of ancient culture, which were surveyed in this article, should not be called art. Art as such, in the form in which we understand it now. It would be correct to call it artistic activity. Now we can do nothing more than speculate about what they are, and most importantly, what they were made for. Of course, they are the object of some kind of information plan, information exchange, development of perception and society. But if we talk about ancient monuments, then we do not have any confirmed data about what exactly it was. At the same time, many finds made a long time ago have not received confirmation. And others, after a detailed study, turn out to be completely different from what was previously thought. Often just trash.
Most likely, the origins of the art, which is akin to what we understand, should be sought around the period of the pre-ceramic Neolithic (about 12,000 years ago) and a little earlier, during the transition from hunting and gathering to a productive economy and settled way of life.
Despite the fact that we do not have a clear idea about the development of the imagination and culture of our distant ancestors, as well as the mind in general, even the existing picture is extremely interesting and vivid. Three million years ago, a humanoid found a small red stone with a face and carried it in his hand for thirty kilometers because he was interested in it.
And after three million years, we bring home funny pebbles from a walk. And we also create amazing works of the most diverse art, fly into space and develop artificial intelligence, actively seek ways to combat old age, and create amazingly destructive weapons.

Special thanks for the help to Elena Marchukova.