不列颠百科全书｜西方绘画史·旧石器时代晚期
学术
2024-11-04 12:04
河北
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Upper Paleolithic
During the Upper Paleolithic Period, just before the final retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age (15,000–10,000 bc), much of Europe was peopled by small bands of nomadic hunters preying on the migratory herds of reindeer, cattle, bison, horses, mammoth, and other animals whose bodies provided them with food, clothing, and the raw materials for tools and weapons. These primitive hunters decorated the walls of their caves with large paintings of the animals that were so important for their physical well-being. Most surviving examples of such murals have been found in France and Spain (see Stone Age), but similar figures from caves in the Ural Mountains in the Soviet Union may indicate that the practice was more widespread than has been supposed.Ever since the first examples of these paintings came to light in the late 19th century, they have excited admiration for their virtuosity and liveliness. The simplest figures are mere outline drawings, but the majority combine this technique with sophisticated shading and colour washes that modulate the surface and suggest the differing textures of pelts, horn, and bone. Volume is indicated by carefully controlled changes in the thickness of brushstrokes, and the astonishingly advanced draftsmanship conveys a considerable sense of movement and life. Most of the animals were originally depicted as individual figures without narrative import, and what appear to the modern observer to be sophisticated groupings of figures are, in reality, the end result of a long additive process.The lack of a clear narrative element in these paintings has caused problems in their interpretation. Man is seldom portrayed, and depictions of human figures unambiguously interacting with the numerous animal figures are rare. One of the few exceptions to this rule is a scene at Lascaux in southern France depicting a bison butting a falling male figure. The “Sorcerer” at Les Trois Frères, also in southern France, is more characteristic. Although he is draped in the skin of an animal and seems to be engaged in stalking or a ritual dance, his complete isolation from any other figure leaves his exact significance unclear. It is also interesting that, in contrast to the obvious care taken in the detailed portrayal of animals, the few human figures are usually executed in a perfunctory and schematized fashion. Sometimes the only hint of man is provided by depictions of darts wounding or killing a few of the animal figures. These projectiles have been interpreted as exercises in sympathetic magic designed to induce success in a future hunt. Conversely, they might just as easily commemorate past kills. But certain features suggest that such simple explanations do not tell the whole story: first, such portrayals are rare (in inverse proportion to the amount of scholarly discussion they have engendered) and, second, the beasts that are shown as wounded—indeed the vast majority of the species depicted on the cave walls—were not significant items in the diet of the cave artists. Contemporary habitation deposits indicate that most of the meat consumed came from reindeer, and reindeer appear almost as infrequently as man himself among the surviving paintings. One fact is clear: individual initiative seems paramount, both in the execution of the animal figures and in the recording of the activities of the isolated humans. Any hint of social interaction is absent, and it has been assumed that society as such existed at a relatively low level. Nature provided the impetus for change, and in the art of the following period man finally emerged as part of a community.![]()
旧石器时代晚期
在旧石器时代晚期，即最后一次冰川退却前不久（公元前15,000–10,000年），欧洲大部分地区由小型游牧狩猎团体组成，他们追逐驯鹿、牛、野牛、马、猛犸象等迁徙的动物群。这些动物不仅为他们提供了食物和衣物，还提供了制作工具和武器的原材料。这些原始的猎人们用大量的动物绘画装饰他们洞穴的墙壁，这些动物对他们的生存至关重要。目前已发现的此类壁画主要集中在法国和西班牙（参见石器时代），但在苏联乌拉尔山脉的洞穴中也有类似的图像，表明这种习俗可能比人们想象的更为普遍。自19世纪后期首次发现这些壁画以来，人们对其精湛的技艺和生动的表现力产生了极大的钦佩。最简单的图像仅仅是轮廓画，但大多数作品将这种技法与复杂的阴影和颜色洗涂相结合，使图面产生层次感，并展现出皮毛、角和骨的不同质地。通过对笔触厚度的精确控制来表现体积，这种令人惊叹的绘画技法赋予了图像极大的动感和生命力。大部分动物最初被描绘为单独的个体，而非具有叙述性意义的图像，而在现代观察者看来，图像中复杂的群体构图实际上是一个长期添加过程的结果。这些壁画缺乏明显的叙事元素，使得它们的解读充满难度。人类形象很少被描绘，且人类与大量动物形象明确互动的画面极为罕见。少数例外之一是法国南部拉斯科洞穴的一幅画，描绘了一只野牛顶撞一个倒下的男性形象。在同样位于法国南部的“三兄弟”洞穴中，“巫师”的形象更加典型。他披着动物的皮毛，似乎在进行某种潜行或仪式性的舞蹈，但由于他与其他图像完全隔离，他的确切含义仍然不清楚。更有趣的是，与动物图像的细致刻画形成对比，少数人类形象通常是草率且符号化的。有时，人类的存在仅通过一些刺中或杀死少量动物的标枪暗示出来。这些投射物被解读为一种“模拟巫术”练习，旨在确保未来狩猎的成功。相反，它们也可能只是为了纪念过去的猎获。然而，某些特征表明，这种简单的解释可能并不能完整地解答其中的奥秘：首先，这种表现手法非常罕见（与学术讨论的热烈程度成反比）；其次，洞壁上表现为受伤的动物——确切地说，绝大多数被绘制的物种——并非洞穴艺术家们的主要食物来源。现代的居住遗址表明，他们大多数的肉食来自驯鹿，而驯鹿在现存的壁画中几乎和人类一样少见。一个明确的事实是，个人的主动性似乎在动物形象的描绘和孤立的人类活动记录中占主导地位，任何社会互动的暗示都缺失。据推测，当时的社会结构可能处于相对低级的水平。自然是变革的动力，而在接下来的时期艺术中，人类终于作为社会群体的一部分出现。来源：不列颠百科全书。图片来自网络。翻译仅供参考。![]()
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