The Eternal Present, Volume I : : The Beginnings of Art / / Sigfried Giedion.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts eBook Package
• VerfasserIn: Giedion, Sigfried,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2023]; ©1962
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Series: The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts ; 35
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (610 p.) :; 371 b/w illus. 5 maps.

A groundbreaking reevaluation of paleolithic art through the lens of modernism, from the acclaimed historian of art and architectureIn 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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- TABLE OF CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- PART I ART A FUNDAMENTAL EXPERIENCE -- Introduction -- The framework -- The symbol -- The animal -- The human figure -- Space conception -- Constancy and change -- PART II THE MEANS OF EXPRESSION IN PRIMEVAL ART -- ABSTRACTION -- TRANSPARENCY, SIMULTANEITY, MOVEMENT -- PART III SYMBOLIZATION -- THE SYMBOL IN PRIMEVAL ART -- HANDS AS MAGIC SYMBOLS -- MANIFOLD MEANINGS OF CIRCULAR FORMS -- FERTILITY SYMBOLS -- THE GREAT SYMBOLS -- PART IV THE SACRED ANIMAL -- Introduction -- Animal cult and high civilizations -- THE ANIMAL AND THE RELIGIOUS IMPULSE -- THE ANIMAL AND TOTEMISM -- THE ANIMAL AND THE EVOLUTION OF PRIMEVAL ART -- THE EARLIEST BEGINNINGS OF ART -- THE MAGDALENIAN ERA -- THE AGE OF SCULPTURE -- THE GREAT COMPOSITIONS -- PART V THE HUMAN FIGURE -- Introduction -- Sculpture in relief and in the round -- VENUS FIGURINES -- FIGURES WITHOUT HEADS -- FEMALE AND MALE RELIEFS -- MASKS AND HYBRID CREATURES -- PART VI THE SPACE CONCEPTION OF PREHISTORY -- Introduction -- Was there a space conception in prehistory? -- On the structure of caverns and architecture -- Freedom of approach to all surfaces -- The coming change -- Prehistoric space conception and contemporary art -- The eternal present -- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS -- LIST OF WORKS CITED -- INDEX