June 16, 2006

27,000 Year Old Portrait "Archaeologists have discovered what they believe to be a 27,000-year-old drawing of a face, which would make it the oldest in history. Like many other ancient portraits, it is reminiscent of the work of some of the great modern artists . . ."

"Why did the first artists draw like Picasso? It has to be because of their attitude to the face, to their own embodiment and that of the people they lived with - it has to be because of how they saw human beings specifically, because this is very different from the way they painted animals."

posted by petebest 18 years ago
  • Dorianus Graystralopithicas?
  • I think you have to be high on amanita to see a face there.
  • Personally I find it quite a stretch to say that the abstracting of the human face makes such rational sense alongside the literal representations of animals. Or to put it Chyistically, "Bollocks" if ye like.
  • So Picasso was stealing all along. Call the RIAA! o, wait...wrong art form.
  • I don't see a face, but i do see a rubber ducky flying a kite.
  • Ooo . . . face or random lines on a rock. Gee. Hard call there. Perhaps we should acquant ourselves with the term pareidolia?
  • I see two girls doin' it. With a snake. What's wrong with me, doc? Whaddaya mean 'time's up?'
  • Er...
  • Interesting, but not altogether convincing. Of course Picasso and his contemporaries were consciously influenced by 'primitive', especially African, art.
  • Now there's an interesting angle. Go with it Pleggy!
  • Looks like a 27,000 year-old map to me.
  • It's probably a laundry list written in Early Ugg.
  • I think I meant "shopping list".
  • The article seemed to indicate that there were links to other portrait from other times. Did anyone see any? I wish the picture was more complete - it seemed to end above the reputed mouth. I also thought "map." On the other hand, in the cave art I've seen, the animals were realistic, but the humans were stick figures, so maybe the archealogists are right.
  • the animals were realistic, but the humans were stick figures Yeah, but what if humans really were stick figures back then. That would explain a lot.
  • *peers at face* OK, I can see a face. Mind ye, I project all the time, though. Wonder if Neolithic man did, too ...