Art, crafts and Paleolithic art

Abstract

This article initially examines the foundations of our modern understanding of Paleolithic art. Taking the period 1860-1905 into account, I show that the depiction of Paleolithic art elaborated by Western archaeologists at that time was largely based on the projection of categories used to characterize craft at the end of the nineteenth century with prehistoric art. As I depict in the final section of the article, the weakening of evolutionism and the recognition of the complexity of primitive societies at the turn of the century provoked a new definition of Paleolithic art, which included cave paintings.