Hughes, Fiona (2024) ‘Making-remote’ as an alternative to realism in late Palaeolithic cave art: Representations of the human at the threshold of appearance. British Journal of Aesthetics, 64 (3). pp. 279-296. DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayae011
Hughes, Fiona (2024) ‘Making-remote’ as an alternative to realism in late Palaeolithic cave art: Representations of the human at the threshold of appearance. British Journal of Aesthetics, 64 (3). pp. 279-296. DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayae011
Hughes, Fiona (2024) ‘Making-remote’ as an alternative to realism in late Palaeolithic cave art: Representations of the human at the threshold of appearance. British Journal of Aesthetics, 64 (3). pp. 279-296. DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/aesthj/ayae011
Abstract
I initiate the concept of ‘making-remote’ to capture various strategies for representing the human in late Palaeolithic cave art. Drawing out the role of remoteness within phenomenological accounts of perception (Husserl and Merleau-Ponty), as well as offering an analysis of a wide range of archaeological evidence, I argue that realism does not capture the specificity of these human representations. In contrast to naturalistic animal representations, humans are consistently represented with a high degree of abstraction e.g., schematisation and abbreviation. I also argue for a site-specific distinction between deep caves and rock-shelters. Following Bourdier (2010) and Pinçon (2012), art at sites such as Roc-aux-Sorciers is best understood as stylised ‘public art’. Meanwhile, the highly expressive and realist art of La Marche is domestic in contrast to the exclusively symbolic art of deep caves. In conclusion I argue that ‘making-remote’ in cave art’s human representations exhibits complex relations to self and others.
Item Type: | Article |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Philosophical, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies, School of |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 11 Jul 2024 11:43 |
Last Modified: | 30 Oct 2024 17:06 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/38762 |
Available files
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Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0