Creative Ice Age Brain by Barbara Olins Alpert (2009, Hardcover)

Thread Waxing Space

1934171107

9781934171103

71665832

Creative Ice Age Brain

247 Pages

English

Diagnostic Imaging / General, Criticism & Theory, History / Prehistoric & Primitive, Subjects & Themes / Human Figure

2009

Yes

Art, Medical

Barbara Olins Alpert

Hardcover

11 in

9 in

The

A haunting mystery surrounds the magnificent Ice Age art that is found mainly in the caves of Western Europe. In this substantial new study, scholar Barbara Alpert approaches this art using information from psychology and discoveries in neuroscience. Techniques such as computerized tomography (CT) scans and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have demonstrated an enormous amount about the working of the brain. By examining the oldest-known human-made images in the light of this new information, Alpert reveals many of the impulses that underlie their creation. In a detailed comparison of Ice Age images with similar examples found throughout art history, Alpert argues that the approach of these earliest artists was not unique, but forms part of a continuum linking the distant past with the present. She shows how the art is based on a visual language found worldwide--one that appears to be universal for our species.