I just put this up on sci.anthropology.paleo

[Michael Eisenstadt]

I am advancing the argument that realistic/naturalistic art is 
NOT one of the various styles of world art, rather it is, 
strictly speaking, not a style at all. That is why it is 
impossible to establish, for example, whether the 4 equestrian 
sculptures that used to adorn the San Marco cathedral in Venice 
(originally looted from Constantinope) are Greek or Roman in 
origin or date (considered individually of course as they are not 
a matched set). 

In other words, that those few artists with the requisite talent
to represent accurately the looks, poses, movements of animals
take pleasure in doing so but only in those cultures whose
sets of beliefs do not get in their way. In the case of the
so-called X-ray style of Australian rock art where the outline
of animals as well as their internal bones and organs are 
represented, obviously a set of beliefs, religious, ontological,
metaphysical, etc. has imposed a non naturalistic style on
the artist. As this style has survived to the present (cf.
Randal White, Prehistoric Art, p. 191, "1964 rock painting by 
the Aborigine Najombolmi"), it might be useful to interview  
Mr Najombolmi as to his set of beliefs about representing 
animals, insects, humans if he is still alive. Or others if
there are others doing rock paintings in Australia or Africa. 

We know with great exactness the set of beliefs of 6th/5th 
century Greece where naturalistic/realistic sculpture first
arose in historical times. It is safe to say that this set
of beliefs in no way impeded but rather provided the intellectual
freedom for some few talented artists to throw off the various 
conventions of prior art and freely strive for realistic accuracy
following their natural impulse to take pleasure in their talent.

Perhaps Ice Age culture too at the dawn of truly human endeavor
also provided a kind of intellectual freedom for talented
artists, a freedom which was soon lost in the accretion of
primitive beliefs and its strictures and trammels.

With these 2 poles of the heuristic I have been trying to 
describe above, a re-examination of the most realistic examples
of Ice Age art in their various contexts with attention also
directed towards the non-naturalist representations of human
figures, if there are any in the same contexts, might advance
our understanding of its culture.

Michael Eisenstadt