Innocenc Ladislav Červinka a Karel Absolon o paleolitickém umění
Innocenc Ladislav Červinka and Karel Absolon about Palaeolithic art

Author(s): Martin Oliva
Subject(s): History, Archaeology
Published by: Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci
Keywords: Paleolithic art; Innocenc Ladislav Červinka; Karel Absolon; hunting magic; Venus figurines;
Summary/Abstract: The first art objects from the Paleolithic on the soil of the Danube monarchy were discovered by Henry Wankel at the turn of 1870 and 1871 in the Bull Rock Cave. Martin Kříž, who acquired the the best evidence of figurative work to date, was unable to interpret them correctly and the artistic ...and explained the work in psychological terms. Its religious motivations were essentially rejected by the leading interwar archaeologists Innocenc Ladislav Červinka and Karel Absolon, although the latter of the animal sculptures leaned towards the idea of hunting magic. They both considered the sculptures of women only as a manifestation of the sex drive, and Karel Absolon even spoke of prehistoric pornography. Theory of hunting magic was popularized in the books of Josef Augusta and Zdeněk Burian, and persisted in the works of prominent Prague archaeologists Jaroslav Böhm, Jan Filip and Jiří Neustupný. Later, attempts at interpretation ceased and the alibi-like adoption of the views of Soviet authors.

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