Neolithic Cultures Introduce Beauty

Neolithic man first discovered the principles of beauty in art, stated Sir Herbert Road in the second Charles Eliot Norton lecture at New Lecture Hall last night.

Completely abstract geometrical patterns, which characterized neolithic art, represent the evolution of artistic sensibility to the abstract, Read said. He considers geometric art "an extension of artistic sensibility, not a limitation."

Read explained that, while the naturalistic art of paleolithic man embodied vitality in art, the geometrical is "another plastic language" and "the consciousness of harmony."

Though they will eventually to fused, beauty and vitality developed separately because of "cosmic anxiety" prevalent in the neolithic period, Read said. "A desire for a secret language with symbolic meaning led to geometric patterns."

Concern with selectivity leads to the discovery of formal composition, which Read suggested was necessary for the further evolution of art to a concern with transcendentalism. While neolithic man discarded the naturalistic, his art was still focused on the animation of the inanimate."

"The laws of composition were not discovered by accident," Read said, "but represented the intuitive perception of order."