We started our art history class this week. The first thing we have learned was that there was an ivory Sculpture that was found in a cave in Germany in 1939. The prehistoric sculpture was called Lion Man. It was sculpted out of a Mammoth Ivory. The head is of a lion and the body is of a man.
When you think back to the Prehistoric period you had huge mammoths and fierce lions. You have to wonder what did the sculpture symbolize. This piece was carved in stone and took over 400 hours hours to make this. I read that the did find wearings on this sculpture as if it was passed around and rubbed. Nobody knows what its significance was, but it surely is an intriguing piece of history.
In the links below you can learn more about the cave it was found in compared to the other caves where other sculptures were found. You can learn more about the ideas and beliefs behind the Lion Mans story.
Here are some links if you would like to further study and learn more about the Lion Man.
The Lion Man: an Ice Age masterpiece – The British Museum Blog
New Life for the Lion Man
The Mystery of the Lion Man Sculpture
Our Art Project:
I had picked up 3 bars of ivory soap and I also purchased some tools that you would work with for pottery and sculptures. What I actually bought from Amazon was SE 4PT11 11-Piece Set of Pottery & Sculpture Tools. I am only sharing the link for the tools so you can get an idea of what I bought and what the kids used.
I gave each of the kids a bar of soap and let them pick the tools that they wanted to use. The could decide what they wanted to try and sculpt themselves. The only thing with the ivory soap is that it does crumble easy so it might be a little difficult to get your sculpture exactly how you want it.
My son had originally cut his bar in half. I am not exactly sure why he did that. He carved it one into a boat and other into a face.
My daughter had carved out a heart. When she was finished she wanted to do another carving with the last bar of soap and I had to tell her another day as she still had other homework to finish.
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