2023-11-01 07:00:14
The echo of ancient art is heard in an unexpected way. A 15th-century French diptych, “Le Diptyque de Melun” by Jean Fouquet, contains what appears to be the oldest artistic representation of an Acheulean axe. This discovery invites us to revisit the place of prehistoric tools in art and culture (Culture is a pan-galactic civilization invented by Iain M. Banks through his…).
The two panels of the “Diptych of Melun” (circa 1455) by Jean Fouquet: “Étienne Chevalier with Saint Étienne” on the left, and “Madonna and Child surrounded by Angels”, in an exhibition at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, Germany .
Credit: Sailko, CC BY 3.0.
Acheulean axes have long fascinated historians. Before the 17th century, they were thought to be natural, nicknamed “lightning stones”. A team from Dartmouth and the University of Cambridge identified a representation of such an ax (An ax is a tool made of a metal blade (most often of steel) attached to a handle…) in the “Diptyque de Melun”, commissioned by Étienne Chevalier, treasurer of King Charles VII of France. The object (Generally speaking, the word object (from the Latin objectum, 1361) designates an entity defined in…) is delicately placed on the New Testament held by Saint Stephen.
The stone on the painting has always been considered as a simple rock (Rock, from the popular Latin rocca, designates any material constituting the bark…). Steven Kangas, professor of art history at Dartmouth and co-author of the study, had the intuition that it was a tool (A tool is a finalized object used by a living being in the aim of increasing its…) prehistoric. This hypothesis was confirmed during a 2021 seminar with Charles Musiba, professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado-Denver, and Jeremy DeSilva, co-author and professor at Dartmouth.
Close-up of the object resembling an Acheulean ax in the “Diptyque de Melun” (circa 1455) by Jean Fouquet.
Credit: Sailko, CC BY 3.0.
To validate this discovery, three analyzes were carried out. The shape of the stone has been compared to that of 20 French Acheulean axes. The colors and traces of debitage on the stone were also examined. The results confirmed the authenticity of this artistic representation of an Acheulean axe.
Fouquet’s precision raises questions. Could the artist have seen a real ax or was it a creation of his imagination? “Fouquet seems to have taken a particular interest in the stone object,” says Kangas. This discovery sheds new light (Light is the set of electromagnetic waves visible to the eye…) on longevity (The longevity of a living being is the lifespan for which it is…) and the cultural significance of Acheulean axes, used well before the appearance of Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens, which means “Wise Man” in Latin, or Modern Man is a…) in Europe (Europe is a terrestrial region which can be considered as a…).
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