Czym jest paleosztuka?
Abstract
What is paleoart?
A b s t r a c t. Paleoart can be defined as all the original paleontological and paleoenvironmental reconstructions containing interpretations of the appearance of extinct organisms, constructed on the basis of current knowledge and scientific evidence present at the time of its creation. Paleoart’s purpose is to visualize the organic life in the past geological periods. The word paleoart is also used in other informal sense, as a name for prehistoric art, most often cave paintings. Alternative concept of this term is the domain of archeological society. The basic illustrations in paleoart are: 1) simple line arts, showing the remains of the organisms with the lining of the body and/or muscles and tissues, 2) skeletal reconstructions where the bones are usually depicted as white while the black background represents the body profile of the specimen when it was alive. Dominating in the popular scientific field, “life appearance” or “life restorations” illustrations shows how an extinct organism or biocenosis looked like during life. Life appearance models in paleoart split into two categories: material and virtual. The material models are made in a variety of scales, from small figurines to massive 1:1 scale sculptures. Virtual models are computer generated images of extinct animals. They are made mostly for the purpose of films and sometimes for studies. In Poland, paleoart is a small-scale activity for specialized artists and scientists. Despite the problems derived from the progress of interpretation in paleontology, paleoart has a major significance because it is a perfect manner of spreading knowledge to the society. It inspires and develops hypotheses of scientists concerning extinct organisms.
A b s t r a c t. Paleoart can be defined as all the original paleontological and paleoenvironmental reconstructions containing interpretations of the appearance of extinct organisms, constructed on the basis of current knowledge and scientific evidence present at the time of its creation. Paleoart’s purpose is to visualize the organic life in the past geological periods. The word paleoart is also used in other informal sense, as a name for prehistoric art, most often cave paintings. Alternative concept of this term is the domain of archeological society. The basic illustrations in paleoart are: 1) simple line arts, showing the remains of the organisms with the lining of the body and/or muscles and tissues, 2) skeletal reconstructions where the bones are usually depicted as white while the black background represents the body profile of the specimen when it was alive. Dominating in the popular scientific field, “life appearance” or “life restorations” illustrations shows how an extinct organism or biocenosis looked like during life. Life appearance models in paleoart split into two categories: material and virtual. The material models are made in a variety of scales, from small figurines to massive 1:1 scale sculptures. Virtual models are computer generated images of extinct animals. They are made mostly for the purpose of films and sometimes for studies. In Poland, paleoart is a small-scale activity for specialized artists and scientists. Despite the problems derived from the progress of interpretation in paleontology, paleoart has a major significance because it is a perfect manner of spreading knowledge to the society. It inspires and develops hypotheses of scientists concerning extinct organisms.