Cahn's Quarterly 2/2020
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Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2020 English Edition Editorial Dear readers These are indeed strange times. In March we were suddenly reminded of how much na- ture can challenge us with the sudden out- break of new diseases. Our entire economic system, which is so finely balanced, was profoundly shaken by the abrupt halt caused by the lockdown. We had just complet- ed the painstaking preparations for TEFAF Maastricht and were on our way to Holland when it became clear how threatening the situation in Europe had become. During the build-up of the fair, the organizers of TEFAF had several daily on-site consultations with the Dutch health authorities. It was unclear whether the fair would open at all, so we made short films during the build-up to Screenshot from the video “David, Ulrike, and Lily discuss an important Late Roman bronze Chlamydatus” document our booth. These films were up- loaded on our YouTube channel on the day and its neighbouring countries have man- to you in other, innovative ways. As already of the private preview so that we could wel- aged to contain the spread of the disease, mentioned, our mail messages and videos come you to the fair without you having to albeit at an enormous cost. It goes without have been positively welcomed. If you have travel to Maastricht. The numerous positive saying that the art market, too, has experi- not received them, please let us know your responses that we received encouraged us to enced drastic changes. In the context of the email address. We have also expanded our continue sending you short videos from the current economic crisis, we have reduced offering with online auctions of inexpensive gallery in Basel after the fair had shut its gallery operations and you will find that objects (further information in the box be- doors. this edition of Cahn’s Quarterly has been low). Thus you can participate in the auctions shortened somewhat. from the comfort of your home. If you have Visit our YouTube Channel: any questions, you can of course contact us https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm2L Nevertheless, the art trade is by no means by email. VUp9aOQvEqPwfPGqL9A? dead, inexistent or in a state of hibernation. Although, for the time being, art fairs have We wish you all the best and good health I was glad that TEFAF Maastricht took been cancelled, they are most definitely not in these extraordinary times and look for- place, but I was also not unhappy that the a model of the past. It remains important ward to welcoming you again personally fair closed four days early, not least be- that collectors and dealers can meet to ex- very soon. cause shortly afterwards it became clear to change information and ideas about the ob- me from my own experience how severe the jects offered for sale. Therefore, we plan to disease caused by the coronavirus can be. resume our participation in art fairs once Fortunately, I was the only one in my com- unhindered travel is possible again. In the pany to fall ill. On the whole, Switzerland meantime, we shall endeavour to reach out Imprint Our Online Auctions with Ancient Art Publisher Jean-David Cahn As of this summer we will stage an on- Exclusively for you, we are also offer- Malzgasse 23 Horst Hammen CH-4052 Basel Gerburg Ludwig line auction every one or two months ing digital private previews via Zoom or www.cahn.ch using the platform LiveAuctioneers. Two WhatsApp. Please do not hesitate to con- ISSN 2624-6368 Photos weeks prior to the auction you will re- tact us to schedule such an online meeting Robert Bayer n Marc Fehlmann Editors Niklaus Bürgin ceive a link by e-mail which will enable or if you have any other questions: Jean-David Cahn Ulrike Haase you to view the catalogue and to place [email protected] Yvonne Yiu written bids. Furthermore, you will also Design and Layout Authors Michael Joos be able to bid live online during the auc- Jean-David Cahn tion itself. Martin Flashar Printer Ulrike Haase Rösch Printservice GmbH CQ 1 Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2020 The Collector’s Point of View A Wisent’s Head from the Seine This contribution by the art collector and law professor, Horst Hammen, inaugurates a new column in Cahn’s Quarterly in which collectors are invited to voice their opinions. As each field of knowledge has its own methodology, it is exciting and refreshing to hear people who are not archaeologists explore the art of Antiquity and illuminate it from a different perspective that may even be highly personal and subjective. By Horst Hammen for our Stone Age artist. Bears – see for ex- ample the much later Roman head of a bear in Catalogue 23 by Jean-David Cahn, Ani mals and Hybrids, Basel 2018, no. 50 – have a more prominent snout, and lions, as the ivory figures from the Swabian Jura show, are depicted with flatter heads. Furthermore, the eyes of bears and lions are not located on the sides of the head, as is the case with the object in question here; rather, they are positioned semi-frontally. The high, domed shape of the head and the laterally located eyes most closely resemble those of a wisent (European bison). If the Venus of Berekhat Ram, Golan, (before 233,000 B.P.) in the Israel Museum, Jeru- salem and perhaps the even older Venus of Tan-Tan, Morocco, turn out not to be first sculptures to be made by human hands, the earliest figural sculptures – initially mostly of animals – would appear to have been created at the beginning of the Aurignacian Period A PREHISTORIC HEAD OF AN ANIMAL. H. 8 cm. Coarsegrained stone. Upper Palaeolithic Period, ca. 40,000 (ca. 43,000-32,000 B.P.). It is difficult to as- 12,000 B.P. Sold sign our sculpture of an animal’s head to this culture or to the Gravettian or Magdalenian An inscription in black ink on the back of the seems likely that the artist picked up his raw which followed it, as a dated excavation ho- animal's head records the place and circum- material in the vicinity of a river. The incised rizon is missing. One of the rare objects made stances under which it was found, namely lines and the two concavities undoubtedly using a similar technique was found in the during dredging activities in the Seine near represent an animal’s face. The lines can be overburden from the Vogel herd Cave in the Rouen: “Draguage Seine Aval de Rouen". interpreted as the mouth, nose and forehead, Swabian Jura (Gustav Riek, Zwei neue dilu The Grotte de Gouy with chalk carvings from whilst the small hollows on either side – one viale Plastikfunde vom Vogelherd (Württem the Magdalenian is located nearby. The find- of which is better preserved than the other – berg), in: Germania 32, 1954, 121 ff.). Here, spot in the Seine fits well with the fact that could represent the eyes. too, the piece of sandstone selected appears the stone object is covered with a thick lay- to have been fluvially preformed. In a man- er of sinter. As far as is discernible, despite The most obvious question is which animal ner similar to that employed by the maker of the sintering, the stone bears no tool marks species might be depicted. Although the ob- our wisent, stone was transformed by short, other than a few straight, incised lines and ject is to a certain degree reminiscent of a incised lines and the removal of one flake two indentations on the sides. It follows that baboon, it can be precluded that the stone into the representation of a mammoth. This the shape of the stone, which may already represented a monkey or an ape. To be sure, animal sculpture is assigned to the Aurig- have resembled an animal's head in its nat- only recently the teeth of a previously un- nacian (H. Floss, L'art mobilier aurignacien ural state, was not the result of a sculptural known species of ape were found in Worms. du Jura souabe et sa place dans l'art paléoli process – unlike the ivory sculptures found However, those teeth belonged to apes that thique / Die Kleinkunst des Aurignacien auf in the Swabian Jura which were carved out lived in Europe millions of years ago. In the der Schwäbischen Alb und ihre Stellung in of the raw material. Since the object has no Early Palaeolithic, however, there were no der paläolithischen Kunst. In: H. Floss and N. edges, but is rounded on all sides, it appears longer any monkeys or apes in Europe that Rouquerol (eds.), Les chemins de l'art aurig to have been shaped by the forces inherent could have served as a source of inspiration nacien en Europe / Das Aurignacien und die in flowing water. Because fluvially shaped for the person who made this object. Bears Anfänge der Kunst in Europa. Colloque in stones usually do not occur in high places, it and lions can also be ruled out as models ternational / Internationale Fachtagung, Au- 2 CQ Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2020 rignac 2005. Éditions Musée-forum Aurignac My Choice 4, Aurignac, 2007, pp. 295-316). Assuming it is plausible that the mammoth from the Vogelherd Cave, and therefore pos- sibly also the similarly crafted wisent from A Cycladic Head the Seine, were made in the Aurignacian, these two objects could provide an insight By Jean-David Cahn into the genesis of artistic inspiration in the first phase of that culture.