Abstract

The artistic production of prehistoric man takes very special status and place in the history and theory of art. Ever since the appearance of the first grand work and small sculptures, experts expressed interest in the understanding of prehistoric art. Its integration as a full artistic development period, however, was arduous and the most of magnificent artistic production stood at the threshold of the 20th century on the edge of acceptance and rejection. The effort to include a diverse prehistoric production to well-established and "traditional" concepts of art fails and become a problem in reflection and evaluation of prehistoric artifacts themselves. This article follows the theoretical art-historical literature of the Central European space describing prehistoric artifacts. The objective and the main effort of the author of this article, is to dissect and define the chronological phases of perception of prehistoric art and prehistoric production in the context of art history, to describe his place in art history, but also to evaluate the real degree of art-historical approach to the prehistoric artifacts. Given the diversity of artistic production, it will be necessary to monitor Central European context with an emphasis on the form of the cultural image of Slovakia and the chronically known theorists complemented with the analysis of less well-known domestic and foreign works.