Art has always been a medium through which humans express their thoughts, emotions, and observations. One such intriguing piece of art is a 15th-century French painting, which is believed to depict an ancient stone tool called the Acheulean handaxe.
What is Acheulean Handaxe?
The Acheulean handaxe is a multipurpose significant stone tool used in cutting meat and wood and digging for tubers. This tool is thought to have been produced by two extinct hominin species, Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis, more than 500,000 years ago.
Also known as the Acheulean biface, this prehistoric oval and pear-shaped tool is flaked on both sides and has a pointed end. It represents the oldest, most common, and longest-used formally-shaped working tool ever made by humans.
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Earliest Artistic Representation of Prehistoric Stone Tool
Before the Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries, people thought that handaxes were of natural origin and even referred to them as "thunderstones shot from the clouds." Just recently, experts from Dartmouth College and the University of Cambridge have identified that the painting "The Melun Diptych," by Jean Fouquet in 1455, likely depicts the earliest artistic representation of an Acheulean handaxe.
The painting was commissioned by étienne Chevalier, who served as treasurer for King Charles VII of France. It consists of two oil paintings on wood panels: "étienne Chevalier with Saint Stephen" on the left and "Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels" on the right.
In the left panel, Chevalier is shown wearing a crimson robe with his hands folded together as if praying while Saint Stephen stands beside him, holding the New Testament. A stone object representing the death by stoning of the first Christian martyr rests on top of the book.
Art historians have always referred to the stone as a "jagged stone" or a "large sharp stone," although no one had ever identified it as something made by humans. However, senior lecturer Steven Kangas from Dartmouth's Department of Art History believes it is not just a rock.
Kangas collaborated with anthropology professor Charles Musiba from the University of Colorado-Denver and professor Jeremy DeSilva from Dartmouth to investigate it further. The research team used the Elliptical Fourier Analysis to examine the overall teardrop shape of the stone object and found that it is within 95% resemblance to other Acheulean handaxes from the region where the paintings were made.
The color of the stone object was also examined, and its high level of color variation on the surface indicates that Fouquet went to great care and detail in painting it. Meanwhile, the researchers counted the flake scars on the surface of the stone object, and the 33 identified flakes are consistent with the average number identified on 30 handaxes randomly selected from their French handaxe assemblages.
According to the research team, Fouquet may have been replicating an actual handaxe or recreating one from memory. This discovery demonstrates that the Acheulean handaxes had an even earlier place in the modern world.
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