Paleolithic Flint "Figure Stone"

Formerly in the collection of artist Tony Berlant (b. 1941).

With EU license 2025DMF0222 permitting export, issued by the French Ministry of Culture

First Sculpture: Handaxe to Figure Stone. 27 January - 29 April 2018. Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas.

The Origins of Sculpture. 27 September 2023 - 7 January 2024. Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece.

Berlant, Tony, and Thomas Wynn. First Sculpture: Handaxe to Figure Stone. Nasher Sculpture Center, 2018, Cat. 61.

Galanidou, Nena, et al., editors. The Origins of Sculpture: Archaeological Finds from the Old World and Lesbos 2.5 Million to 50,000 Years Before Present. University of Crete/Benaki Museum, 2023, Cat. 69.

A LARGE AND STRIKING PALEOLITHIC FIGURE STONE IN THE SHAPE OF A FACE, PROMINENTLY EXHIBITED AT THE NASHER SCULPTURE CENTER IN 2018

Recovered from the important Paleolithic site of Fontmaure in central France, this remarkable flint boulder belongs to a small and much discussed group of objects often described as “figure stones.” Unlike fully worked tools, such pieces appear to have been selected for their natural form and only minimally modified to emphasize suggestive shapes.

Figure stones have long occupied a controversial place in Middle Paleolithic archaeology. Once dismissed as detritus from Neanderthal sites, these often strikingly aesthetic and sculptural stones have received considerable reevaluation in recent years, as scholars have reconsidered the cognitive and representational abilities of Neanderthals, and thus reconsidered their ability to create and appreciate what we may consider "art" or "sculpture." Archaeologist Thomas Wynn, once a critic of figure stones as early attempts at aesthetic representation in Neanderthals, has since become one of the most forceful exponents of Neanderthal representational ability, as evidenced by his co-curation of the exhibition First Sculpture: Handaxe to Figure Stone at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas in 2018, where this piece was prominently displayed.

The present example is exceptional for both its scale and the clarity of its representation. Two naturally occurring perforations, which fully pierce the stone, form what look to be a pair of deeply set eyes, around which the broader configuration strongly evokes a face. Subtle working along the upper edges accentuates this impression, without obscuring the natural character of the material. The result is a composition in which natural form and human intervention work in tandem to create something immediately recognizable.

Fontmaure is well known for its distinctive materials and for the large number of Paleolithic objects recovered from the site. In rare instances such as this, however, the selection of a stone appears to have been guided as much by its apparent visual qualities as by its practical potential. The present work sits at that point where recognition and intervention meet, the maker seemingly responding to a form already present within the stone.

Its inclusion in the Nasher Sculpture Center’s landmark 2018 exhibition First Sculpture: Handaxe to Figure Stone, where it was prominently displayed, and subsequently in the Benaki Museum’s The Origins of Sculpture, underscores its importance within the wider discussion surrounding the origins of representation in early human history.

Objects of this type remain controversial and the subject of ongoing discussion. While their precise function is unknown, their deliberate selection, retention, and subtle adaptation suggest a significance beyond the practical.