Paleolithic Jasper Cortex "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. 58.

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. 68.

A NEANDERTHAL FIGURE STONE FROM FONTMAURE APPEARING AS A FACE IN PROFILE

Recovered from the important Paleolithic site of Fontmaure in central France, this intriguing jasper nodule 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 lightly modified to bring out suggestive imagery.

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 appears to represent a face in profile, seemingly chosen for the naturally occurring circular depression which forms a clear eye-like feature. Around this, the broader shape of the stone has filled out a head. The intervention appears minimal, with slight trimming or adjustment serving to clarify rather than impose the form.

Fontmaure is well known for its distinctive jasper and for the large number of Paleolithic objects recovered from the site. In rare instances such as this, the selection of material appears to have been guided as much by its visual qualities as by its practical use. The maker has responded to a feature already present within the stone, allowing the image to emerge through careful recognition rather than extensive working.

Its inclusion in both the Nasher Sculpture Center’s landmark exhibition First Sculpture: Handaxe to Figure Stone and the Benaki Museum’s The Origins of Sculpture places it within a key group of objects central to current discussions surrounding the origins of representation in early human history.