Portable Art

Portable art (sometimes called mobiliary art) refers to the small examples of Prehistoric art that could be carried from place to place, typically made during the Upper Palaeolithic. It is one of the two main categories of Prehistoric art, the other being the immobile Parietal art.

Though the game hunted for food was a recurring subject within portable art, the over 10,000 pieces that have been discovered exhibit a great diversity in terms of scale, subject, use, date of creation, and media. Originally seen as less important than the cave paintings that also marked prehistoric art, portable art was thought to be merely preceding sketches or plans to be developed in later, larger parietal, or permanent, art. Over the years, however, the study of portable art has come into its own as archaeologists realize much information about prehistoric culture, livelihood, and societal structure can be gathered from these works or art.