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I am working on some art history, and I keep getting stumped when i try to explain to myself the differnce betwixt Naturalistic and Abstract. The book seems to point to some things that I can tell are abstract, like van Gogh, Venus of Willendorf....but some things, like Persion relief sculpture, for example, seem..I don't know.

How can you tell if people and animals are naturalistic. My art teacher said the cave paintings of Animals in the Paleolitic were naturalistic, but I couldn't see it. They just looked like coloured in outlines of animals.

It's a question of line, and intent.

Cave art is naturalistic in that the animals portrayed follow the lines of the models faithfully, a buffalo is clearly a buffalo, and and not just a vaguely bovine critter as you'd expect in something abstract.
The artists intended you to recognise the animals, without ambiguity. And they're portrayed as they appear in nature, with little or no distortion.

Thanks