The earliest products of cultural creativity in human history date to the Upper Palaeolithic period (35,000-10,000 BC) and are intellectual creations of Homo sapiens sapiens, the modern anthropological type. However, isolated finds of linear designs engraved on elephant bones from Bilzingsleben in Germany, a region inhabited by the type Homo erectus, place the first art expressions probably in the Lower Palaeolithic (600,000-100,000 BC).

Rock engravings and mobiliary art forms were the principal types of Palaeolithic art. The natural enviroment, the fauna, the activities of the Palaeolithic hunter, his companions -both men and women- sand the harshness of their everyday life, all that man was afraid of and had to confront, all he had managed to overcome and wished to remember are depicted with an exceptional naturalism and even expressiveness.

In Europe, there are rock engravings inside a number of caves in the Pyrenees, in France (Lascaux, Niaux, Perle Meche, Chauvet, Cosquer, Les Trois Freres) and in Spain as well (Altamira, Tito Bustillo, Covalanas) still exist. The oldest among the rock engravings to have come to light so far are those located at the Chauvet Cave and date to 32,500 BP. Mammoths, bisons, bulls, wild horses, deers and less commonly, large fish, seals and penguins together with human figures compose particularly vivid hunting scenes. The figures were engraved, in relief and painted on the walls of the caves. The colours used were earthy: red ochre from heimatite, black from carbonated wood or animal bones, and yellow and brown from limonite or a mixture of heimatite and manganese oxide. The location of the rock engravings, mostly to be found in the dark chambers of the caves, and their themes attest to the ritual character of the art.

Mobiliary art forms spread in Europe, from the Atlantic coast to the Urals. It dates back to the Aurignacian cultural phase (ca. 30,000-20,000 BP), but reached their prime during the Magdalenian phase (ca. 15,000-11,500 BP). Figures of men and animals as well as landscapes were found engraved or in relief on several types of stones, animal bones and deer antlers. However statuettes are considered to be the most important category of miniature art forms.

These were figures of women and men, animals and horns shaped on stones, bones, deer antlers or with clay. Some of the most characteristic examples of Palaeolithic art are "Venus" from Willendorf in Austria, the Lionman and the lion's head from Vogelherd in Germany, a relief human figure and a mammoth from Geissenkloesterle in Germany as well as graphic forms and ornaments from Dolni Vestonice in the Czech Republic.