Cave Paintings of Altamira, Lascaux and Chauvet-Port-d’Arc

1. Cave Paintings of Altamira, Lascaux and Chauvet-Port-d’Arc

2. Altimira, Spain The first cave paintings were found in 1879 in Altimira, Spain by María Justina, the nine year old daughter of amateur archaeologist Marcelinon Sanz de Sautuola, discovered a series of drawings and paintings on the roof of the cave. Her father had been searching for artifacts in the cave when his daughter cried out ‘Look, Papa, oxen’. The paintings and drawings depicted wild animals including bison, red deer, boar and horses along with paintings of human hands. They seemed to be done using red, charcoal and ochre They were painted by the Magdalenian people between 16,000-9,000 BC. This would have been 11,000-19,000 years ago. These paintings at Altimira are mainly of the bison. Many of the bison are drawn and then painted using the boulders for the animal’s shoulders. This made them look three-dimensional. These paintings are sometimes called “The Sistine Chapel of Paleolithic Art. What is astonishing about the paintings is that they look like modern art yet they are between 14 and 18,000 years old. The Cave measures 270 metres long and is made up of various rooms and passages in an S shape. With the main chamber measuring 18m by 9m.

3. The Catholic Church also became involved and was anxious to discredit the paintings for fear it might focus on evolution and put into question the omnipresence of God. At one point, because of the well preserved nature of the paintings, Sautuola was even accused of forgery by a fellow country man who suggested Sautuola had hired someone to produce the paintings. In 1902 a number of other prehistoric paintings were discovered which served to convince experts that the Altamira paintings were indeed genuine. That same year Emile Cartailhac admitted he had been wrong in his condemnation of the findings of Sautuola and published an article in the journal L’Anthropologie, entitled ‘Mea culpa d’une sceptique’. Sautuola and archaeologist Juan Vilanovoy Piera from the University of Madrid, together excavated the cave. And in 1880 they publicised their findings in Braves apuntes alaunos objetos prehistoricas de la provincial de Santander, in which they concluded the paintings dated to the Paleolithic Period. The findings of Sautola and Piera were dismissed by French specialists Gabriel de Mortilet and Emile Cartailhac, and at the 1880 Prehistorical Congress in Lisbon, their hypothesis was loudly rejected as nonsense.

4. However, his apology came too late for Sautuola who didn’t live to see his good name restored or his conclusions vindicated, as he had died 14 years earlier. Artifacts have been found in the cave that date from as early as the 18,500 years ago and as early as 14,000 years ago covering the Upper Solutrean and Lower Magdalenean Periods. It appears that a rockfall had sealed off the cave roughly 13,000 years ago. Excavations continued from 1902 to 1904 by Hermilio Alcalde del Rio and by the German Hugo Obermaier from 1924 to 1925 and finally by Joaquin Gonzalez Echegaray in 1981. During the 1960s and 1970s the paintings were becoming badly damaged by the carbon dioxide emitted from the breath of the crowds of people who flocked to see the historic chambers. So in 1977, the cave was closed to the public. It was reopened in 1982 but with very limited access. Finally in 2001 a replica cave was opened and the original cave was closed completely. The replica is described as a faithful reproduction of the original with the colours and pigments fashioned from similar powders used in the original. Following a visit to the cave Picasso is quoted as saying ‘Beyone Altamira all is decadence’. In 1999 the rock group Steely Dan released their song in honour of the caves, called ‘The Caves of Altamira’.

8. Lascaux, France Four boys searching for a lost dog also discovered paintings at Lascaux, France in 1940. These paintings were created around 15,000 BC, which would make them about 17,000 years old. There are seven chambers in the Lascaux cave; the Great Hall of the Bulls, the Painted Gallery, the Lateral Passage, the Chamber of Engravings, the Main Gallery, the Chamber of Felines, and the Shaft of the Dead Man. The Hall of the Bulls is the most impressive. It is composed of horses, bulls, and stags. Some of the animals have been painted over, suggesting that different groups of people might have lived in this same cave. The painting in the Shaft of the Dead Man is unusual because the human figure is not normally drawn. This scene shows the image of a man that appears to have been killed by the bison.

15. Cave Paintings Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave in the South of France is the newest cave painting to be discovered. Jean-Marie Chauvet, Christian Hillaire and Heliette Brunel-Deschamps discovered the cave on December 18, 1994. There is a menagerie of animals on the walls of these caves. Many of the animals like the ones in Lascaux were painted over each other. The oldest were probably painted around 30,000 BC, making them about 32,000 years old. The cave was probably occupied for nearly 10,000 years. It is thought that a violent collapse blocked the natural entrance.

18. Theories About the Cave Paintings Humans had not learned to write during the prehistoric time period. They communicated through cave paintings. Why did man find a need to paint on the walls of the caves? We know that most of the paintings were of animals. However, there are a few paintings that have human figures either in etchings or in a painting, like the scene in Lascaux of the Dead Man. The face of the dead man is represented by a bird’s face, but it is the body of a human. Perhaps they did not want to portray a human face, thinking that it might take the soul. There are three theories that the prehistoric man might have painted animals on the walls of the caves. Perhaps the cave man wanted to decorate the cave and chose animals because they were important to their existence. The second theory could have been that they considered this magic to help the hunters. Perhaps if the artist could capture the image of the animal, they could capture the animal in a hunt. Prehistoric man could have used the painting of animals on the walls of caves to document their hunting expeditions.

19. Methods of Painting Prehistoric people would have used natural objects to paint the walls of the caves. To etch into the rock, they could have used sharp tools or a spear. The paint or color that they probably used was from berries, clay, soot, or charcoal. The tools used to apply the paint could have been made by attaching straw, leaves, moss, or hair to sticks. They might have used hollow bones or reeds to spray the color on, similar to an airbrush technique.

21. Now it is your turn to create your own cave art. Follow the directions in the next slide.

22. Instructions for creating a cave painting. • First crumple a brown paper bag . This will create a rock like look. • Draw animals, figures, symbols, etc. in black crayon... very lightly at first, then pressed hard intermittently in the outline of their creatures. • Use earth tone Crayons that are broken in small pieces (a little less than a half inch long [1.3 cm]) to blend colors, add shading to their creatures. You can use white in some cases. • Press hard in some areas, such as bright gold or yellow orange for highlighting, medium hard in the other areas...just hard enough to resist black watercolors that is added last after finished coloring. • Use a black watercolor resist over the Crayons but also mixed some pale washes to tint their rocks wet in wet over the brown crackle if you wish to add more color to the rocks. You could use one pale color wash for an accent color in a border, but you could also leave all of the colors neutral and be content with that.

23. Extra embellishments • You can use some metallic gold and copper acrylic paint to add some accents to your animals. Do this with quick brushstrokes to indicate highlight areas...used in moderation, then blended them out a little with your fingers so that they would not be overpowering, but add a contemporary flair to these stylized drawings. • You can also tear the edges of the brown crackled paper backgrounds before they mounted them on either medium brown or gray construction paper mats