Prehistoric Cave Art and Sculpture

• Painted by Cro-Magnon man (35,000-10,000 yrs. ago)

• Old Stone Age – Paleolithic Period• 41 caves found in France and Spain in 1900s

• Altamira, Spain: 1879 - Archaeologist excavating cave entrance. 12 yr. old daughter wanders off.

“Look Papa! Look at the painted bulls.”• 1st indication of prehistoric art. Immediately

attributed to modern painter. Man is accused of perpetrating a forgery.

• 15 yrs. later other caves found to prove he was not lying. He died an embittered man.

• Lascaux, France - 1940 four children playing, dog fell into a hole, they rescue dog and explore cave

• Cave closed in 1963 – carbon dioxide, humidity, temperature destroying paintings

• Artists constructed wooden scaffoldings to paint • Artists used the contours of the cave to make

drawings more realistic (three-dimensional)• One animal is >18 ft. long• Most animals were aurochs(bulls), bison, horses

and not fish or birds• Very few humans pictured• Hand prints – pigments blown across hands

Art Materials and Application• Yellow, red, black clay soils (ocher, iron oxide,

carbon or manganese) – ground to powder, mixed with animal fat, egg whites or vegetable oil

• 3 basic colors intermixed for additional shades - Red is most durable color

• Paints applied with: fingertips(earliest form of pointilism), fine animal hair brushes, blown through hollow bones, frayed sticks, moss and fur (served as sponges)

• Engravings with flint tools• Painted in narrow passage ways (one yard wide),

back of caves, required great courage – mountain lions and cave bears

Motive or Reasons for Paintings

• Magic or religious ritual – risk would rule out other purposes such as decoration, education

• Paint what you want to be able to find and successfully hunt and kill

• But most animals painted were not most common food sources

• Other possible reasons: initiation rite, or pictorial text for young

Venus of Willendorf

Earth Mothers

Easter Island 300-700 AD (not prehistoric)

Stonehenge – Druids3100 BC