In the previous post, we presented an overview of in Prehistoristoric art, with emphasis on rock art. The term refers to engraving, tracing, or painting on a rocky support. The difference between painting and engraving is that the painting was done directly on the wall, while in the engraving a tool was used to make grooves in the rock, which was later painted, creating a relief. Engraving, therefore, was only done on softer rocks. Considered the oldest artistic expression of humanity, they were performed in caves, grottos or outdoors.
Pragmatic art and, who knows, also ritualistic
Naturalism was the main characteristic of art in this period, that is, drawing and painting nature as it appeared to the artist. A representation of reality, or imagination, as natural as possible, so that the observer could identify and understand its content.
The art produced had a material and everyday utility. Everything gravitated around subsistence, which leads one to believe that art had no other purpose than to obtain a means of obtaining food. Nor could they be interpreted as a form of expression.
This leads to believe in the thesis that they were used in rituals. By evolving intellectually, man becomes capable of understanding an image according to its symbolic meaning. The hunter artist developed a keen vision and deep knowledge of animal life. Thus, he managed to realistically reproduce the forms of these animals, with details and colors that would only be seen later, in the evolution of the visual arts.
Based on this feeling of possession, the hunter painter assumed that, by producing the image of an animal, he would have power over the animal's “soul,” thus being able to interfere with reality. The paintings were conceived as a living being, as an animal that really existed and not as a simple representation.
He believed that each image should be “used” only once, so some images overlap others and were made at various times. Probably, when he drew an animal and felt that he already had it, he would no longer touch the image. Then another one would start that could even overlap the previous one. He thus believed that he would kill the "life spirit" of the real animal if he injured it in a drawing.
The Cave of Lascaux
Périgord, in the south of France, is a paradise for caves and grottos, with more than a thousand of them underground. Limestone is the perfect material for underground currents to create holes to form large cave systems.
Located in the Dordogne region, near the village of Montignac, France, the Cave of Lascaux (Grotte de Lascaux), with more than 6,000 samples of rock art, including paintings and engravings, is on par with a large art museum with more than of two hundred meters. Together with the caves of Chauvet (France) and Altamira (Spain), it is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world. contains one of the most remarkable displays of prehistoric art from the Upper Paleolithic period, between 20,000 and 15,000 BC.
On September 12, 1940, during World War II, Robot, young Marcel Ravidat's dog, fell into a hole in the vicinity of the complex. Desperate, he and his friends, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel, and Simon Coencas entered the cave through a 15-meter-deep shaft. Then they noticed that the walls were covered with representations of animals. It is believed that the closure of the cave took place shortly after he finished his paintings more than 17,000 years ago.
Lascaux cave entrance - 1940. From left to right: Leon Laval (teacher), Marcel Ravidat, Jacques Marçal (the two discoverers) and Henri Breuil.
On 21 September, the boys returned along with Abbe Henri Breuil. He made several sketches of the cave, which are still used by some historians today due to the extreme degradation of many of the wall paintings. Breuil took Denis Peyronu, the curator of the Museum of Prehistory in the French commune of Les Eyzies, as well as Jean Bouyssonie and Dr. Cheynier. Many stone and bone tools were also found, some with signs of having been used specifically for carving engravings on the walls.
The first cave dwellers
Anatomically modern humans (homo sapiens) have settled in Europe since at least 40,000 B.C. According to archaeological records, humans were already present in large numbers in that region between southeastern France and the Cantabrian Mountains in northern Spain, which includes Lascaux. The cave itself only shows a temporary settlement, which probably had to do with activities related to creating art. However, it is possible that the first few meters of the entrance to the cave (a place still affected by sunlight) were permanently inhabited.
The Lascaux complexes
The total area comprises the main cavern, about twenty meters wide and five meters high, and several steep galleries, each magnificently decorated with engraved, drawn, and painted figures. The paintings were done on a light background in various shades of red, black, brown, and yellow. In some places scaffolding was clearly used to reach the high walls and ceiling. Among the most notable images are:
֍ four huge aurochs, an extinct species of cattle, about five meters long, with their horns depicted in a “distorted perspective;”
֍ a curious two-horned animal, erroneously nicknamed “unicorn,” perhaps conceived as a mythical creature;
֍ numerous horses; the heads and necks of several 3-foot-tall deer that are swimming in a river;
֍ a series of six felines; two male bison;
֍ a rare narrative composition, at the bottom of a well, which has been interpreted as a hunting accident or as a shamanic scene.
Shamanism is a religious perception that gives the shaman the ability to enter a trance and connect with the spirit world. This enables him to cure disease, influence nature, facilitate hunting, divine secrets, foretell the future, ward off evil, or perform the functions of a priest.
Despite its fame and importance, Lascaux is very poorly dated. Radiocarbon dating of some coal gave a date of 17,000 years, and the orthodox view is that the cave is a homogeneous collection of images spanning at most a few centuries before and after that date. Other experts are certain that cave art is a complex accumulation of artistic episodes from a much longer period. Divided along three main axes, the sectors together reach an accessible 235 meters in length.
Opened to the public in 1948 and closed in 1963
The cave was in perfect condition when discovered and was opened to the public on July 14, 1948, still in full archaeological investigations. The floor level was quickly lowered to accommodate a walkway. The cave was divided into seven areas: the Hall of the Bulls, the Axial Gallery, the Passage, the Nave, the Chamber of Felines and the Pit.
The ensuing foot traffic (up to 100,000 annual visitors) and the use of artificial lighting caused the once-bright colors to fade and caused algae, bacteria, and crystals to grow. A great deal of crucial archaeological information and material was destroyed in the process.
In 1955 it was found that the paintings continued to be damaged due to the presence of more than 1,200 daily visitors, which produced carbon dioxide, heat, humidity, and other contaminating agents such as fungi and lichens. First with some algae – green disease – and then crystallizations on the walls – white disease.
The cave was definitively closed to the public in 1963. The growth of crystals was stopped and that of algae and bacteria was reversed. In 2001, microorganisms, mushrooms and bacteria were again observed in the cave, so daily monitoring of conditions continues. In 1983, a partial replica, the Lascaux II, opened nearby for public viewing.
The art at Lascaux was painted and engraved on the uneven cave walls; artists worked with the walls' edges and curves to enhance their compositions. The amazing resulting decorations mostly depict animals, but also a fair number of abstract symbols and even a human being.
Working conditions and materials used
The images were painted in red, yellow, and black colors from various mineral pigments, such as iron oxide compounds. Analysis of the paintings indicate that the colors were applied by spraying the pigments through a tube, rubbed in with the fingertips, or etched in patches where the rock surface is softer.
The choice of techniques and tools depended on the characteristics of the walls and ceiling of the cave. In Hall of the Bulls, for example, the support is hard and has a rough texture. In this case, drawing was the best alternative. However, in other sections, such as the Chamber of Felines, it was possible to create figures through engraving, as the rock had already started to disintegrate a little due to corrosion. Another technique used was painting by blowing dry paint with tools made from hollow bones.
Some figures even use natural rock shapes as parts of themselves. The shape of the wall, therefore, partially influenced the composition, being used in the construction of the silhouettes of the animals.
Discoveries made in the cave show that its deepest parts were lit with bonfires and sandstone lamps (photo), lit with animal fat. Artists may have used minerals as pigments for their images. The red, yellow, and black tones predominated.
Red was extracted from hematite, either raw or found in red and ocher clay. Yellow with iron oxy hydroxides. Black was obtained from carbon or manganese oxides. Pigments were prepared by grinding ingredients, which were then mixed or heated and finally applied to rocks. Painting techniques included drawing with fingers or charcoal and adding color with "brushes" made from hair or moss.
What is striking is the fact that there are no known deposits of the manganese oxides found in and around Lascaux. The nearest source is 250 kilometers away in the central Pyrenees, which could indicate a trade or supply route. It was not strange for humans at that time to mine their materials in such faraway places.
The pigments used in Lascaux contain trace amounts of reindeer antler, which was used to mix the pigments in water. The shellfish remains, some of them pierced, fit well with evidence for the use of personal ornaments by humans living in Europe during the Upper Paleolithic.
Cave maintenance
According to the official website of the caves of Lascaux, the French government spends an amount of 600,000 euros per year to preserve the paintings and sponsor advanced research. This was key to taking care of the cave's fragile ecosystem, which is only relatively stable today, which does not make it any less vulnerable, given its closure to the public.
Since 1979, the Lascaux Cave complex has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with twenty-five other painted caves and 147 prehistoric settlements located in the Vézère valley. Three replicas were built and open to visitors.
The first, called Lascaux II, is located no more than two hundred meters from the original cave and replicates sections of the Great Hall of the Bulls and the Painted Gallery. There is also Lascaux III, a mobile exhibition and Lascaux IV, known as the International Center for Cave Paintings, the most recent complete replica, eight hundred meters from the original Lascaux network.
Thanks to 3D scanning, every inch of the original cave has been recreated using polystyrene, resin, and fiberglass techniques. A team of thirty-four artists copied the paintings onto the new walls and ceilings. The project cost US$70 million. The replica took three years of work at the Perigord Facsimile Studio.
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