Lascaux
Place
One of the most important cultural finds in history, the cave paintings of Lascaux in Dordogne, France provide a glimpse into Paleolithic life. Buried deep inside a remote cave, the paintings date back to the Paleolithic Age and were created as many as 17,000 years ago. Protected from the elements over the millennia by their underground locale, the cave paintings of Lascaux are delicate, mysterious, and strangely modern, attracting acclaim from such painters as Pablo Picasso as well as archaeologists and historians. Unfortunately, their popularity has also endangered them—tourism and the resulting changes to the cave's climate have nearly damaged the fragile paintings beyond repair.
The discovery of the LascauxCave paintings occurred around September 12, 1940. A teenage boy named Marcel Ravidat had discovered the cave and invited three friends—Georges Agnel, Simon Coencas, and Jacques Marsal—to explore it with him. Deep inside the cave, they found hundreds of dramatic and mystical paintings, and the boys soon realized that they had stumbled upon an important historic site. After spending several days pushing deeper into the cave, they told a local schoolteacher, Léon Laval, about their discovery. Laval explored the cave himself, then notified the renowned archaeologist Henri-Édouard-Prosper Breuil about what appeared to be priceless prehistoric paintings. By September 21, 1940, Breuil was in Lascaux and verified the findings.
More than 600 paintings and 1,500 etchings were discovered inside the cave, all remarkably preserved with vivid colors and dramatic perspectives. The artists of Lascaux created vivid paints, mostly in yellow, brown, and red ochre, as well as black for highlights, outlines, and shading techniques. Depicted in the paintings are a myriad of animals, including bison, reindeer, stags, big cats, bulls, ibexes, aurochs, and even a creature that resembles the mythical unicorn. There are around 600 images of animals—the most popular being the horse, while birds and fish are rarely depicted. Human handprints are also visible, as were narrative scenes depicting hunting activities or shamanistic rituals. Many of the scenes were painted high above the cave's floor, which some scholars suggest indicates that the artists may have used scaffolding. The vivid pigments were applied using etching techniques, blow darts, and brushes—all sophisticated artistic techniques.
Perhaps the most astonishing feature of the paintings in the caves at Lascaux were the perspectives in which they were created. Many of the animals depicted on the walls of the cave were painted as floating, ungrounded characters. The artists employed such sophisticated techniques as layering the depth of the paint and using the natural curves of the cave walls to create three-dimensional images. Proportions were also manipulated to create a multidimensional effect on the viewer, and certain scenes tell stories or suggest movement across time and space. Moreover, the cave paintings of Lascaux illustrate that humans mastered the visual arts of painting, etching, and drawing in prehistoric times. Their artwork continues to captivate modern audiences.
The discovery of the caves prompted archaeologists to ask many questions about the world of the Lascaux painters. Their lives were intense, difficult, and often a struggle. Lascaux, located on the western edge of France's famous Massif Central, is the most famous of the 130 Paleolithic caves in the area of the Massif Central and the northern Pyrenees mountain range. The Lascaux area is dotted with limestone caves that have been protected over the millennia by remnants of erosion that have covered up their entrances. Dry and dark conditions inside the caves probably attracted prehistoric residents of Lascaux to use the caves for shelter; the caves could keep them safe from wild animals, potential enemies, and the elements. Caves may also have been used as sacred places for shamanistic rituals or storehouses of knowledge. Breuil hypothesized that Lascaux may have held religious significance. Although the artists of Lascaux left no evidence of literacy, and we will never have definitive answers about the meaning behind their work, their art reminds us that they could record their accomplishments, beliefs, or experiences visually. Many experts have even suggested that their handprints, which dot the landscape of their paintings, served as signatures by artists who wanted to be remembered for their contribution.
The LascauxCave network is divided into different areas and subject matter. The first chamber that explorers of the cave encountered is known as the Great Hall of the Bulls. This vast room holds a complete fresco measuring more than 60 feet that depicts many horses, stags, and bulls, as well as now-extinct aurochs, the previously mentioned unicorn, and a bear. Pushing deeper into the cave, visitors discovered the Painted Gallery, the most renowned area of the caves and one of the most acclaimed pieces of art in human history. The Painted Gallery depicts many animals no longer found in France, like the ibex, and completely extinct creatures, like aurochs and the hemione. Herds of horses run across an invisible landscape, while bulls and cows make their own paths across the scene as well. All of these creatures are depicted with a sense of movement, even though their range has not been portrayed. Ingeniously, the painters of Lascaux used the natural relief of the cave walls to emulate the landscape their painted animals were roaming, a dramatic and spectacular way to represent their world.
Hundreds of paintings and engraved figures are found in the Lateral Passage and the Chamber of Engravings. Interestingly, although many such figures as aurochs and horses can be recognized, the artists in this area of the cave often overlapped many engravings upon one another. This technique, coupled by erosion and decay in this part of the cave complex, has made study of these images more difficult than in other parts of the cave. Past these areas of the cave rests the Main Gallery, which is known not only for the many animals depicted, but also a series of dramatic polychromatic quadrangular paintings known as blazons. These abstract geometric pieces are mysterious and their meanings unknown.
Past the Main Gallery, the caves host the Chamber of Felines, a gallery illustrating many intense paintings and engravings of big cats, now disappeared from the French landscape, alongside bison and horses. One of the most dramatic and fascinating paintings in the cave is found in the Shaft of the Dead Man. The painting illustrates a man, probably dead or dying, laying near a disemboweled bison with whom he has just battled in a hunt. Perhaps even more fascinating is the appearance of a rhinoceros, certainly not found in France today, running away from the scene, as well as a staff crowned with a profile of a bird, perhaps a totemic symbol for death. Interestingly, the profile of the bird's head resembles the profile of the man's head. This scene reminds us of the brutality and hardship of prehistoric life, and many have surmised that the scene was painted as a memorial for the hunter, or a shamanistic ritual, or a warning about the danger of animals and the respect that should be paid to them.
The beauty and drama of the LascauxCave paintings made them famous, and shortly after the end of World War II, French archaeologists and art historians prepared the cave for public display. Work was done to widen the entrance and lower the floor, making the cave more accessible to the general public, and by 1948, it was opened to tourists. At that time, the paintings inside the cave were vivid and most of the etchings were in outstanding condition, with the exception of the Lateral Passage, which had suffered some decay before discovery. However, by 1955, the quality of the paintings was being seriously degraded by the many visitors—numbering about 1,200 per day—as well as the use of artificial light to illuminate the paintings for those visitors. Carbon dioxide from human breath, exposure to light, increased humidity, and the vibrations from constant foot traffic began to fade the pigments, erode the walls, and encourage crystals, lichen, mushrooms, and algae to grow throughout the once-pristine cave. After many millennia of survival, the LascauxCave paintings were rapidly being destroyed by the modern humans entranced by them.
After eight years of monitoring the development of crystals and mosses on the walls of the cave brought about by human invasion, the French government closed the complex to tourists in April 1963. Scientists set out to dry out the cave, eliminating artificial lighting and restoring the original climate of the cave prediscovery. The French Ministry of Culture declared in the early 1990s that the cave was now as pristine as it was on the day Marcel Ravidat first discovered it. Art historians, however, continue to debate this assessment, because there is ample evidence to show that the pigments of the paintings have been permanently faded. In 2001, new bacterial colonies were discovered in the cave, as were large mushroom blooms. In response, antibiotics and antifungal chemicals were sprayed in the cave, and it appears that the invasive organisms were destroyed.
Tourists remained enchanted by Lascaux and demanded to see the site. As a compromise, the French government reconstructed the Great Hall of the Bulls and the Painted Gallery in a site called Lascaux II. Since opening in 1983, it has become an extremely popular tourist attraction, and it is also used by art students fascinated by the paintings. Indeed, modern artists have been captivated by the powerful figures of Lascaux since their discovery. Such artists as Picasso, Marc Chagall, and Mark Rothko are but a few of the many acclaimed artists who have been impressed by the paintings of Lascaux. Indeed, upon viewing Lascaux in late 1940, Picasso allegedly quipped, "We have discovered nothing," meaning that the innovations of modern art in the 20th century were already executed by prehistoric humans. The symbolic representations of the animals of Lascaux, as well as the use of geometric shapes, skewed yet three-dimensional perspectives, and primitive iconography has affected modern artists. Indeed, certain art historians point to the unknown painters of Lascaux as "the first modern artists."
Today, a modern climatic system maintains a constant monitoring of conditions inside the caves, alerting scientists to the most minute changes in climate in the hopes of maintaining these artistic treasures. Meanwhile, the cave paintings of Lascaux remind modern humans of their artistic connections to their forebearers who lived many thousands of years ago.
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Citation: MLA style
"Lascaux." World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. 2008. ABC-CLIO. 7 Nov. 2008 <
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