Much ink, paper, and pixels have been expended interpreting the art of the ancient caves of Europe such as those found at Lascaux and Chauvet. While many of explanations of the art have been high minded and elegiac, the real explanation of their productions is quite more mundane.
Bertrand David is a French graphic artist who began his artistic journey with action hero comics to advance to a fascination with the ancient art found in caves of southern Europe, particularly those of his native France - the famous caves among which are the aforementioned ones which show up frequently in introductory art books.
The reason for the fascination of our artist and highly trained academics with the caves and their arts stem from the deep antiquity of the paintings found on its walls as well the majestic quality of the art found therein.
For those who are unfamiliar with the art, the caves, many quite large, house an astounding collection of hand drawn animals covering a period of 25,000 years, the newest of which dates to about 8,000 BC. The animals are simply drawn profile views, more often without eyes, and crudely filled in details such as around the hooves. The animal variety is not great consisting typically of horses, deer, lions, bulls, and others of that ilk. The art shows no people, plants, or domestic animals - generally speaking of course.
The cave walls are often covered with animals of varying sizes and even distortions, at times superimposed one atop the other.
The art is considered a masterpiece of Cro-Magnon man, an otherwise primitive species whose accomplishment in art defies the simplicity and crude conditions of his existence. So the question is how did such a primitive people achieve such virtuosity and elegance in art at such an early period?
The answer lies in an ingenious insight David had while putting his son to bed. He later realized that the images of lamps and animals silhouetted on the walls of his son's room may well hold the answer to the technique which these early artists used to draw their magnificent animals.
After considerable thought and experimentation, David confirmed that by using lamps to project carved or sculpted objects on the walls, the Cro-Magnon could easily trace the shadow, and then embellish it with pigmentation as desired. Extensive experiments and consultation with collaborator Jean-Jacques LeFrere confirmed the hypothesis with sufficient persuasion that we do not see it as controversial or even debatable.
David goes to considerable length to aver that this unmasking, so to speak, does not diminish the accomplishments of the cave painters. But intentionally or not, he exposed the smugness and pretentiousness of the academics, some of whom stated with solemnity that we shall never understand this art or its production.
Yet there is a bit of truth to the observation even after David's fantastic discovery. Uncovering the technique does not explain why the ancients created these drawings. He develops in the last few pages of his book the hypothesis that the animals are symbolic of tribes or people, and that the figures pay homage to loved ones who died. What else, other than burial rites, could explain the consistency and durability of the art forms and practice?
This theory is plausible and respectable, but David does not make any more of it than a possibility. I would throw into the ring that it may have been a form of entertainment or recreation. I, too, do not invest any great attachment to this idea.
Nonetheless it is remarkable achievement to resolve a longstanding question of how these ancient artists accomplished so much at such an early period in human development.
Reference
Bertrand David & Jean-Jacques LeFrere, The Oldest Enigma of Humanity, 2013, Arcade Publishing, NY, 139pp, illustrated, translated
Copyright 2020 Tony Bonn. All rights reserved.
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