3 Chapter 1.3: Paleolithic Cave Painting

PALEOLITHIC CAVE PAINTING

Along with small sculptures or statuettes of female figures and animals cave paintings are one of the most important forms of Paleolithic art.

Painting of several wooly rhinoceros, a species of rhinoceros once common in Europe but which went extinct at the end last glacial period. Chauvet Caves, France. C. 30,000 – 26,000 B.C.E. Note the attempt to indicate movement in the painting of the rhinoceros at the top. Credit: Claude Valette. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Paleolithic Cave Painting TASK 1

Below are two videos that introduce Paleolithic cave painting. After watching the videos, please respond to the prompts below.

How everything started: Prehistoric cave painting

Cave Art 101

Paleolithic Cave Painting Task 1 prompt: 

Countries where most caves are located:

Date when most cave paintings appear:

Species that created cave paintings:

Subjects of cave paintings:

Materials:

Methods of creating images:

Possible creators and purpose:

Character of drawings and information it provides about animals:

CAVE PAINTINGS AT LASCAUX

Lascaux TASK 1:

Tour the caves at Lascaux (link below) and answer the accompanying question.

Lascaux Caves Virtual Tour

Depiction of Megaloceros, also known as the Irish Elk, an extinct species of deer that was once common in Eurasia, but when disappeared shortly after the end of the last glacial period. C. 15,000 B.C.E. Public Domain.

Lascaux TASK 1 prompt:

What surprised you as you watched? Please share your thoughts.

Lascaux TASK 2:

Interpreting artworks that were made before written record can be very challenging. As the sources have indicated, archaeologists and anthropologists rely on context and material evidence to speculate on an object’s meaning. The meaning of the cave paintings has been debated since their discovery. Please read the material linked below, then answer the prompt.

The discovery of parietal art (another term for cave art)  in the late 19th century. 

File:Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley-108443.jpg
Painting from the Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux Cave. C. 15,000 B.C.E. Courtesy of UNESCO. 

Lascaux TASK 2 prompt: 

Describe two theories about why the cave paintings were created or observations about their representation.

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Survey of Western Art History I Copyright © 2022 by Amy Morris is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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