I've always loved 'primitive' art, and what better than the astonishing Lascaux cave paintings?
Sadly, I've not yet had the chance to visit, but I did pop in to the British Museum's Ice Age Art exhibit. I wasn't the only blogger to visit, either, and nor was I the only one awed at their skill and amazing dexterity with natural materials:
"But the most powerful emotion that gripped me was a creeping sense of fear and of wonder: what happened 40,000 years ago that turned us from apes into fully-fledged humans with such incredible talents apparently overnight?"
A close runner up to Lascaux itself is, of course, the Great Ceiling of Rouffignac, another in the cave complex.
I really must make an effort to go along and visit one day.
You haven't been able to visit Lascaux itself for some time , there is an exact replica next door , but the main cave has been sealed to all but a few scientists per week due to the problems caused by breathing etc.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't 'turn from apes'.
ReplyDeleteYours,
C. Darwin
If Stonehenge was built as a practical joke to bamboozle people thousands of years later, then perhaps bored Roman soldiers did these paintings for a similar laugh.
ReplyDeleteI understand there is a connection between the formation of numbers and sudden explosion of paintings!
ReplyDeletePenseivat
Yes awed plebs are no longer admitted to the caves...
ReplyDeleteWhen Picasso visited he reeled out stunned, and proclaimed... "We have invented nothing."
When the cave was discovered, the French realised that swift action would be required to protect the paintings, so very early on the airlock was installed. But as yet there was virtually no control of visiting.
ReplyDeleteThen, as now, we live down in the South of France, and used to drive up to England once a year, in the summer.
Lascaux was only a small deviation from our route, which was on a N road (motorways didn't exist then), so we decided to drop in and see the art, "we" being our two young girls, my wife and myself. We had absolutely no problem, no delays, no queues, do permits, we just went up to the door and that was that. They were, even at that time, entering tourists in groups, and so about a dozen of us would gather, and then be passed through the airlock doors along th tunnels into the caves. Unfortunately photography was restricted and our furtive efforts sans flash proved to be useless. So no record then.
Still it was a memorable occasion.
I've never been back, I guess things are different now.
Peter Melia
Sadly it turns out that the copies of the paintings at the tunnel in London Zoo were lost when the tunnel was refurbished (or so it says on a blog).
ReplyDeleteThere's a wonderful flickr picture with an unusual take on the theme.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnoram/8729681826/
You and me both, Julia.
ReplyDelete"You haven't been able to visit Lascaux itself for some time , there is an exact replica next door , but the main cave has been sealed to all but a few scientists per week due to the problems caused by breathing etc."
ReplyDeleteOh. :( Well, that saves me a trip!
"We didn't 'turn from apes'.
Yours,
C. Darwin"
Strictly speaking, no. But I know what he means.
"When Picasso visited he reeled out stunned, and proclaimed... "We have invented nothing.""
Would we could all realise that...
"Still it was a memorable occasion. "
I'll bet! You were very lucky.
"Sadly it turns out that the copies of the paintings at the tunnel in London Zoo were lost when the tunnel was refurbished (or so it says on a blog). "
ReplyDeleteWell, that's a poor refurbishment if it can't reproduce them! Surely a starving artist could be found from amongst all those arts graduates?
That Flickr photo is wonderful!
"You and me both, Julia."
:)
XX Well, that's a poor refurbishment if it can't reproduce them! Surely a starving artist could be found from amongst all those arts graduates? XX
ReplyDeleteYou don't expect them to do anything resembling WORK, do you?