Paleolithic Painting
THE ORIGINS OF ART
Although humans had been using tools and most likely making art for millennia, the first known evidence of art was produced 34,000 years ago by Cro-Magnons. The Cro-Magnons were the first Early Modern Humans to inhabit Europe in the Upper Paleolithic era. Their most impressive legacy was the images they left on cave walls.
WHEN & WHERE
c. 40,000–10,000 BCE
Present Day Western Europe
The most notable cave and rock painting sites in Western Europe are the Chauvet (32,000–30,000 BCE) and Lascaux (15,000 BCE) caves in France and the Altamira (18,500–14,000 BCE) cave in Spain. These caves featured vaulted ceilings and walls that served as canvases for this early, sophisticated art in which paints made with natural pigments from the earth were applied with fingers, sticks, fur, moss, and hair.
The cave paintings feature images of extinct animals, such as the wooly rhinoceros, auroch, and wooly mammoth. Some scientists hypothesize that artists tried to magically “make” animals by painting them in a sacred place. Others suggest that these paintings were made to ensure a successful hunt. A third theory is that these were early exercises in animism. Different animals may have represented male and female humans, and were depicted to promote fertility. Whichever theory is correct, we can be sure that the paintings were created for a ritualistic purpose, not mere decoration. One can only imagine what life was like during a time when art was used as more than a cultural compass, but was believed to be a necessary part of survival. —ARR