Lascaux Cave Paintings (circa 17,000 B.C.)
What we learned-
- The artworks focused on the animals with which the artists would have been familiar, including horses and bulls. In one part of the cave where bulls are featured, one of the bulls painted measures 17 feet- the largest animal painting ever found in a Stone Age cave!
- The Paleolithic painters of Lascaux employed a variety of colours, including red, yellow, black, brown, and violet. All these pigments would have been obtained locally from readily available materials such as iron-rich clay ochre and manganese dioxide and charcoal. No brushes have been found at Lascaux, thus one presumes that the paint was applied with moss or fur pads, or crude crayons made from solid lumps of pigment. Reeds and hollowed horns might also have been used as paint-sprayers.
- The most famous chamber at Lascaux is The Great Hall of the Bulls, featuring the famous four black aurochs (male cattle) including one huge figure. Another famous chamber is known as the Nave, which includes an image known as “The Crossed Bison”, a fine example in the use of perspective.
Discussion Questions:
- What was the purpose of the cave paintings?
- How do you think the cave people learned to/ figured out how to paint on the cave walls?
