"For over 20,000 years, they scrambled through pitch black corridors, sometimes on all fours, with only lamps of mammoth fat or resin torches to light their way. Using their fingers, pieces of flint, pigment (clay ochres, iron oxide, manganese oxide and charcoal), moss and twigs, they created extraordinary works of art. It's hard to get your head around France's earliest artists. Questions are endless, answers only speculation."
"They not only understood perspective, but accomplished many of the aims of contemporary art- unbound by rules, suggesting rather than showing, inviting viewers to participate in the meaning, using natural features to add depth and dynamism. When Picasso visited Lascaux, he could only say 'We have invented nothing'. Time travel to France's first masterpieces France's grottes ornées are intensely moving, magical, uncanny- and fragile. To be among the few allowed inside you nearly always need to book in advance."
Prehistoric artists accessed dark cave corridors using mammoth-fat lamps or resin torches and simple tools to produce polychrome paintings and engravings. They applied pigments such as clay ochres, iron oxide, manganese oxide and charcoal with fingers, flint, moss and twigs, exploiting natural rock contours to create depth and dynamism. The imagery demonstrates understanding of perspective and expressive aims comparable to modern art, often suggesting rather than showing and inviting viewer participation. Many decorated caves are fragile and access is restricted; some pristine sites were sealed by rockslides and are now experienced through highly accurate replicas, notably Lascaux.
Read at The Good Life France
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