The Chauvet Caves, in France, contain excellent early examples of prehistoric ‘parietal art’, which is a term for wall paintings and murals. The paintings, which were made and added to over a long period from 28,000 to 17,000 BCE, have a lovely sense of line and are clear and very well observed, mainly depicting animals. There is a particularly pleasing ‘sketch’ of a bear, a rhinoceros, and a row of different horses’ heads showing variations in the species, almost like a catalogue for identification. There is also a human hand print, using negative space to define the hand. This early kind of printing was achieved by the pigment being chewed and sprayed from between the teeth over the splayed hand that acted as a stencil.
Short
article about the Chauvet Caves at the
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
Click image above for more info and preview, or to buy this excellent documentary film (made by the great Werner Herzog) about the Chauvet Caves - it is 'required viewing' for anyone with even the slightest interest... available in multi format, region-free, Blu-ray edition including 2D and 3D versions, or if you prefer a standard DVD, use
this link...
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