The reproductions I have seen are amazing in
scale, and form, and colour.
Marilyn
I have viewed these paintings. They are in deep caves - this work could not
have been done in near or any kind of darkness. Depictions of the artists at
work show a bunch of assistants holding torches around the work area which
sounds pretty reasonable to me. They did know how to make fire 30,000years ago.
Well, yes I did mention "lamp."
You are very fortunate to have been there.
Could you describe the experience in more
detail for all of us who will never really
see them?
Marilyn
My immediate impression on first seeing these paintings was - Picasso. Any
number of 20th century artists could have produced this work. The animals are
in motion and are depicted in a sophisticated stylized manner. No question:
these artists were accomplished and very competent.
I remember reading a book about the recurrent entoptic pictograms
(and -graphs)
and how the hunting scenes depicted must have been spiritually metophoric
because
the 'shaman' painters came from tribes (at least the ones discussed) which
didn't hunt
the depicted animals. They mostly ate rabbits and vegetables.
If anyone knows of such a book, I'd love to re-read or discover more. The
author went on
to discuss the stages of mind-altering drugs represented by entoptic,
figurative and
fantastic images.
stickman