1. Prehistoric Art

2. Prehistoric Periods Paleolithic: 40,000 – 8, 000 BCE
Neolithic: 8,000 – 2,300 BCE
Bronze Age: 2,300 – 1, 000 BCE
Iron Age: 1,000 BCE 

3. Virtual Tour

4. What we know about cave painting
Cave people didn’t live where they painted
Worked by light of lamps fueled with animal fat
Used ocher (iron mineral) ground to powder, mixed with saliva, applied with brushes or blown onto surface through hollow bones
Dominant colors: black, brown, yellow, red, white
“Impressionistic” look at animals
Used undulations of the wall to give “bulk” and perspective to animals

5. What we don’t know… Why exactly they made these paintings?
Art for the sake of art?
To influence real animals? Guarantee a successful hunt?)
Religious expression? Visions/hallucinations?
No single explanation suffices!

6. Conclusions Art is about being human
Art expresses all that is best in us
When there are humans, there is art
Art may change, but it does not get better (Sister Wendy)
“We have invented nothing!” (Picasso)

7. Location of the Lascaux Caves

10. The Caves today… 1940-1963 over 100,000 annual visitors
Impact?
Carbon dioxide
Raising temperatures
Water vapor – condensation
Fetid air- people fainted
Fungus
1972 – full-sized replica – Lascaux II
300,000 visitors a year visit

11. Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux Caves
Artists: Unknown
15,000-10,000 BCE
Style: Pre-history

13. The Well Scene, Lascaux Caves
Artists: Unknown
15,000-10,000 BCE
Style: Pre-history

15. Sister Wendy!

16. Venus of Willendorf (or Woman of Willendorf)
Artist: Unknown
25,000-20,000 BCE
Style: Pre-history
Height: a little over 4”