Famous Paintings: Cave Paintings in Spain and France
Posted by Susan Benford
An art history blog post from Famous Paintings Reviewed.
The discovery of cave paintings in Spain and France remains a defining event in art history, so I want to examine some of these earliest famous paintings.
Early cave paintings were found in 1994 in the Chauvet cave of southwestern France. 
Images in the Chauvet cave include the bison, mammoth, wild horse, rhino, deer, owl, auroch (the ancestor of domestic cattle), ibex and even occasional people.
Big Horn Rhino, Chauvet Cave
It is believed that this massive network of caves was occupied by humans during two periods (the dates of which aren't unanimously agreed upon by archaeologists):
Radiocarbon dating indicates that Chauvet cave paintings were created during the Aurignacian occupation; from the Gravettian occupation comes the oldest known human footprints, those of a young boy.
The cave paintings in Spain's Altamira caves, recently dated to 12,500 BCE, typically featured paintings of bison and introduced a sculptural effect to prehistoric art. Its artists
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incorporated the irregularities and protrusions in the cave's walls and ceilings into their designs, making the paintings appear three dimensional and moving,
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created highly realistic depictions, rendered using three hues of natural pigments like ochre and zinc oxides.
Bison, Altamira Caves
Although the Altamira Caves were discovered in 1879, these cave paintings were dismissed as inauthentic on the grounds that "primitive" people could not paint so brilliantly. Not until 1902 -- at which time other cave paintings had been discovered in northern Spain and France - was Altamira's famous artwork deemed prehistoric. And authentic! Archeologists continue to debate, however, whether the figures depicted were symbolic and fantastic, or were actual creatures who lived at the time.
The most complicated cave paintings are found in Lascaux, in the Dordogne region of southern France. These caves - with an astonishing array of 600 cave paintings and 1500 engravings - were discovered in 1940 by four teenagers, Marcel Ravisdat, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel and Simon Coencas.
Discoverers Jacques Marsal and Marcel Ravidat with Abbe Breuil and teacher Mr. Laval at the entrance of the cave.
In recounting his first glimpse of the cave paintings, Marsal described a "cavalcade of animals larger than life painted on the walls and ceiling of the cave; each animal seemed to be moving." Unlike other caves in which prehistoric art had been created, Lascaux has a protective layer of chalk which rendered the cave waterproof, preserving these cave paintings for millenia.
Lascaux Caves, Great Hall of the Bulls.
As with Altamira's cave paintings, the famous painters of Lascaux also incorporated the protrusions inherent in the walls. Subject matter included the ibex, auroch, bear and feline, whose most distinctive characteristics were exaggerated - these animals' eyes, hooves and horns are depicted simultaneously from the front and in profile. Look
Pablo Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror. Oil on canvas, 1932. Museum of Modern Art, New York.
how this simultaneity is captured centuries later in one of the best known Picasso paintings, Girl Before a Mirror.
During World War II, the Altamira caves were used by the French Resistance to store weapons. Opened to the public in 1948, these cave paintings became one of France's most popular tourist destinations until carbon dioxide exhalations, humidity, and contaminants triggered disintegration of the precious paintings. The caves were closed to the public in 1963.
This video, though, shows close-ups of the Lascaux cave paintings, and is as close as possible art history fans can now get. Enjoy!
UPDATE: In November, 2011, scientists examined the cave paintings in Pech-Merle (in southwestern France) and compared Stone Age and present age DNA. They concluded that the spotted horses depicted there actually existed! 
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