The Chauvet Caves in Ardeche, France, contain some of the oldest artwork made by Homo sapiens. 36,000 years ago, during one of the last ice ages, the people who adorned Chauvet did so with extreme sophistication. They really thought about how viewers would perceive their paintings in light of the curvature of the cave walls and the placement of the figures.
The Chauvet Caves were only discovered in 1994, and archaeologists quickly sealed them off from onlookers so they would not suffer from the mold brought about by human intrusion (which is what happened to the famous caves of Lasceux, which date to 17,000 years before present). However, you can visit a fantastic replica of the caves which simulates the temperature, humidity, and size of the cave’s walls and ceilings.
Four examples give a taste of the artworks’ complexity. First, the four horses show different emotions: anger, sadness, happiness, and fear (this is much more apparent in real life than a photo, a fact that applies to all of my pictures). It is the first example of anthropomorphizing human emotions on the non-human world in art. Second is a hunt, with lions chasing a herd of bison.The artist who made this was thinking about the onlookers’ perspective, whose gaze would be led from the lions’ advancement to the bisons’ flight.
The third picture shows one of the cave’s few human representations — the pubic triangle of a woman’s body, entwined with a bison. Called “the Venus and the Sorcerer,” this painting was done in some of the farthest recesses of the entire cave chambers, placed after a complex arrangement of bear skulls that likely had some spiritual significance. And thus, the artist likely thought it was super important. Personally, I wondered if the stalactite was supposed to represent a penis — (I am guessing I am not the first person to think this, haha).
The final image is of a running horse. If you stand to its right, it looks like it is moving one way, but when you stand to its left it looks like its limbs have changed. You really can’t see this in my photo, so you will have to visit the Chauvet Cave reproduction yourself!
