On September 12, 1940 in Dordogne, France, four men named Marcel Ravidat, Jacques Marsal, Simon Coencas, and Georges Agniel, came upon a long forgotten cave- Lascaux. The Lascaux cave, now a World Heritage site, has been called the Lascaux bestiary. A revolution occurred in the creation of art during the Upper Paleolithic Era in Europe. Beginning around 40,000 B. C. , records shows that modern humans replaced Neanderthals and remained the only hominid inhabitants across Europe. At about the same time the earliest art was created.
These creative achievements fall into one out of two categories. Paintings and engravings found in caves along walls and ceilings are parietal art. The caves where paintings have been found are most likely to not have served as shelter, but instead were for ceremonial or religious purposes. The second category, mobiliary art, includes sculpted objects which are typically found buried at habitation sites. The painted walls of the caves in Lascaux are some of the most impressive and well-known artistic creations of Paleolithic humans.
Although there is one human image (painted humans are very rare in Paleolithic art), most of the paintings show animals found in the surrounding area, such as bison, mammoths, ibex, bulls, horses, deer, lions, bears, and wolves. They are both animals that would have been hunted and eaten as well as those that were feared predators (such as lions, bears, and wolves).
No vegetation or painting of the environment is shown around the animals. These pictures are accompanied by signs and some human representations, such as a man facing a charging bison, raising new questions about our prehistoric ancestors.
The Essay on An Art Criticism of the Painting “Flora”
In the oil painting, Flora (Carrie Mainsfield Weir), by Julian Weir, a well-dressed Victorian woman is depicted, portrait style, sitting next to a small black table. The woman, Carrie, is also holding an array of flowers in her hand and several more stems of flowers are strewn across her lap. A silvery-gray vase sits on the table next to a large bowl filled with flower buds. Behind Carrie is a ...
