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We had to choose a piece of artwork to write about....

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Hall of the Bulls Analysis

Sara Felz ARTH 271 November 18, 2019

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When going over the different pieces of artwork in class I found the very first piece we analyzed to be really interesting. Located in Dordogne, France, Hall of the Bulls for some reason caught my eye immediately. I think I liked it so much because I’ve never really thought about how art didn’t start out being made with paper and pencil. The fact that it was drawn on a cave wall with raw materials just seems so real and personal. I also like the fact that it has mystical references to it like unicorns and the possibility of it being related to something spiritual and otherworldly. I decided to do my research paper over the Hall of the Bulls not only because it fascinated me but also because there is so much detail and information scientists have gathered about the different paintings on the wall. There are so many sources on the Lascaux paintings that address the history, meaning, and creativity behind the many different images on the walls of the cave which is rare for this time period because there are still so many questions researchers have not gotten the answers to regarding many of the pieces of art seen around this time. It overall seemed like the most fascinating because it seems so deep and it kind of leaves it up to your imagination to decide what is happening in the drawings or if they are even connected. The Hall of the Bulls was estimated to be done in the Paleolithic Era around 16,000 to 14,000 BCE1. It is located in Dordogne, France in Lascaux Cave and was made with raw materials such as minerals and homemade tools. It is made up of different animals such as deer, bulls, and horses and uses a variety of colors and patterns which probably can relate back to their culture2. The cave drawings extend for thirty meters and there are 130 different creatures in that span including something that resembles a unicorn and bird man, which is interesting considering the main theme is naturalism3. The hole that it was found in is in a big hilly and 1 “Lascaux.” Khan Academy. Khan Academy. Accessed November 22, 2019. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/global-prehistory-ap/paleolithic-mesolithicneolithic/a/lascaux. 2 Lascaux. Accessed November 22, 2019. http://archeologie.culture.fr/lascaux/fr. 3Lascaux. Accessed November 22, 2019. http://archeologie.culture.fr/lascaux/fr.

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rocky area with plenty of other places for holes like this to be hidden. The area where it is located is around tons more caves which means that there could be other pieces of art buried where we haven’t even searched yet. Western Europe is home to many different pieces of Paleolithic art including the cave Chauvet Pont d’Arc which is home to several other famous cave paintings4. This could just be one more of several others that have yet to be discovered. The Hall of the Bulls was first discovered by several teenagers and a dog who had wandered into the cave on September 12, 19405. One of the boys ended up falling down a small opening while trying to find where their dog had gone and ended up discovering it using a homemade lamp. They searched the cave up until they ran into a completely dark room where the cave splits off into the other halls. They explained that the area felt like a “black hole” that they didn’t know where it led, but they felt the need to search it further6. They ended up coming back another day to investigate the rest and were in awe of the different drawings that they found. They then told one of their teachers who investigated the cave further and from then on it became known to the world. According to history.com, visitors began viewing the cave in 1948, however, this quickly ended because, with every visitor, the cave’s drawings started to diminish. This article states that it closed to tourists, “because artificial lights had faded the vivid colors of the paintings and caused algae to grow over some of them.”7 Because there were so many people coming to look at the drawings, their warmth would make the cave damp and in turn, began to ruin the images so in 1963 the cave closed to the public. The moss and bacteria rapidly began to

4 Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. “Decorated Cave of Pont D'Arc, Known as Grotte Chauvet-Pont D'Arc, Ardèche.” UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Accessed November 22, 2019. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1426/. 5 “Lascaux Cave Paintings Discovered.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, November 24, 2009. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lascaux-cave-paintings-discovered. 6 “L'invention/La Découverte.” Lascaux. Accessed November 22, 2019. http://archeologie.culture.fr/lascaux/fr/inventionla-decouverte. 7 “L'invention/La Découverte.” Lascaux. Accessed November 22, 2019. http://archeologie.culture.fr/lascaux/fr/inventionla-decouverte.

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grow and take over the cave so now nobody is allowed to go in except with a small light and only one person at a time, just as it probably was when it was being created. In 1983 however, there was a life-size model done of the paintings so visitors could still get a little bit of a feel of what the cave looked like. Since this first replica opened up, several more have popped up over the region and even more copies of the drawings have been done so that the images are never completely lost. This situation created a lot of controversy about how tourists are destroying artwork and how art should only be used for research purposes and should not be open to the public. Many people complained that areas like this are preservation for a culture that visitors should respect rather than use as entertainment. The bacteria and algae that formed after viewers had come in was a good indication that the area must have been better ventilated at the time it was made. There are several circular holes in the ceiling of the cave so it was thought that maybe they were used for ventilation or that the openings were made so that a climbing device could be used to reach the high points of the cave ceiling8. Either way, the bacteria that started growing played a big part in the researcher’s studies. I personally do not think that the artwork should be blocked off completely from peoples view because I believe that that’s what art is made for. It is meant to appeal to other people and ignite some kind of feeling. It is made so that people can connect with it and enjoy it. While this can be done to an extent through replicas and models, it still doesn’t beat seeing the real thing. I think that especially now, there are ways that they can prevent the destruction of these kinds of art while still allowing tourists to view them first hand. Looking back at the way that the people created the Hall of the Bulls, it feels like they wanted other people to see it and appreciate it. To me the drawings feel like a story meant to be heard so I do 8 Bradshaw Foundation. “The Cave Art Paintings of the Lascaux Cave.” Bradshaw Foundation. Accessed November 21, 2019. http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/lascaux/.

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not think they should completely close the artwork off to the public. I do think they need to take more precautions when allowing people to come into the cave, and maybe in the future they will do this, but I think at this point in time there is probably some way to allow people to appreciate the real drawings first hand. One of the sources that I looked at was at article by Arlette Leroi-Gourhan called The Archaeology of Lascaux Cave, written in June 1982 and published by the Scientific American. This source discusses the history of the Lascaux Cave and its many paintings. According to the source, the cave has over 600 different paintings on it including The Hall of the Bulls9. The article asks itself “How did the artist do their work? (Leroi-Gourhan, 107)” This is an important question because, to understand the piece of artwork, we must also understand how it came about and was made. On page 107 it starts its explanation off with how there was little to no light in the cave which is the reason it appears to be unfinished in certain areas10. In the image we can see different animals that only have half of their body, some seem extremely unproportioned or long, and some even overlap on top of one another. This is because they must have had to use a small portable light source to see what they were drawing, allowing them to only see a few inches of the wall at the time11. The overlapping and unfinished work was also a result of completing their work over a period of time. Clearly they must have started drawing some of these objects then came back to work on them later on but didn’t know exactly where they left off so they just started a new image.

9 Leroi-Gourhan, Arlette. "The Archaeology of Lascaux Cave." Scientific American 246, no. 6 (1982): 104-13. www.jstor.org/stable/24966617. 10 Leroi-Gourhan, 107 11 Leroi-Gourhan, Arlette. "The Archaeology of Lascaux Cave." Scientific American 246, no. 6 (1982): 104-13. www.jstor.org/stable/24966617.

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This source also discusses the different colors and materials used to create the different cave paintings12. It states that they used mineral pigments found in France and they have even managed to find some of the artist’s palettes and different lumps of minerals they used in the caves13. The article says that, “the colors the Magdalenians most prized were blacks, yellows, reds and, as a poor fourth, whites. (Leroi-Gourhan, 109)” This shows that they used the best pigments they could find as well as decided to use earthy colors for a more natural and realistic look. We can tell that throughout the cave, naturalism was their main goal. Hall of the Bulls uses browns, reds, and black pigments, similar to the actual color of the animals. When looking at the animals we can see that some of them are colored in while some of them are mostly outline. While the reason for this is unknown, we can see that on the outlined animals they still tried to do some shading. On one of the bulls, down around his belly where there would be a shadow, the artist filled it in with black. On another bull, they tried to show the shadow by darkening underneath its chin and chest area. One the animals that are filled in, they also used darker colors to show where the sun wouldn’t hit them directly. All of this proves the fact that they really wanted the animals to be realistic in color and form. In addition to realistic colors, we can also see that they tried to draw the animals pretty close to how they would look in real life. They used perspective in the animal’s legs to convey that they are three dimensional characters and not just something flat on the wall14. This helps to show naturalism because they clearly wanted to imitate the animals that they most likely saw in real life at some point. Another source that I looked at was from the Bradshaw Foundation called, Lascaux Cave Paintings-An Introduction. It discusses the actual forms of the animals in the Hall 12 Leroi-Gourhan, 108 13 Leroi-Gourhan, 108 14 Looney, Mary Beth, and Mary Beth Looney. “Hall of Bulls, Lascaux.” Smarthistory. Accessed November 22, 2019. https://smarthistory.org/hall-of-bulls-lascaux/.

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of the Bulls cave drawing. On page two it states that the largest animal in the cave was a bull at 17 feet long15. This is shocking because of the fact that they had so little light to work with, so it must have been hard to paint something so big pretty much blindly. It also states on page three that “the bulls appear to be in motion16. (Noel Coye, 3)” This explanation adds to the fact that naturalism was a big goal of theirs. They used the animal’s posture and leg stance to show that they are moving through the cave. When looking at the Hall of the Bulls, we can see that the deer’s legs overlap and the bull’s legs appear as if the bull is taking a step17. This shows that the painter carefully looked at perspective and thought a lot about how the actual animal would look in real life. They also layer their animals quite a lot which, in addition to the lack of light, could also have something to do with perspective. There is a possibility that the artist wanted the animals to look as if one is in front of the other. This would explain the layering as well as support the argument that they really wanted to get perspective right and draw them as realistic and natural as possible. Another helpful source I found when researching this piece was from the website Karst Worlds written by painter and researcher, P. De Bie. This source discusses different hypotheses about the meanings behind the paintings on the cave. The first hypothesis looks at the spiritual factors that could be represented in the images18. It says that “this type of art is spiritual in nature relating to visons experienced during ritualistic trance-dancing. (De Bie, 2)” It goes on to talk about how certain animals at the time in the culture could have represented hallucinations which eventually led to the production of the cave paintings. The animals could have represented 15 Bradshaw Foundation. “The Cave Art Paintings of the Lascaux Cave.” Bradshaw Foundation. Accessed November 21, 2019. http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/lascaux/. 16 Coye, 3 17 Looney, Mary Beth, and Mary Beth Looney. “Hall of Bulls, Lascaux.” Smarthistory. Accessed November 22, 2019. https://smarthistory.org/hall-of-bulls-lascaux/. 18 Vortex. “Lascaux Cave: History.” Karst Worlds, January 1, 1970. http://www.karstworlds.com/2010/12/lascauxcave-history.html.

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spiritual visions and hallucinations that the people of the time were having. The second hypothesis that they brought up was that the drawings were used to understand hunting strategies, or that the drawings were a way that they called upon whatever being they believed in for good luck when they hunt19. The article states that it, “hypothesizes that the paintings were instructional in nature, created in order to communicate successful hunting strategies. (De Bei, 2)” This means that they could have made the Hall of the Bulls in order to either understand how to hunt these animals, or to call upon the gods for good luck when hunting them. Either way, it is interesting to see the different thoughts of why the drawings were created in the first place. After reading these two hypotheses, I believe the main reason for the drawings was to tell a story. In the other parts of the cave there are several made up creatures such as a unicorn and a bird man20. The unicorn is thought to be pushing back the other animals and the bird man seemed to have been killed by one of the bulls. I’m not sure the exact storyline that they were trying to get across but it seems a lot like a funny story that they would pass down their generation line. Also, in the Hall of the Bulls, it seems like the animals are running or at least in motion as discussed previously21. This probably had to do with the unicorn pushing the animals down the line and could have had a spiritual message behind it. This would support the first hypothesis that the drawings had a spiritual purpose to them. It could have been that the mythical creature represented a certain god and was trying to protect the bird man from something. Or maybe the bird man represented something bad since it had a spear next to it. Regardless of the storyline, it seems to me like it does have a spiritual meaning behind it because of the random mythical creatures that are scattered around the cave. 19 Vortex 20 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Lascaux.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., April 9, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/place/Lascaux. 21 Looney, Mary Beth, and Mary Beth Looney. “Hall of Bulls, Lascaux.” Smarthistory. Accessed November 22, 2019. https://smarthistory.org/hall-of-bulls-lascaux/.

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Overall, Hall of the Bulls is an intricate piece of art due to the history and complex thought that went into it. Clearly the people who created it over time put a lot of work into the different designs that they were going for and they clearly took a lot of time to make each figure different in design. It is interesting because the drawings weren’t done in one sitting, but stretched over quite a bit of time. There is so much information that has been found out about this cave and piece of artwork in such a short time, which is kind of surprising considering they have had other pieces of art for longer yet haven’t gotten near as much research about them as they have the cave. The people who created the Hall of the Bulls have left lots of different things that have aided researchers in studying the art including palettes, chisels, and different pigment blocks22. This has not only made the process of learning about the Hall of the Bulls much more interesting, but also makes it seem like the people who created it wanted it to be found one day by others. Bibliography Bradshaw Foundation. “The Cave Art Paintings of the Lascaux Cave.” Bradshaw Foundation. Accessed November 21, 2019. http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/lascaux/. Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. “Decorated Cave of Pont D'Arc, Known as Grotte ChauvetPont D'Arc, Ardèche.” UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Accessed November 22, 2019. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1426/. Lascaux. Accessed November 22, 2019. http://archeologie.culture.fr/lascaux/fr. “Lascaux Cave Paintings Discovered.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, November 24, 2009. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lascaux-cave-paintings-discovered. 22 Leroi-Gourhan, Arlette. "The Archaeology of Lascaux Cave." Scientific American 246, no. 6 (1982): 104-13. www.jstor.org/stable/24966617.

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“Lascaux.” Khan Academy. Khan Academy. Accessed November 22, 2019. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/global-prehistory-ap/paleolithicmesolithic-neolithic/a/lascaux. Leroi-Gourhan, Arlette. "The Archaeology of Lascaux Cave." Scientific American 246, no. 6 (1982): 104-13.

www.jstor.org/stable/24966617.

“L'invention/La Découverte.” Lascaux. Accessed November 22, 2019. http://archeologie.culture.fr/lascaux/fr/inventionla-decouverte. Looney, Mary Beth, and Mary Beth Looney. “Hall of Bulls, Lascaux.” Smarthistory. Accessed November 22, 2019. https://smarthistory.org/hall-of-bulls-lascaux/. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Lascaux.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., April 9, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/place/Lascaux. Vortex. “Lascaux Cave: History.” Karst Worlds, January 1, 1970. http://www.karstworlds.com/2010/12/lascaux-cave-history.html....