awn | The first thing that strikes me when looking at the many
reproductions (I have yet to see an original) is that there are no
stories, at least so far as I understand a graphic story to be. Instead
what appears are images of local fauna in full view, mid-view, and
close-up.
Even though these paintings were created more than 10,000 years ago,
the drawing style is highly accomplished. There's a strong sense of 3D
form translated onto a 2D surface, the coloration is finely tuned, and
the animals breathe life. So these artists could have told a story if
they had chosen to.
But nothing is chronicled in the way that we structure narrative,
with a beginning, middle, and end. Instead the artists have chosen to
present these huge images (the bulls at Lascaux are 20 feet wide) singly
or sequentially, on the rock wall deep inside these safe chambers well
below the earth's surface.
Sequentially? What are sequential images doing on a cave wall painted
tens of thousands of years ago? As an animator I recognize them
immediately to be like the key frames of an animation.
It's one thing to enter a cave and be confronted with a huge still
image, but how much more dramatic would be an image that reads as an
animal in motion.
What finer way than this to present shock and awe from a safe vantage
point. Perhaps the artists were seeking to recreate and thereby control
these near overwhelming sensations, feelings certainly experienced
above ground and probably often in dangerous if not deadly
circumstances.
Did these artists want to recreate them in a controlled way so that
while the audience's experience was akin to the real thing, the real
dangers remained above ground and well outside the cave?
Think of experiencing a huge thunderstorm from the safety of a cozy
cottage, or watching a horror film from the security of a movie theater.
There's something deeply satisfying about being awed or terrified while
knowing one is safe.
Were these paleolithic men and women our film artist ancestors?
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