Imagine putting together a time capsule and having it discovered 35,000 years later. What would the items inside say about you and your life, your culture and society?
That is what researchers have been trying to learn about the Aurignacians, a hunter-gatherer culture that lived 36,000 to 12,000 years ago in southeastern France by studying their artwork left on cave walls. Three French speleogists (cave explorers) discovered one of their caves on December 18, 1994. Known as the Grotte Chauvet, it is the site of
the earliest-known Paleolithic artworks going back 35,000 years.
Jean-Marie Chauvet is from the Cévennes Region, He is an explorer and an expert
in speleological diving, a dangerous discipline. As a photographer and
filmmaker, he took an active part in sharing speleological knowledge.
Christian Hillaire fell in love with speleology while still a teenager. In 1985, he took
part in the discovery of the grotte des Deux-Ouvertures, an exceptional
archaeological site in Ardèche classified as Historical Monument. He
met Eliette Brunel that same year.
Eliette Brunel is a native of Saint-Remèze (Ardèche), right along the Ardèche
Gorges. Passionate about speleology, she has discovered a hundred of
archaelogical sites in Ardèche.
Grotte Chauvet is located in the Department of Ardèche in
southeastern France, 75
miles and about 2 hours southeast of Le Puy-en-Velay.
Grotte Chauvet is on a cliff. The entrance to the cave was blocked 20,000 years ago by a
cliff collapse. This helped to preserve the cave until it was discovered by the three French speleogists.
The cave is near the Vallon-Pont-d'Arc along the Ardèche River. The Aurignacians tended to designate such caves near prominent topographical markers like this arched bridge.
Entrance
to the cave is not open to the public, and it is highly restricted to authorized persons only. Researchers enter the cave only at certain times of the year for only a couple hours at a time because
toxic gases poison the cave's air supply.
A replica of the cave has been made for the public. Click here to learn more about the replica.
The Aurignacians were a hunter-gatherer culture that lived
during the glacial period in the southwestern Europe between 36,000 to 12,000
years ago. They include the caves at Chauvet (36,000 years ago), Lascaux
(21,000 years ago), Altamira in northwestern Spain (20,000 years ago).
The Aurignacians appear to exhibit one
of the first mythological and religious systems that expresses their conception
of the world through art. Their dark and silent caves were located apart from
living areas and they contain both the people’s imaginations and sacred myths
in the form of wall drawings and paintings, sculpted objects, geometric shapes,
signs, and bone collections. Animals are depicted almost exclusively with only
an occasional and partial representation of humans. When they do occur, they
are mixed in with the animals like a man with a bird’s head (Lascaux) or a
women’s lower body overlaid on a bison’s torso and the head of a lioness.
Plants were not included in this menagerie of drawings. Click here to learn more about the art of the caves.
The cave drawings were made with charcoal, torch marks, and red ochre. Through carbon dating analysis, scientists have determined the the first and most numerous cave paintings at Grotte Chauvet were done 35,000-36,000 years ago and the second 29,999 to 30,000 years ago.
Upon seeing the "first message of our ancestors" in the cave, Eliette, the sole woman explorer said: "They were here."
Click on to this VIDEO to learn more about the Grotte Chauvet discovery. It is in French, but you don't have to understand the language in order to witness the speleologists' reactions.
To enter this video, which was produced by Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (2015), touch the screen with your cursor and click on the arrow at the bottom of your screen. Then click on to the box on the right that says "Vidéo -- 18 décembre 1994".
Famed German film director, screenwriter, and actor Werner Herzog produced the first and one of the few films on the cave in April 2011 entitled Cave of Forgotten Dreams. It is available for sale or rental on Amazon but here is a 2:30-minute preview.
Here's a 6-minute review of the film by Scientific American, which includes an interview with Herzog.
Here are 7 minutes of excerpts from the film.
Other Sources
Claude Pommereau, ed. Grotte Chauvet 2--Ardèche. Beaux Arts and Cie Éditions, Paris.
In France, one readily encounters the remnants of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the early modern era through its churches, towns, and buildings with many of these places still being used. Roman art and architecture have also been left behind, albeit in ruins. The Grotte Chauvet, however, provides the earliest-known human artworks going back 35,000 years--and they are in pristine condition thanks to a cave-in that shut off access 20,000 years ago!
The cave art of the Paleolithic period was an especially creative time in western Europe, as shown by the above map. There were actually about 280 sites of cave art locations in this region, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry.
People
tend to view Stone Age art as primitive with the idea that artists became more
advanced and sophisticated over the centuries. Actually, the concept of
art did not exist before the 15th
century, and there was no word for it in ancient Greek and Roman times let
alone Paleolithic times. Consequently, the cave painters' purpose was
not about decoration or even depicting the beauty that they saw around them. Cave
painting in France and Spain has led anthropologists and archeologists
to speculate that the images of animals, symbols, pictographs,
engravings, and human hand prints were connected to some sort of ritual
and/or belief system. They consider this a giant leap in the development
of the modern human mind as illustrated by the differences between Neanderthal man and modern man.
Neanderthal
man lived 315,000 to 800,000 years ago in Eurasia. They became extinct
about 40,000 years ago when early modern man
emerged from Africa around 300,000 years ago. The Neanderthal brain indicates development in the sensory centers, especially vision and motor, located primarily in the
rear half of the brain. Homo sapiens, which include the Aurignacians who lived 43,000 to 33,000 years ago, show brain development primarily in the
frontal lobes, which are the higher thinking centers of the brain and show ability
in speech, imagination, sociality, culture, religion, and ethics through social learning. Neanderthals most likely went extinct due to competition with, or extermination by early modern man through climate change, disease,or a combination of these factors.
The paintings in France and Spain illustrate differences in
development and style of representation, too. For example, the Lascaux paintings depict strange beasts, some of which are half-human and half-bird and others that are half-human and half-lion. The Niaux cave in the southeastern Pyrenees displays a
huge frieze of bison, deer, ibex, and horse; carvings of salmon or trout; and bears claws. Grotte Chauvet, however, distinguishes itself with paintings of the more dangerous animals--lions, mammoths, and rhinoceroses--covering over 63% of the walls. Reindeer, horses, bison, aurochs,
and ibex--likely food sources--are also present. There is very little representation of humans and none at all of plants. What is most interesting about all of these paintings is their
spiritual quality. Although it is difficult to separate art from the spiritual, this article will focus on the art of Grotte Chauvet as discussed primarily by paleolithic art historian Diana McDonald
of Boston University in her 32-minute video that follows.
Quality of the art
From an artistic point of view, the Grotte Chauvet artists applied sophisticated techniques of drawing, shading, perspective, and
composition on their murals. They used charcoal to produce black and gray colors and red ochre. Sometimes they prepared their "canvases" by scraping surfaces and painting on them. They also engraved softer stone with their fingers, a rock, or a bone, as shown with this owl figure. (Note that the owl is pictured from the back with its head turned 180 degrees.)
Grotte
Chauvet is between 100-130 feet high and covered with stone columns,
stalagmites, stalactites, and many other rock formations. The striking feature typical of this cave and many of the European cave paintings are the large caverns that could emit certain sound qualities. Since
flutes and drums go back 42-40,000 years, singing
and music were probably also a part of the cave experience.
Grotte Chauvet is composed of a series of chambers or galleries which get darker and darker as one penetrates the cave. This lack of light also leads researchers to believe that no one lived in the cave but rather that the people used it for spiritual purposes.
Cave bears hibernated in the cave as evidenced by the bones, claw scratchings, and impressions of their bodies left on the cave floor. Handprints in red ochre tend to be closest to the entrance of the cave while more interesting figures are in the deepest parts of the cave--including an altar with a bear skull on top of it. The figures seem to be consciously grouped although it is not always evident as to the logic behind these groupings. The painters also used various rock formations and the cracks in the rock to make the animals appear to be alive and emerging from the rock, as with this rhino (above photo).
There is also some evidence to
suggest that a significant quantity of the charcoal drawings were painted by a
single master artist although scientists have determined through carbon dating of the charcoal, torch marks, and the drawings themselves that the first and most
numerous cave paintings at Grotte Chauvet were done 35,000-36,000 years ago and
the second 29,000-30,000 years ago.
The 1000+ paintings and engravings seem to exhibit some kind of theme. For example, in the most accessible part of the cave, most images are drawn in red ochre, like this bison made with palm prints, while only a few are in black. In the deeper galleries of the cave, the animals are mostly drawn and/or shaded in blacks and grays, with far
fewer rock engravings and red figures.
Animals are also grouped into specific panels like the Horse Panel and the Panel of Lions
and Rhinoceroses. What makes Chauvet such an important example of cave art
is the sophistication of its
paintings. No other Aurignacian cave contains compositions with the same
degree of realism, naturalism and complexity.
On the Horse Panel, Paleolithic scientist Jean
Clottes noted that the images were intended to be experienced in the same way we
view movies, theater, or even religious ceremonies today—as a powerful, shared
experience. Flickering lights from the artists' torches--and today's flashlights--make the figures appear to move.
The people lived near these dark and silent caves,
not in them. Researchers believe that their art contains
both their imaginations and their sacred myths in the form of
wall drawings, sculpted objects, geometric shapes, signs, and bone
collections.
Plants were not included in this menagerie of
drawings. However, what is unique to Grotte
Chauvet from other Paleolithic caves are the depictions of carnivorous
animals who once roamed the Earth thousands of years ago. Most other
cave paintings feature sedentary animals. Only
occasionally are humans represented and these are mostly in partial
forms like hands, palms, and finger prints.
The rhinos were feared and admired for their skin, horns, menacing appearance,
and wild behaviors. There are 17 rhinos in the end chamber.
This painting has the rhinos' swooping horns in repetition of several overlapping horns. The Egyptians and Mesopotamians used this technique to show
multiples of animals. The artists here used it to show movement.
The artists were remarkably skilled and sophisticated as their paintings reveal a sureness of
sinous outline, the beauty of shading, and a realistic feel of the animals. They obviously put a lot of forethought into their paintings and were close observers of the animals’ behavior and their relationships with each other. These rhinos crash into each other as their front legs are splayed. Quick brush strokes further illustrate their ferocious action.
The Horses Panel below illustrates the artists' appreciation for the horses' beauty and agility. A different species from today, they had short heads, small eyes, and a brush-like mane. They were hunted for their meat and not tamed or domesticated.
Mammoths (lower left) were huge animals and too dangerous to hunt. The horse and reindeer were the prey of choice. There are not many mammoths on the cave walls but when they appear, they are usually in charcoal or engraved in clay. They exhibit a lumbering movement due to their size.
Lions, however, seemed to hold a particular fascination for the artists. (Visitors to the cave seem equally fascinated by them.)
They are located primarily in the last chamber where a painting shows a whole pride closing in on a bison. This stunningly dramatic panel was prepared by
scraping the background rock, which again indicates careful thought and planning before painting the figures. The lions have gaping
mouths, erect ears, sharp eyes, stretched out bodies but no manes as today's male lions do. The lions work together as a team to attack and subdue their kill successfully. This is regarded as a lesson to humans who must cooperate with each other in order to survive.
The end chamber, the darkest and most remote of all the chambers takes advantage of the pendulum rock to illustrate attention to procreation and fertility. A woman's vagina is overlayed with the head of a bison and a lion, the most dangerous parts of those animals. Procreation and fertility seem to be a perpetual theme not only with Paleolithic man but among the ancient civilizations. Women and goddesses were often paired with dangerous and virile animals.
The cave paintings found in Grotte Chauvet provide insight into the Paleolithic Mind and its capabilities. These people closely observed the fauna around
them and accurately depicted them and their behaviors from memory.
The Chauvet cave was a bear cave. In it are bear bones, their claw scratch marks on the walls, and indented spaces on the red/orange floors where the bears hibernated.
Only during the summer was it safe for humans to enter and not confront a dangerous, 1000+
pound bear. Ironically, the dark and mysterious underground cavern also became a place where the Aurignacians created another aspect of their lives, the spiritual, something entirely new in human history. The rock was the artists’ (both men and women artists) medium for expressing meaning of their lives and they did it with over 1,000 wall drawings, engravings, geometric shapes, signs, as well as sculpted objects and bone collections.
The images of the animals seem to come alive in the darkness once light (latter-day torches and today's flashlights) is cast
upon them. They seep out of the cracks and curvatures of the rock and seem to become animated. What is present in
the cave are the living, the dead, and the spirits says Paleolithic art historian Diana McDonald of Boston University. In the minds of the Aurignacians, the drawings were equivalent to creating
life.
The animals on the walls were "power animals" from whom the people
derived sustenance both for food and for the guidance of their lives in
their communities. The horses move reverently together in unison (above photo) and the lions are focused on the hunt.
The feeling evoked from the paintings is that one is on a journey to another world, another
time, and another reality, McDonald continues. Coming upon the animals painted on the rock
walls, one can begin to understand that for the Aurignacians the animals were
intercessors to the Spirit World captured in the outlines of their
bodies on the walls. By drawing the figures, the artists were trying to create a bond
with them. The animals served
as the mediators for help with daily life, curing illnesses, and
communicating with the dead. The images on the cave walls were their
religious texts that told stories about their culture and survival.
The
Aurignacians lived near these dark and silent caves, not in them. Researchers believe that the cave art contains
both these ancient peoples' imaginations and sacred myths.
Plants were not included in this menagerie of
drawings. However, what is unique to Grotte
Chauvet from other Paleolithic caves are the depictions of carnivorous
animals who once roamed the Earth thousands of years ago. Most other
cave paintings in western Europe feature sedentary animals.
Before entering the cave, communicants fell into a trance (through hunger, pain, alcohol, psychodrugs, or rhythmic dancing)
in order to see the spirits on the walls and through cracks and bulges
in the rock. As they looked at the paintings, which held a profound
power, they felt a sense of belonging to a numinous presence. Myths
developed from the drawings--and the act of drawing gave the artists
spiritual meaning and purpose.
Paleolithic archeologists and anthropologists believe the artists were shamans invoking fertility and
hunting rituals, initiation rituals and/or contact with the spirit world. Prayers and rituals entailed gratitude for survival
and sustenance and the appeasement of the spirits. The Aurignacian
hunter-gatherers had an animistic worldview, which is
“the belief that a soul or spirit exists in every object, both animate and
inanimate. In other words, everything is alive. In a future state, this soul or spirit would exist as part of an
immaterial soul. The spirit, therefore, was thought to be universal” (Science
and Philosophy). Thus, the Aurignacians paid intense attention to and had empathy for the animals they lived among beyond
their dinner plate. They readily recognized their disadvantage between themselves and the ferocious beings they lived among, but couldn’t help
but “admire the large mammals that dominate[d] them.” So they saw their
drawings of the animals as “spirits of creation.”
Anthropologists also believe that such
artwork is the first time in human
history that “the symbolic [and the spiritual] permeates the entire culture.” Consequently, the
Aurignacians’ clothes, objects, tools, and art reflect this symbolism. As French anthropologist
Philippe Descola explains in his book, Beyond Nature and Culture, spirits are everywhere in everything and everyone (man,
animal, rock, landscape). All are connected. The hunter not only captures the
animal for sustenance, he captures the animal’s life as an exchange of lives.
Social anthropologists suggest other signs of the spiritual nature of Paleolithic societies 35,000 years ago:
· -
The living and the non-living were not separated
nor were humans and animals;
· -
All sensitive beings had spirits;
· -
The art illustrates a closeness between humans
and herbivorous and carnivorous mammals;
· -
The artists were hunters who risked their lives
for the survival of their group and who intimately knew the habits of the
animals;
· -
The artists regarded the animals as food but
also as spiritual partners who could nourish their imaginations.
A bear skull
set on top of a rock was deliberately placed on an altar.
The Spiritual Power of the Cave
The
power of the cave still seems to affect various researchers, journalists,
and artists who visit it. They report that not
only is the cave "fresh and untouched" as if the paintings were made the day before, but that the cave has an
unmistakable spiritual quality to it.
Werner
Herzog in his film "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" declares that humans are
not "homo sapiens"--those who can know things--but rather "homo
spiritualis"--those who are spiritual beings. That means that we humans have an innate desire for
the transcendent and the world beyond ourselves. Art allows us, says Herzog, to depict
our lives and to connect with the spiritual. In this way we are like
our Stone Age ancestors attracted to a spiritual existence as
we try to convey its meaning in art about the nature of our existence,
the nature of science, our relationship to the past, and our sense of where we come
from. Herzog also claimed that he
felt as though his presence in the cave "disturbed" the original
artists. Others report this same experience.
Stephen Alvarez, a photographer of National Geographic magazine, had the privilege of shooting Grotte Chauvet and writing the article: "Shooting Chauvet: Photographing the World's Oldest Cave Art."
As a visual artist, he was deeply moved by the pictures of the animals
on the cave walls, as he writes below.
“The connection with the ancient artists is visceral. It is
a magic that no other form of communication can manage. Entering Chauvet is
like entering a time machine.”
“Some of the power of the paintings is derived from where
they are, deep inside the cave, surrounded by darkness.”
“It wasn’t until the second and third trips that I felt I
was able to make photographs that said something about the relation of the art
and the cave.”
“And although the artists’ message is lost, it clearly was
something profound enough to take tremendous risks to say. That is the beauty
of visual art. It is durable. It transcends time in a way that language cannot.
How many of us can understand Sanskrit? Sumerian? On the timeline of human
history those languages were spoken practically yesterday, yet they are lost to
all but a few scholars. Visual art survives the gulf of time. As a
photographer, that knowledge thrills me.”
One researcher said he had to take some time off from his work in the cave because he was so moved by the experience of the cave that he was having powerful nightmares about the lions of the cave.
And seeing the replicated artwork in Grotte Chauvet 2 gave me an emotionally-charged response by realizing that images of living beings had been meticulously created by living beings of a time past. Just as the first speleologists of the cave declared "They
were here," my response to the art was: "They are still alive."
What we can learn from Paleolithic art is that survival
and reproduction are always important and not very far from our minds.
For these early humans, the animals were their biggest threat and such
fear and quest for survival has been imprinted on us in our modern
times. Also imprinted on us today is the concept of dominance: predators
over prey; the large over the small. Such status or rank became
associated with the leadership of kings, who are often seen with fierce animals. To survive in
such a world, the Aurignacians also offered supplication and appeasement
by drawing the animals. To survive and overcome inherent weaknesses in our world, we have built armies, technology, and cities.
For a simulated experience of the cave, click on to the 27-minute film, The Final Passage.
It was created from 3-D surveys of the cave to show the wonders of
the underground's rock formations as it combines with the artwork of the Aurignacians.
Patrick Aventurier, site officiel d’Ardèche Tourisme
You enter the “cave” as any good speleogist would: gingerly,
expectantly, curiously, and hopeful that you will discover a former presence, an
ancient presence, an extremely ancient presence.
The
first thing you see is a
series of reddish palm prints that look like a kind of playful signature
on the
“rock.” Actually, it is a simple rendition of a bison. The cave
discoverers’ first words were: “They were
here,” they being early humans who used art to convey their ideas about
the meaning of life and their reverence for the Earth and its
creatures.
You press onward and see a bear skull
set on top of a rock only it’s not just a skull, it is askull deliberately placed on an altar. You begin to
realize that you are not in just a “cave,” you are on holy ground, a sacred
space.
As
you penetrate the “cave” you see profile drawings in black charcoal or
red ochre of a buffalo, a threesome of bears, a deer, a rhinoceros all
leading up to the last panel where a
crescendo of figures interact with each other.
Some animals are grazing. Some are on the hunt. Some are just “being.”
Indeed, “they were here,” too. And now, we are here connecting with them through art in a profound and visceral way on a journey dating back 35,000 years ago.
Bison
Lions on the hunt
Cave bear
Woolly Rhino
Hyena
Horses with small heads, brush-like manes, and small eyes
Auroch
Actually, we are in a replica of Grotte Chauvet built for the public so that they could experience a representation of the original cave. Grotte Chauvet 2 provides a profoundly mystical experience of
imagination, creativity, and spirituality of the Aurignacians, hunter-gatherers who lived during the Ice Age in
southwestern Europe between 36,000 to 12,000 years ago.
Grotte Chauvet 2 stands like a monolith as in the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey like
something from the past and something of the present. And in a way,
Grotte Chauvet 2 is just that, thanks to modern technology and a devoted team of artists, engineers, and scientists who re-created what the Aurignacian artists did 35,000 years ago.
First of all, the building of Grotte Chauvet 2 was designed to be embedded in Nature rather than to overpower it.The
original forest surrounding it has been preserved on its hillside site.
The architecture aims to prepare visitors for the darkness, silence, and
surprises of the cave. Part of this feeling is conveyed in waiting for one’s
scheduled appointment for the tour. And then, bit by bit as you walk in circles
and wait your turn to enter, you are greeted by a guide who emerges from inside the
structure.
Allowing the public to view the cave paintings at Lascaux had inadvertently ruined this ancient underground treasure. Carbon dioxide exiting from visitors’
breaths caused mold to grow on the walls after only 20 years of exposure. To preserve Grotte Chauvet, a team of artists, sculpturers, historians, scientists, and engineers worked together to create a replica complex. It took 8 years from conception to its opening in April 25, 2015, to create “Pont d’Arc cave replica.” It has been designated by UNESCO
as a World Heritage Site.
This 5-minute BBC video provides background on the cave and shows how Grotte Chauvet 2 was constructed.
This Euromaxs video also shows how the "cave" was constructed. It provides interviews of visitors and locals.
The objective of Grotte Chauvet 2 was to provide visitors with the cave's sense of wonder and amazement by using cutting edge
technology to replicate the paintings, walls, and ceilings as authentically as possible. Through 3D surveys and 6,000 high-definition photos, they recorded all the volumes and complex reliefs in order to imitate the surface walls of the cave. The artists mixed pigments in the same way the Aurignacians did, and they stood, squatted, or sat in the same way the original artists did for each mural.
This work took thousands of hours and more than 500 people from 35 companies. Planners selected the most
interesting and spectacular paintings—22 panels with 142 figures out of 1,000+
paintings found in the cave with a surface space of 32,300 square feet compared to
91,500 square feet in the original cave.
Modern artists reproduced the cave paintings with the colors and materials similar to those of the original
artists paying attention to the variations of black, grey, and
red markings of the drawings. They used wood charcoal to
“rediscover both the power and the fragility of the curves that formed the animal
figures drawn in charcoal or smudged by stump work.
A team of nine
sculptors, painters, and artists from Montignac in the Dordogne region worked on
the cave drawings in an atmosphere of “studious contemplation” to reproduce
within a millimeter, the decorated walls of the cave.
Again, accuracy was of paramount
concern. Even the fossil shells embedded in the original limestone cave walls as well
as bear claw marks were reproduced. Copyists then added color to the “wall” to
represent the minerals of the rock.
One team constructed
the walls, floors, and ceilings of the cave with concrete and resin. They used a process called
"anamorphosis" where they scanned the richest parts of the cave in terms
of paleontology and geology and created a 3-D digital map.
Visual artists in Paris took resin and formed
speleothems (secondary mineral deposits formed
in caves by flowing, dripping, ponded, or seeping water) in order to create 110 stalagmites, stalactites,
gours, large concretions, pendants, and soda straws as shown here.
stalagmitesgour
columns (left) and pendant (right)
concretions
soda straw
stalgatites
Although
the walls, floors, and formations were scientifically studied, recreating them
became an interesting process of "transmitting" knowledge and
understanding about geology and history from the
geologists to the sculptors, said Jean-Jacques Delannoy. For example, the sculptors went with geologists to see real caves and to learn
about their geological history. This "transmission process"
greatly aided in enhancing the authenticity in the Grotte replica.
The sculptors also came to realize that geology wasn't a fixed, stable thing, said Delannoy, but rather a living element that changes over time. Stalagmites, stalagtites, and crystals, for example, grow and agglomerate. Different levels of materials "formulate," that is, they create concretions, develop color, sparkle, change transparency, and respond to light.
Consequently, to make the materials for the "cave", the artists produced micron casts and built a "speleothem library" that served as a tool for reproducing the various cave formations. Their objective was to remain both scientifically truthful and emotionally charged.
Sculptors and polishers gave the "stone" (made of concrete and resin) a finishing touch with their trowels,
brushes, and styluses. Not only was this work done by the centimeter, but cracks and
crevices were dug into the “rock” and white, red, or black fluids and pigments
(representing calcite, iron oxide, and manganese respectively) were added in
order to reproduce the original appearance of the rock. An inspector with an
iPad compared the image of the wall with the 3-D model—about 3 square meters
per day—to assure authenticity to the real cave.
Another team “hung” the cave with from the ceiling of
the concrete shell of the building. With thousands of twisted metal rods, the
workers matched the digital coordinates of their 3-D model. More than 100 kilometers
of metal rods were bent and welded together to produce “cages” for the vaults
and walls. Workers then projected two layers of stone-colored mortar onto the
“cages.” About 1,200 tons of steel, resin, cement, and concrete were used.
Scenographers orchestrated the design and construction
of the cave and the staging of the space.
“We needed to define what seemed
credible, what the cave’s spirit and its soul were,” said Mélanie Claude and Jean-Hugues Manoury.
They reflected on the
dynamics and spontaneity of the Aurignacians rather than to just copy their
artwork, which they believed might turn out to be “sterile immobility.” They then reflected on
the qualities of the cave that made it the place it was: intimate, silent,
dark, shadowy, cool, humid. Specialists
were called upon to reproduce these effects as well as sound, acoustics, smell,
and humidity. Lighting was subtle in order to contrast in rendering color,
sparkle, and texture to the rock, according to scenographers Mélanie Claude
and Jean-Hugues Manoury.
The artwork was executed with
precision and sensitivity to convey the emotional quality of the paintings. For example, one artist
burned pine branches to reproduce the charcoal the Aurignacians used for outlining their figures. He then
applied his learning after long sessions of scientific analysis of the original
cave with its layered and complex lines on the walls.
Grotte Chauvet
2 is truly a work of art within a work of art and its effect on visitors emits a profound emotional response.
Jean Clottes, a specialist in cave art, was the first professional to visit the original cave after its discovery in December 1994. He authenticated the drawings and served as director of
the scientific team that initially studied the cave for four years. He remarked on Grotte Chauvet 2:
“I have just
felt an emotion comparable to the one I experienced twenty years ago before the
original and that was among the most intense in my life as a man and as a
researcher….This is a great achievement, up to the task of sharing with the
public the treasure of humankind that is the painted Chauvet-Pont d’Arc cave.”
My own response to Grotte Chauvet 2
was to wonder more deeply about what I was seeing andmy profound reaction to it. At one point, I was moved to draw the animal figures of
the “cave” and that effect, too, took me to another plane that induced both reverence and awe in the art. (Click here for a blog about the spiritual side of the cave.)
Grotte Chauvet was such an awe-inspiring experience, it
took me three months to get up the courage to write about it because I knew I was
impinging on holy ground, even though it was only a replica. I did more research on Grotte Chauvet and the Paleolithic era in general in order to reflect and understand it better. I have found a new interest!
Sources
Claude Pommereau, ed. Grotte Chauvet 2--Ardèche. Beaux Arts and Cie Éditions, Paris.
Grotte Chauvet is located in the Department of Ardèche in
southeastern France, 75
miles and about 2 hours southeast of Le Puy-en-Velay. 
Entrance
to the cave is not open to the public, and it is highly restricted to authorized persons only. Researchers enter the cave only at certain times of the year for only a couple hours at a time because
toxic gases poison the cave's air supply.
