Cave Paintings
New theories and opinions suggest that human beings, in their primitive days, were not advanced and creative enough to express their sensibility and expertise towards art. However, researches, explorations, and excavations have proved that human beings were very conversant with art and artistic expertise even during the Upper Paleolithic Period that dates back to 40,000 B.C. Most of the cave paintings found, belong to that period and essentially reveal a lot about the culture, beliefs, and social systems of the Paleolithic Age. It is also believed that cave paintings started even before that, however, reaching their apogee in late Magdalenian period.
One of the most common themes found in these cave paintings have been large wild animals, human hands, and figures, and geometric shapes, and signs. The types of animals engraved on these cave walls mostly include horse, bison, woolly rhinoceros, deer, and aurochs in their various actions and postures. Some of these animals have become extinct now, while some were already extinct at the time when they were discovered. The earliest forms of the most rudimentary cave paintings were drawn with fingers in soft clay on rocky surfaces. It is said that this technique was used following the animals’ use of their claws. Engraving followed soon, made by the use of sharp objects and stones on rocks and flat surfaces. Painting and adding color to those was the final step where natural colors were used to color the engraved paintings. The most commonly used colors for cave paintings are considered to be red, black, iron oxide, hematite, charcoal, and white. Also, yellow and brown are supposed to be the primary colors used by the Magdalenian artists.
According to researches, colors were mixed and made from mineral fragments and shells of barnacles were used to serve the purpose of containers. Animal and vegetable oils were used as binding the colorants while the calcium available in the cave water was used to mix them. It is also said that the cave painters employed brush tools, devices, and blowpipes to enhance the artistic features, and apply colors in different ways according to the type of the paintings.