DAWN OF ART: The Chauvet Cave: The Oldest Known Paintings in the World

by Jean-Marie; Eliette Brunel Deschnmps & Christian Hillaire Chauvet ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1996

Before there were artists at the famous caves of Lascaux, there were artists at Chauvet and Cosquer--two caves whose paleolithic drawings remained undiscovered until the 1990s. Chauvet, in southeast France, is the most ancient; some of its vivid panels of horses, lions, and rhinoceri (beautifully reproduced here) are as much as 31,000 years old. Cosquer, buried for 20 centuries beneath the Mediterranean, was serendipitously discovered by a diver for whom the cave is named. Some of the Cosquer drawings date back 27,000 years. In Dawn of Art: The Chauvet Cave, a series of experts in prehistory discuss the nature of the cave and the remarkable paintings found on its wails. In The Cave Beneath the Sea: Paleolithic Images at Cosquer (Trans. by Marilyn Garner; Abrams; $60.00; May; 200 pp.; ISBN 0-8109-4033-7), Jean Clottes and Jean Courtin, the two archaeologists who explored the cave, review their journey into the treacherous space and the wonders they found--drawings that echo the humanity of the prehistoric artist across otherwise silent millennia.

Pub Date: May 1, 1996

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Abrams

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1996

Categories: NONFICTION