PrimeLuck ArtsPaleolithic cave art
Paleolithic cave art is the earliest well-documented tradition of painting, made by Ice Age people on cave walls and rock. Animals, handprints and signs were drawn with natural pigments such as ochre and charcoal.
- Period
- Prehistoric art
- Approximate dates
- At least 40,000 to about 10,000 years ago
- Place of origin
- Europe, Africa and Asia (several regions independently)
- Key regions
- Western Europe, southern Africa, Indonesia
- Art forms
- Painting, engraving, handprints, small carved figures
- Major artists
- Unknown makers; no named artists
Visual introduction
Lascaux cave paintings
Unknown · About 17,000 years ago · Natural pigments on limestone · Dordogne, France
Large, lively animals painted across a vaulted cave show how developed the tradition already was.
Chauvet Cave paintings
Unknown · More than 30,000 years ago · Charcoal and ochre on limestone · Ardeche, France
Among the oldest known paintings in Europe, with careful shading used to give animals depth.
Apollo 11 Cave painted stones
Unknown · About 27,000 years ago · Pigment on stone slabs · Namibia
Some of the oldest known painted portable art in Africa, showing the tradition was worldwide.
Historical context
These images were made by hunter-gatherer communities during the last Ice Age, long before farming or writing. Nobody can say for certain why they were made. Researchers have suggested links with ritual, storytelling, hunting knowledge and community identity, and no single explanation fits every site.
Cave art is not only European. Painted stones from Apollo 11 Cave in Namibia are about 27,000 years old, and rock art in Indonesia has been dated to tens of thousands of years ago. Dates for cave art are revised as dating methods improve, so they are always approximate.
Visual characteristics
Line: confident outlines, often following the natural curves of the rock. Animals such as bison, horses, lions and deer are drawn in profile, sometimes with a sense of movement.
Colour and materials: reds, yellows, browns and black from ochre, iron-rich earth and charcoal, applied with fingers, pads, brushes of animal hair or by blowing pigment through a tube. Handprints were made by blowing pigment around a hand held on the wall.
Composition and space: images are placed across the cave without a ground line or fixed viewpoint. Many are in deep, dark places that were reached by torchlight.
Related movements
Sources and further reading
Further reading: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Tate, Art Terms. Smarthistory.