The Lascaux

My Journey to The CavesBy: Natalie Price

Hall of the BullsThe Hall of the Bulls, also called the Rotunda, is an extension of the entrance zone. It is about 20 meters

long, and it varies in width between 5.5 and 7.5 meters. Between the ceiling and the lower part, a

corbelled zone contains nearly all of the iconography, which extends uninterrupted for some thirty meters

on either side of the hall. The extremely white calcite walls helps to show off the beautiful wall paintings by

contributing to the saturation of the colors. The images in the Hall of the Bulls are amongst the most

striking in all of Palaeolithic art: 130 figures, including 36 representations of animals and some 50 geometric

signs. This extensive frieze is composed of three animal themes – horses (17 individuals), cattle (11 cows and bulls) and deer (6 stags) – which recur

consistently in the various parts of the cave. Exceptionally, a bear is also depicted.

The Axial GalleryFigures appear on both sides of this 30-metre-

long gallery. On the right are three panels, the Panel of the Chinese Horses, the Panel of the Falling Cow and the Red Panel, featuring two horses and a bison. To the left is the Panel of the Red Cows,

the Panel of the Great Black Bull, the Panel of the Hemione and, to the rear, the Upside-Down Horse. The totality

includes 161 graphic entities, of which 58 are figurative (mostly animals), and 46 are

various geometric signs – quadrangular, branching, rectilinear, nested elements, cruciform and groups of dots. There are

also 57 indeterminate figures that may be signs, but that also may be sketches for animal figures. We are now entering a space that has been called the "Sistine

Chapel of Prehistory" – one of the pinnacles of human creative intelligence.

The PassagewayThe Passageway links the Hall of the Bulls to the Nave and the Apse. It contains a great

concentration of images that are often difficult to decipher. A total of 385 engraved and painted figures have been counted and identified, including horses, bison, ibexes, bovines,

stags and various signs in the shapes of hooks, crosses and squares.

The NaveThere are four panels on the left wall of

the Nave – those of the Seven Ibexes, the Imprint, the Great Black

Cow and the Crossed Bison. The right wall contains only the Frieze of the Swimming Stags. The slope

of the floor is the cause of this uneven distribution. The species depicted include horses, ibexes, stags, bison and aurochs, but in

quite different proportions. As in every other part of the cave, horses

are the dominant theme, with twenty-seven separate depictions in the Nave. The aurochs, on the

other hand, appears only once, but dominates through its sheer size

and its position at the centre of this vast tableau. There are also nine

ibexes, six five bison, and six stags.

Chamber of the FelinesThe Chamber of the Felines extends for

roughly 25 meters, along which André Glory counted more than 80 figures. Of the 51 animal figures in

this gallery, the horse is the dominant species, with twenty-nine

representations, followed by nine bison, four ibexes and three stags. There are no aurochs. Images of

felines are more present here, with six depictions, than in the rest of the cave. The distribution of the figures is

uneven: 90% of them are found in the first several meters of the

passage, which is the narrowest segment in the Chamber.

The ApseOn a wall space of some thirty square

meters, and an average ceiling height of 3.5 meters, the Apse contains over

a thousand figures. They include nearly 500 animals and 600 geometric

signs or lines. They appear on the walls and ceiling, and with no

interruption. Their density increases at the entrance at the far end, and reaches its peak in the Apsidiole,

which is located at the base of the Shaft in the farthest part of this gallery. The very soft limestone

surface provides a partial explanation for such a graphic outpouring.

Lascaux's fame is essentially based on the paintings in the Hall of the Bulls, the Axial Gallery and the Nave. And

yet, if we count the number of figures in the Apse, the Passageway, the Nave

and the Chamber of the Felines, we see that the art of Lascaux is

dominated by engravings.

The ShaftIn contrast to the preceding sectors – the Apse, the Passageway and the Hall of the Bulls – the Shaft contains

only a limited number of figures: eight in all. Four are figures of animals (a horse, a bison, a bird and a rhinoceros) and three others are geometric shapes (dots and hooks). In the centre of the composition, the eye is drawn to a human figure. One notes on the right-hand wall a horse, and the left-hand wall

contains all the other figures in a space about three meters square. This arrangement, made famous by its narrative potential, is one of the rare examples in which the subjects and themes refer to a specific episode, leaving us to imagine the possibility that this is a message to be interpreted. Hence the name

that has been given to this panel: the "Shaft Scene".

Sources

• Lascaux