Post by Sharon Faulkner on Oct 16, 2006 16:05:57 GMT -5
Book review
Gregory Curtis' 'The Cave Painters'
Former Texas Monthly editor explores very old cave drawings
By Roger Gathman
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Curtis has chosen to tell the story of prehistoric cave paintings, the majority of which cluster in Southwestern France and Northeastern Spain. He explains what we know about the paintings while, at the same time, showing how conditional that knowledge is — how interpretations of the paintings have had to be modified or overthrown as we have slowly grasped the absolute otherness of Paleolithic culture.
The most prominent early scholar of the paintings was a priest, Henri Breuil, whose brilliant reproductions of the paintings influenced, among others, Pablo Picasso. Breuil introduced three themes into the field. The first was that the paintings were used by hunters — either as instructions to hunting, or as a form of sympathetic magic to increase the chances of success in the hunt. The second was that we could understand the paintings by using the anthropological knowledge we have of contemporary "stone age" people. The third was that we could date caves by the evolutionary progress in the technique of painting — the most finished paintings being the latest in date.
All three themes are now either dead or seriously modified. It turns out that the animals most frequently depicted in the caves weren't the animals most frequently hunted. And the notion that the anthropology of any current societies would give us the key to the paintings was overturned by anthropologists decades ago, who demonstrated that the cave people lived in a civilization with a long history and its own mythology. Finally, carbon dating proved that technique does not evolve from primitive to advanced as the millennia roll by. Quite the contrary, the paintings in the caves at Chauvet, France, which predate those at Lascaux, France, by millennia, are as technically adroit as those of Lascaux — and, in fact, are eerily similar. Apparently, for almost 10,000 years, generation after generation passed down the same technique.
Austin critic Roger Gathman has written for the New Yorker and Newsday.
www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/books/10/15/15curtis.html
Author Gregory Curtis
What: Reading and signing
When: 3 p.m. Oct. 22
Where: Book People, 603 N. Lamar Blvd.
Information: 472-5050
What: Texas Book Festival appearance
When: 2 p.m. Oct. 28
Where: The Capitol, Extension Room E2.010
Information: www.texasbookfestival.org
Gregory Curtis' 'The Cave Painters'
Former Texas Monthly editor explores very old cave drawings
By Roger Gathman
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Curtis has chosen to tell the story of prehistoric cave paintings, the majority of which cluster in Southwestern France and Northeastern Spain. He explains what we know about the paintings while, at the same time, showing how conditional that knowledge is — how interpretations of the paintings have had to be modified or overthrown as we have slowly grasped the absolute otherness of Paleolithic culture.
The most prominent early scholar of the paintings was a priest, Henri Breuil, whose brilliant reproductions of the paintings influenced, among others, Pablo Picasso. Breuil introduced three themes into the field. The first was that the paintings were used by hunters — either as instructions to hunting, or as a form of sympathetic magic to increase the chances of success in the hunt. The second was that we could understand the paintings by using the anthropological knowledge we have of contemporary "stone age" people. The third was that we could date caves by the evolutionary progress in the technique of painting — the most finished paintings being the latest in date.
All three themes are now either dead or seriously modified. It turns out that the animals most frequently depicted in the caves weren't the animals most frequently hunted. And the notion that the anthropology of any current societies would give us the key to the paintings was overturned by anthropologists decades ago, who demonstrated that the cave people lived in a civilization with a long history and its own mythology. Finally, carbon dating proved that technique does not evolve from primitive to advanced as the millennia roll by. Quite the contrary, the paintings in the caves at Chauvet, France, which predate those at Lascaux, France, by millennia, are as technically adroit as those of Lascaux — and, in fact, are eerily similar. Apparently, for almost 10,000 years, generation after generation passed down the same technique.
Austin critic Roger Gathman has written for the New Yorker and Newsday.
www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/books/10/15/15curtis.html
Author Gregory Curtis
What: Reading and signing
When: 3 p.m. Oct. 22
Where: Book People, 603 N. Lamar Blvd.
Information: 472-5050
What: Texas Book Festival appearance
When: 2 p.m. Oct. 28
Where: The Capitol, Extension Room E2.010
Information: www.texasbookfestival.org