Lascaux horse

    Caption: Painting of a horse in Lascaux caves from circa 15,000 BCE (Wikipedia: Lascaux).

    Is Paleolithic art less progressed than Picasso?

      In twenty thousand years, we have learnt nothing.

        ---Picasso (1881--1973) after viewing the Lascaux cave cave paintings. Actually, this quote/misquote appears in various ways I think---quite possibly because Picasso wasn't speaking English. See The Independent World, Six Months to Save Lascaux, 2008jul11: you have to scroll down ∼ 70 %.

      Note Picasso was really giving an aphorism and one should never take aphorisms for solid conclusions. They are suggestive and allusive---like works of art.

      In fact, every aphorism is both true and false including this one.

    Now most people would probably say a comparison of Paleolithic art and Picasso based on "progressiveness" is NOT relevant or enlightening.

    Without being dogmatic, one could suggest that art evolves by an expansion into different realms of experience and creation---it has a myriad of goals.

    Yours truly doesn't actually want to draw a hard line between science and art---but there is at least a fuzzy line.

    Cave painting videos (i.e. Cave painting videos):
    1. Lascaux 1:25: In and around without dialogue. Not too relevant to the class, but short enough for classroom.
    2. Lascaux, Chapelle Sixtine de la Prehistoire | 6:41: The setting and inside. Too long for the classroom.
    3. Cave of Forgotten Dreams Official Trailer #1-(2010) HD | 2:36: There as an earlier better trailer that CANNOT be found it seems. Too long for the classroom. See also the Cave of Forgotten Dreams: Roger Ebert review and white crocodile | 1:52.

    Credit/Permission: Paleolithic artist, circa 15,300 BCE / Public domain.
    Image link: Wikipedia: File:Lascaux2.jpg.
    Local file: local link: lascaux_horse.html.
    File: Art file: lascaux_horse.html.