Last summer Carol and I visited the Dordone Valley in Southwestern France, where there are numerous caves with prehistoric paintings from over 20,000 years ago. The most famous of these is Lascaux, with its spectacular "Hall of Bulls". These caves represent an amazing record of prehistoric man.
Earlier we had visited the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, Spain. There we saw how Picasso deconstructed and rebuilt the images he saw around him into a fresh vision of the world. His paintings are the work of a genius painter and a transcendental seer. The painters of the caves of Southern France reveal the same genius in both painting and insight into the world around them.
Here is a link to the Lascaux cave:
http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/index.php?fichier=00.xml
Painting Lascaux
Returning from the hunt with the men
the boy idly traces
the back of a horse
on the muddy river bank
when something in the line
the trueness of the image
pleases him
he draws line after line
image after image
and some take on
a life of their own
so that adults walking by say
ah that’s nice
and when he closes his eyes and sees
a horse tumbling through space
or a cow jumping high in the air
hind legs tucked up in delight
he paints and others feel
the tingle of mystery
the elders
watch all this and nod
and one day
take him by the hand
come they say
it’s time for you
to paint the cave
Copyright © 2011 Francis Kearns
"Your young men will see visions."
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like as feasible explanation as any how the drawings came about--an extremely reasonable explanation.
Nice to have met you at tonight's meeting. And honored to become your first follower. Please check the links below to see what we are doing in April.
Lee
An A to Z Co-Host
Tossing It Out
Twitter: @AprilA2Z
#atozchallenge
Blogging from A to Z
Lee,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. Carol and I were overwhelmed by the magic of the caves - I tried to capture some of that feeling.
It was nice to have met you also. I look forward to seeing you again. And thanks for the intro to the "A to Z" challange. I will be checking it out!
Frank
I'm a history buff, and an art lover. This sounds like it's right up my alley! Enjoyed your poem. I'd never thought about WHO painted the caves. I like the idea that they earned that privilege.
ReplyDeleteLee told me about your blog - are you joining the challenge? It would be a great way to get more traffic!
Tina @ Life is Good
Co-Host of the April 2012 Blogging from A to Z Challenge
Twitter:
@AprilA2Z
#atozchallenge
Tina,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind words. When I saw the caves I realized that the paintings were not the scrawling of some pre-historic explorers, but rather the work of the masters of their time,
I am interested in the A-to-Z challenge, and plan to sign up. Sounds exciting!
Frank