Leonardo

The First Picture Show: Cinematic Aspects of Cave Art

Author(s): Edward Wachtel
Source: Leonardo, Vol. 26, No. 2 (1993), pp. 135-140
Published by: The MIT Press
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GENERAL ARTICLE

The First Picture Show:

Cinematic Aspects of Cave Art

Edward Wachtel

O^IIIver a thousand generations ago, equipped TIME AND MOTION IN ABSTRACT

with brushes, pigments, engraving tools and lamps, our

PAINTING When ourMagdalenian
ancestors
ancestors went deep into the earth to paint. In the past cen-
tury, the results of their work have been uncovered in a num- From Paleolithic times to the pre- paintedandetchedthe wallsof caves in
sent, all painters have been chal- southernFranceandnorthern Spain,
ber of locations in Europe, Africa and Asia. Some of the most theywere,the authorproposes,making
beautiful and best preserved works are located in the caves of lenged by a fundamental problem: imagesthatwereessentiallycinematic.
southern France and northern Spain. how to express the four dimen- Theircreationshavegenerallybeen pre-
Most of us are familiar with these works from pictures and sions of experience on a two- sentedas stillimages-etchings, draw-
dimensional surface. Most of us ings, paintings-predecessorsto
drawings. However, I believe that the photographs and photography. However,the tools and
sketched reproductions of cave paintings have distorted the have considered this problem with
techniquestheyused, including brushes
nature of these works and hidden the experience that was regard to the third dimension- andblowguns,the irregular
cave sur-
intended by the ancient cave painters and shared by their depth. Less often do we attend to faces andlampsfueledbyanimalfat,
culture. It is an experience that I will call-for lack of a more the struggle to represent the conspiredto createworksandviewing
fourth dimension-time. All conditions thatmadeimagesthat
accurate metaphor-"cinematic." appearedto move,changedcolor,
In 1934, Lewis Mumford said that film-with its moving human experience involves a tem- dissolved,cut,appearedanddisappear-
camera, its cuts and superimpositions-displays time and poral dimension. The things we ed. Inshort,theymadecinematic
motion in a unique way. Additionally, he linked film's display experience change and move. images-precursorsto filmand
They have duration. We change television.
of time and space to what he called "the emergent world-view"
of the twentieth century [1]. In this essay, I borrow Mumford's and move: we shift focus, we walk
idea of the cinematic in my approach to cave painting. around objects, we rotate them.
First, I will argue that the etchings and paintings on the We experience the world in time.
walls of Lascaux and Font-de-Gaume, La Mouthe and Les Painters have dealt with time, motion and change in a
Combarelles display a relationship to time and motion that is number of ways. One method is to exclude time completely
more cinematic than pictorial. Second, just as Mumford from the image. The technique is called linear perspective,
claimed that film represents the world view of our culture, I and it has dominated Western painting from the Renaissance
will attempt to read, from the painted caves, certain aspects to modem times [2]. In a perspective painting, the illusion of
of the world view of Paleolithic culture. depth is created by asking the viewer to make certain assump-
tions about the world. We are asked to view the scene with
one eye from a fixed point in space. Of greater importance,
Edward Wachtel (researcher, educator), Fordham University, Department of we are asked to view it from a fixed instant in time. Only
Communications, Bronx, NY 10458, U.S.A.
when we permit no movement in the scene we paint, no
Received 12 December 1990.
movement in the beholder's eye-in short, only when we

Fig. 1. (left) La Mouthe, painted etching of a hut (or an animal trap). By a moving, flickering light source, the colors of the hut change and the
animals around it appear and disappear. The sketch (right) covers a larger area and shows spaghetti engravings over various animals [12].
;?' . .......?.. cC0 .. .. W-;::z~ ~X?-

O 1993 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 135-140 135

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remove time from the composition-
can we create this type of fixed space
and form in painting.
In the latter half of the nineteenth
century, the Impressionists experiment-
ed with the play of light upon the
world, making a shimmering kaleido-
scope out of fixed color and solid sub-
stance. They realized that, even from a
fixed viewpoint, if one allows time to
enter into vision, movement will blur
outlines, light will dance and colors will
change.
More radical steps were taken in the
early years of this century. The cubists
and futurists attempted to give our
experience of time and motion a more
complete expression in painting. One
method of showing time is displayed in
Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a
Staircase No. 2. Duchamp himself has
described his picture as "an organiza-
tion of kinetic elements, an expression
of time and space through the abstract
presentation of motion" [3].
Purer forms of cubism, such as
Picasso's Violin and Grapes,use a some-
what different method. In this paint-
ing, we see different views of the violin:
the sound holes from the front, the
scroll from a side view, and so on. Each
form is represented from the angle
136 Warhtel, The First Picture Show
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Fig. 2. Lascaux,the
Axial Gallery. The
caves are not
architecture. Even
~'~l^~:~ unpainted surfaces
....... seem to change and
move in flickering
lamp light [13].
that best presents it. The time that is
included here is the time it takes to see
a violin from these viewpoints. That is,
we must rotate the violin to see it from
a front view, rotate it again to see a side
view, etc. Our visual experience of a vio-
lin-or of any object-always includes
the time it takes to scan it, to rotate it,
to move around it.
I have discussed a number of ways
that Western artists have dealt with time
and motion in their works. In Paleolithic
times, other methods were used.
A JOURNEY THROUGH THE
CAVES
On the train from Paris to Les Eyzies-
the "Capitolof Pre-history"according to
its chamber of commerce-one ques-
tion occupied my mind: why did prehis-
toric people go deep into the dark,
limestone intestines of the earth to
paint and etch their finest works? The
caves are inhospitable and dangerous,
yet Magdalenian painters sought the
darkest, least accessible places. Why?
The traditional explanation is that the
caves were chosen for magic and ritual
purposes. Access could be easily limited.
Their secret and sacred character could
remain untouched by the uninitiated
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and the profane. While this explanation
is plausible, it seemed inadequate.
This "magic-purpose" hypothesis
could explain why the paintings were
well hidden. However, it does not
explain why the ancient artists felt
obliged to do their work in cramped,
barely accessible places that were lit by
crude, flickering lamps. Cave painters
were quite capable of creating their
works on bark, wood, animal skins or
stone. They could have painted under
natural light-with all its apparent
advantages-and carried their creations
into the grottos. But they did not. I felt
that these painters had chosen to work
in the caves for a purpose and that their
purpose had to do with the nature of the
light source and the visual environment
of the caves. They must have worked for
some specific effect-an effect that I
hoped would still be accessible to mod-
em eyes.
The works of Sigfried Giedion had giv-
en me a clue. Giedion had suggested
that prehistoric humans had a unique
vision of time and space. He spoke of
these early humans as having a more flu-
id eye than modern people have-an eye
that had no need for a vertical and hori-
zontal orientation; an eye free enough to
find no conflict in images superimposed
one upon the other; an eye that could
find a horse's leg in a stalactite or a
bison's hump in a rock protrusion [4].
When I arrived in Les Eyzies, I hoped
that my vision would be adequate to
experience the conspiracy of the unpre-
dictable architecture of the caves, the
painted surfaces and the trembling fire-
light. However, my first experience was
one of disappointment.
The first cave I explored was Les
Combarelles. The works in this cave con-
sist mainly of engravings rather than
paintings. They begin about 300 yards
from the entrance. At first, I was con-
fused by what I saw. Under the electric
lights installed in the cave, I had difficul-
ty separating individual creatures from
the webs of engraved lines (aptly
referred to as "spaghetti" engravings)
that were superimposed over them. Only
when our guide traced the outlines and
pointed out la tete, la bouche,l'oeil, le vis-
age, etc., could I begin to make sense of
the etchings.
As we continued through the cave, my
ability to differentiate improved.
Nevertheless, I could not understand
why the prehistoric artists chose to bury
their works in a tangle of lines and other
images. It was clear that they took care
not to obliterate prior work. Yet, they
could have used blank space elsewhere second, then faded as another enter her room at night without turn-
in the cave (there was no shortage of appeared. The spaghetti lines were no ing on the light. There on the ceiling
unused wall space) to set off one crea- longer a confused two-dimensional pat- were dancing light patterns caused by a
ture from another, making each image tern. Rather, they became a forest or a streetlight shining through tree branch-
more easily seen. I was to discover the bramble patch that concealed and then es and diffracted by her window.
magic and purpose of superimposition revealed the animals within. Pulling the window shade put an end to
only when I visited the next cave on my By firelight, a secret of the cave the "bees."
itinerary. painters was exposed. In the space of a When surfaces are irregular and
La Mouthe was next. Because it is few moments, I saw cuts and dissolves, unpredictable, and when the cave
smaller than the major caves, its images change and movement. Forms appeared painter has intentionally used these sur-
fewer and less well preserved, La and disappeared. Colors shifted and faces as part of the work, even the
Mouthe has not received the same care changed. In short, I was watching a trained and restricted eyes of modern
and maintenance from the French movie. humans can be fooled and delighted
authorities. The road to La Mouthe is The components of these effects are under the proper conditions.
poorly marked. The guide was not a uni- the irregular surfaces of the cave, a light A contemporary painter, Richard
formed civil servant, but a farmer-M. source that moves and flickers, and a Hambleton, has utilized many of the
Lapeyre-on whose land La Mouthe is moving eye. The images were painted same elements to create works that
located. and etched under these circumstances have much in common with cave paint-
When I knocked at the door of his so that they are visible from some view- ings. In the early 1980s, Hambleton
farmhouse, I was informed that M. points and not from others. combined the shadowy, irregular light
Lapeyre was eating lunch. In a little As Giedion has emphasized, the caves of the urban night, the dark corners
while, he emerged from his house, carry- are not architecture (Fig. 2) [6]. The and doorways of New York City streets,
ing a gas-fired lantern. As he led me walls may curve gently or abruptly in and a can of black spray paint to create
down the dirt path to the cave entrance, every possible direction. High vaults images that surprised and frightened.
I realized that La Mouthe, unlike most alternate with low, barely accessible pas- Hambleton called the pieces Nightlife
of the caves, has no electricity, no fixed sages. The spaces are never regular or (Fig. 4). To a pedestrian on a dark
lights. He would show me the images by predictable. Under a moving, flickering street, the figures seemed to appear
the moving light of a lantern. When M. lamp, even the bare, irregular surfaces suddenly. Out of the corner of a mov-
Lapeyre unlocked the door and lit his seem to come and go, to change and ing eye, they seemed to jump or hide in
lamp, we began to see the etchings and move (Fig. 3). doorways. At night the effect was
paintings that, in 1902, confirmed the delightfully scary. In the constant light
authenticity of cave art. More than 80 of day (and in photographic reproduc-
years later, I began to understand the MODERN PARAIT.FL.S tion), the figures were merely rough sil-
purpose of the cave painters and the We can sometimes see this effect in car- houettes [7].
magic of their art. pentered spaces, by the light of a fire- Cave artists may have used a tech-
place or a candle. Yet, the regular and nique that could be considered a pre-
predictable surfaces of our rooms per- cursor to spray painting. It has been
UNDERGROUND CINEMA mit mature eyes to see the wall as stable suggested that they used a hollow tube
The most striking image is located deep and the light as moving. For children or bone to blow pigments onto the cave
in the cave. It is a roughly rectangular this is not always the case. For example, walls [8]. The softer, "de-focused"lines
shape about 3 ft high. It is etched and when my daughter was two or three, she created by this technique assist the illu-
painted in red, brown and black and is began to have trouble sleeping. I would sion of movement on the cave walls as
superimposed over spaghetti engravings tuck her in, turn off the overhead light, well as on the urban walls spray-painted
(Fig. 1). The Abbe Breuil thought that and in a few moments she would begin by Hambleton. (There is a further par-
this tectiform represented a hut. Other to cry that there were "bees" in her allel with the illusion of motion in the
writers have considered it to be an ani- room. I would go in, turn on the light cinema. The individual frames of a film
mal trap [5]. I am less concerned with and try to soothe what I assumed was a are blurred by movement. When they
what this image represents than with its child with an active imagination. After are projected, the blurred outlines are
behavior under the light. about a week of this, I happened to transformed into smooth motion.)
M. Lapeyre finished his story and
wanted to move on. I encouraged him to
remain and to slowly swing his lantern
back and forth a few feet from the cave
wall. As he moved the light, I saw the col- Fig. 3. Reproduction
ors of the tectiform begin to shift. When of a lamp used at
the lamp arced to the left, the blacks fad- Lascaux. (Le Musee
National de la
ed, the browns became red and the red Prehistoire des
intensified. When the light moved to the Eyzies.) The
right, the pattern reversed, creating a "projection bulb" of
shifting color scheme. prehistory. The con-
Moreover, the engraved lines under cave end was filled
with animal fat.
and around the tectiform became ani- Either moss or fur
mated. Suddenly, the head of one crea- was used as a wick.
ture stood out clearly. It lived for a

The First Picture Show

Warlhtel, 137

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 UNDERSTANDINGCAVEART:
SOME SPECULATIONS
Fig. 4. Richard
Hambleton, detail of Viewing cave painting as cinema offers
Nightlifeon Houston new answers to some of the problems
Street, New York that confront archaeologists, art histori-
City, c. 1982. ans and other students of Paleolithic
Hambleton spray-
culture.
painted figures such
as this one on walls First, there is the problem of super-
and buildings imposition. It has long been recognized
throughout lower that the superimposition of pictures was
Manhattan in the
done with a certain care-rarely is an
early 1980s. He
placed the figures so image destroyed by what was painted
that urban night over it. Yet, the visual confusion that
light (e.g. moving results from overpainting is not well
car headlights,
explained. Why did cave painters regu-
streetlights behind
waving tree larly overpaint existing images, rather
branches) played than use blank wall space? It has been
upon them. To a suggested that certain places in the
passing pedestrian, caves had magical properties and, con-
they seemed to
sequently, generations of painters tried
jump, move and, in
one case, climb the to use these sacred spaces.
building on which it It is more likely that the superimposi-
was painted. tions themselves help to create the magic.
To a moving eye under the appropriate
conditions there is little superimposition.
Rather, we see the cinematic magic of
cuts and dissolves as one animal and then
another appears. To the best of my knowl-
edge, this effect is formally recognized in
only one place.
In the main hall of Font-de-Gaume,
near the lateral gallery, is a space that
can be lit by three lights. The guide
turned on the first, and voila, we saw a
hind painted in black and red. When the
second light was turned on, the hind dis-
appeared and was replaced by a black
bison. When the lights were changed a
third time, the bison was magically trans-
Fig. 5. Peche Merle, formed into a mammoth [9].
clay drawing of a In addition to superimposing distinct
stag "hidden" under
lines, with sketch animals, cave painters regularly engraved
[ 14]. (Illustration by curled and straight lines over their crea-
Nancy Ventura) tures (Fig. 5). When we view these
images pictorially, it is hard to under-
stand the reason. Often, the outline of
the image is virtually obliterated by the
confused engravings. However, under a
moving, flickering lamp we can see the
confused tangle of lines obscure, and
then reveal, the creature.
In a number of caves, there are crea-
tures engraved or painted with "extra"
body parts. For example, in Pair-non-
pair there is an animal-probably an
ibex-with two heads (Fig. 6). In Les
Combarelles there is a mammoth with
two or perhaps three trunks (Fig. 7).
Under appropriate conditions, we will
not see multiple still images, but
instead, a moving and changing image.
The ibex will lift and drop its head; the
mammoth will swing its trunk.

138 Warhtel,The First Picture Show

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Fig. 6. Pair-non-Pair, an ibex with two heads, with sketch. In flickering lamp light, the ibex will appear to shift from a grazing position (head
down) to a vigilant stance (head up) [15]. (Illustration by Nancy Ventura)

These effects may help to explain
how the caves were used by our
Paleolithic ancestors. We should keep
in mind that the cave painters were,
first of all, hunters. In the wild, even
the largest animals are difficult to see.
Hidden only by a few twigs or a small
bush, animals are often invisible until
the flick of a tail or a small movement
betrays their presence. The hunter's
experience of discovering his prey is
usually one of sudden surprise, as this
tangled visual world abruptly reveals
the outline of his quarry. In a sense, the
superimposed spaghetti engravings
help to create a visual effect that is simi-
lar to the hunter's experience. For
example, compare Fig. 5 with Fig. 8.
I suggest, based on these observa-
tions, that the caves may have been
used for ritual hunts. Perhaps, as part
of initiation rites, the young hunters
were led through the caves by a leader
who carried the lamp [10]. In tribal
societies, hunting tactics differ with the
type of prey. The initiates may have
been required to act out or speak out
the appropriate actions as soon as they
recognized an animal. Their ability to
recognize and respond quickly to game
in the wild could be "tested" and
rewarded [11]. This activity could have
reinforced the values of teamwork,
quick response, etc.
TIME IN CAVE PAINTING
I would like to offer one additional
speculation that concerns the mind of
the Paleolithic human. It is a standard
archaeological practice to read from
the contents of painted images the con-
tents of the human mind. Simply put,
we may assume, from the predomi-
nance of painted animals in the caves,
that prehistoric people were concerned
with these creatures as sources of food,
clothing and, sometimes, danger.

Fig. 7. Les Combarelles, a mammoth with two or three trunks, with sketch. Under the correct viewing conditions, the mammoth will swing its
trunk [16]. (Illustration by Nancy Ventura)

K
\\( '\/'X
-" '.-

Wachtel,The First Picture Show 139

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However, I believe more can be read
from the structure of the paintings
than from their contents.
Earlier in this article, I described
how time and motion can be represent-
ed in the structure of a painting. In
cave painting, time is not so much repre-
sented as it is included in the viewing
experience. The time it takes to move
and see the images from different per-
spectives and the time it takes for a
lamp to move and flicker are required
parts of the experience. This integra-
tion of time into the viewing experi-
ence is more radical than in any other
form of painting. It approximates the
cinematic experience.
If we keep in mind that time is not
some external "thing," but, rather, a
mental construct for understanding the
world, then the form given to time in a
painting may represent, in a sense, the
mental "picture" of time that is com-
mon to a culture.
For example, in perspective painting,
time and space are completely separat-
ed. Space is pictured as a three-dimen-
sional box and time becomes a single,
continuous line that can be sliced into
instants. This is the conception of space
and time that has been common to the
West since the Renaissance. It is the view
of space and time that was codified by
Isaac Newton in the seventeenth centu-
ry. It represents the structure of the
Western worldview that makes notions
of causality and linear history sensible.
140 Wachtel,The First Picture Show
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Fig. 8. Photograph
of a deer hidden in
tall grass. Compare
with Fig. 5. A move-
ment of its ear or
tail would betray the
deer's presence to a
hunter.
of time and space exists. They appear
of the Paleolithic worldview would not
easily support ideas of cause and effect
or notions of past, present and future
as we think of them. Perhaps their ideas
of existence were arranged in more
mythic terms, with causes and effects
more unified; with their past, present
and future more compressed into a
never-ceasing now.
Perhaps I should leave further specu-
lation for another time rather than test
the limits of the reader's patience. I
have suggested an approach to cave
painting that offers a useful perspective
on the problems that confront students
of Paleolithic art and culture. I have
tried to show
that Paleolithic artists had
the tools of a painter but the eyes and
mind of a cinematographer. Deep in
the earth they made images that
appeared to move, images that cut or
dissolved into each other, images that
could fade into and out of existence. In
short, they made underground cinema.
References and Notes
1. Lewis Mumford, Technicsand Civilization (New
York:Harcourt, Brace and World, 1934) p. 342.
2. For related discussions of vision, space concep-
tion and perspective, see Edward Wachtel, "The
Influence ofthe Window on Western Art and
Vision," The Structurist,No. 17/18, pp. 4-10 (1978)
and Edward Wachtel, "Technological Cubism: The
Presentation of Space and Time in Multi Image,"
Et Cetera35, No. 4, 376-382 (1978).
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3. Trewin Copplestone, Modern Art Movements
(Loindon: Spring Books, 1962) p. 33.
4. Sigfried Giedion, "Space Coinceptioin in
Prehistoric Art," in E. Carpenter and M. McLuhan,
eds., Explorationsin Communication(Boston: Beacon
Press, 1960). See also Giedion's The EternalPresent:
The Beginnings of Art (New York: Paintheon Books,
1962).
5. Henri Breuil, Four Hundred Centuriesof Cave Art,
M. Boyle, tranls. (Montignac, France: Center
d'Etudes et de Documentation Prehistoriques,
1952).
6. Giedioin [4].
7. See Joseph Dolce, "Shadows: The Enigmatic
Wall Paiintings of Richard Hambleton," Daily Nezws,
section M. p. 1 (4 January 1983) for a more com-
plete description of Hambleton's work. Other
artists, both ancient and contemporary, have
experimented with cinematic effects. For example,
Yaacov Agam, a pioneer of the kinetic movement,
often paints on corrugated surfaces to create works
that present unique images as the viewer changes
viewpoint. I recently came upon another, older
example at Chichen Itza, a Mayan archaeological
site in Mexico. The central temple, or castillo, is
designed so that, at sunset on equinoctial days, the
play of light and shadow creates the appearance of
a serpent's body wriggling down the northern stair-
way until its body meets the reptilian head carved
at the base of the stairs.
8. Research reported by Andre Leroi-Gourhaincast
some doubt on the "blow-gun" hypothesis.
However, Michel Lorblanchet has recreated the
spotted-horse panel at Peche Merle by blowing
charcoal and red ochre through a leather screen.
See Andre Leroi-Gourhan, The Dawn of European
Art (Cambridge, Englaind: Cambridge Univ. Press,
1982) p. 12; and Mario Ruspoli, The Cave of
Lascaux: The Final Photographs (New York: Harry
Abrams, 1987) p. 170. For a report of Lorblan-
chet's work, see his "Spitting Images: Replicating
the Spotted Horses at Peche Merle," Archaeology
(Nov./Dec. 1991) pp. 24-31. Whatever method the
cave painters used, the illusion of motion is assisted
by the soft lines.
9. For the ideintityof the third creature, I have had
to rely on my memory rather thain my notes. The
third image may be iiicorrectly idenitified here.
10. Leroi-Gourhan claims that "practically all
kniowinfootprints were made by young people." His
findings support the thesis that the caves were used
for initiation rites. See Ruspoli [8] p. 83.
11. Experienced hunters/shamans may also have
dressed in ainimal skins as part of the fuin, turning
the initiation ceremony into a "mixed-media"
event. In fact, a number of caves display images of
half-man/half-animal creatures (such as "the sor-
cerer" in Les Trois Freres), which may represent
this functioin.
12. Repriinted from Henri Breuil, Four Hundred
Years of Cave Art (Montignac, France: Centre
D'Etudes et de Documentation Prehistoriques,
1952). Every effort has been made to trace the
copyright holders.
13. Repriinted from Fernand Windels, The Lascaux
Cave Paintings (London: Faber and Faber, 1949).
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright
holders.
14. Reprinted from S. Giedion, The EternalPresent:
The Beginnings of Art (New York: Pantheon Books,
1962).
15. Giedion [14].
16. Giedion [14].