Because of our reliance on prehistoric art’s miraculous survival over thousands of years, only a limited amount of information has been gleaned about prehistoric and palaeolithic art. It is imperative that any new artefacts be thoroughly examined because there are so few actual pieces of art that have survived.

Cave paintings discovered in 1879 in Altamira, Spain, were the first examples of prehistoric cave paintings to be documented. The discovery of the paintings was dismissed by archaeologists due to their rarity and the presumption that it was a hoax by a friend of the cave owner’s who was an artist. Few people thought that prehistoric animal paintings could have been as detailed as the ones in this cave.

The paintings in this cave were not classified as Paleolithic until the early twentieth century. This was followed by the Franco-Cantabrian Triangle (a region extending from northern Spain to the south-west of France), where a significant discovery was made of many caves with paintings in them dated to the time period between 16,000 and 14,000 BC, which demonstrated the evolution from simple forms to complex ones, with shading and painting, to a finished image that could be recognised as the subject. When a body was found in an Ardeche gorge (located in south-east France near the Chauvet cave) in 1994, everything changed . Scientists used radiocarbon dating to determine that the paintings in this cave date back 10,000 years further than any other previously discovered paintings in the world, (even older than the ones discovered in Altamira). It is also possible that these paintings are older than the “Woman of Willendorf,” which is about 25,000 years old.

More than a hundred paintings were found in the Cussac cave near the town of Dordonge in 2000; most were large-scale animal depictions. The discovery of human skeletons beneath the floor of this cave, which was previously thought to be a burial ground, was even more astounding (though this has not been proven to be a burial ground). Discovered paintings in the Chauvet cave shed light on the methods used to depict more than 200 different animals in paint. There were a few examples of engraved art, but the vast majority of the discoveries were painted. Some paintings are over 6 feet long and covers the caves area of more than 500 m (560 yards) underground. With spots on its neck and head, the depiction of a hyena near the cave’s entrance almost looks as if it is sniffing at the sight of an intruder. We can only speculate as to how the people who lived in these caves acquired the ability to paint such magnificent works of art with such fine details and shading. When horses’ heads have been shaded so precisely that they can be considered a rendering, this form can be seen, suggesting a high level of perspective skill. In paintings of rhinoceros herds, this can also be seen.

Caves may contain detailed depictions of humans that have yet to be discovered. So far, we’ve found charcoal drawings on stone slabs in a 25,000-year-old Namibian cave that show animals depicted in a similar fashion, but we can’t say for sure where they came from. What’s amazing is that this art style has been practiced for at least 20,000 years in Western Europe, from southern France to England (which had not yet been separated by the rise of the North Sea). The Chauvet cavern and the Franco-Cantabrian triangle share many similarities. Nearly half a mile of art can be found buried deep within the tunnel, far from any open spaces that would have provided natural light and other human-habitable areas. The most ornately painted chamber in Niaux is located 870 torturously winding yards from the entrance. Crawling through a long, low, and narrow passageway is the only way to access the main chambers of Bedeilhac. There were only a few images of horses and lions in the Chauvet cave made with red ochre and charcoal, while the majority of images were made with charcoal in the inner chambers. Some artists would paint their designs after carving into the rock. Haematite reds and yellow, manganese black, dark brown and violet, and ochre or haematite for the red colours were used in the etchings at Lascaux. To apply, they were ground into a fine powder and sprayed directly onto the wet limestone. It was used to fill in charcoal or paint outlines by spraying them with powdered pigment, which was then painted with fur pads, primitive feathers, or chewed sticks. Numerous caves have yielded colourful tubes of this type. In some cases, painters drew inspiration from cave chambers’ natural formations, but this was not always the case. An area of 30 feet (10 metres) wide was used to paint a vast concourse of mixed animals, the majority of which faced an entrance to a different chamber in the Chauvet cave.

In the Lascaux Great Hall, for example, giant bulls measuring 16 feet (5 metres) each were painted. Large rooms with few paintings can be found in other locations. A bear’s paw was painted on a protuberance in the Chauvet cave to create the illusion of a three-dimensional bear’s front paw. Inconsistencies in the surface were sanded down, but in many cases, they were ignored. Could cave painting have been inspired by seeing animal etchings on rock surfaces, much as we see random stains on damp walls today?