AT THE CANADIAN MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION: A LECTURE ON THE FABULOUS DISCOVERY OF A PAINTED PALAEOLITHIC CAVE IN THE ARDÈCHE, FRANCE
Hull, Quebec, March 15, 1996 - A lecture entitled The Chauvet Cave and the Beginnings of Ice Age Art will be given by Jean Clottes, Heritage Curator with the French Ministry of Culture and Francophonie. The presentation will take place in the Theatre of the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC) on Tuesday, March 26 at 7:30 p.m.
The Chauvet Cave was discovered in December 1994 in the gorges of the Ardèche River by Jean-Marie Chauvet, Christian Hillaire and Eliette Brunel-Deschamps. A stunning trove of prehistoric art, the cave is an intact, virgin site that had remained untouched for between twenty and thirty thousand years, offering researchers an extraordinarily rich field of study. So far, more than 260 animal paintings have been recorded; the total will certainly be over 300. The animals depicted in the cave belong to thirteen different species, including animals such as owls, hyenas and panthers which have never - or very rarely - been found in previous ice age paintings. White engravings present stylized silhouettes of birds and of large mammals, including woolly rhinos, lions, horses and mammoths.
The techniques these painters used are astonishingly elaborate, frequently showing a concern for depth and perspective, employing stamping and oral spray-painting techniques, and sometimes scraping the cave walls in preparation for the work. These painters also combined the sculptural and the graphic, often using the natural bulges and bosses of the rock walls to flesh out the animal forms. The themes and techniques discovered here are all the more surprising in that the art of the Chauvet Cave is extremely ancient work: several paintings have been dated as far back as 30,000 or 32,000 years ago, giving pause to many of our current notions about the evolution of cave-painting.
The three speleologists made their amazing discovery during a spelunking expedition, when they unblocked a narrow passageway that turned out to be a chimney opening onto a series of halls and galleries. They were able to make their way into the cave through the ceiling and, as they immediately noticed traces of paint on the walls, they avoided contact with the cave's floor, which bore traces of human and animal prints. Following their discovery, access to the cave was quickly blocked to conserve it for future study. The Chauvet Cave will never be open to the public, for the Culture Ministry's primary concern is to ensure that it remains intact.
For the age and aesthetic quality of the paintings, the number and variety of animals represented and the diversity of techniques employed, the Chauvet Cave has already been hailed as one of the most significant sites of prehistoric art in existence. Its study will lead to a complete re-examination of our current knowledge of the field and, even though this study has only just begun, this new cave has already been classified as one of the most important and most original sanctuaries of Franco-Cantabrian art.
The lecture presentation by Jean Clottes, a renowned researcher in the field of prehistoric art, will be accompanied by visual material depicting the magnificent array of rock paintings found in the Chauvet Cave. This presentation is part of a Canadian tour that includes Montreal, Edmonton, Victoria, Vancouver and Toronto, organized jointly by the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Alliance Française in Canada, with the support of the Cultural Services of the Embassy of France and that of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.
The lecture is presented in partnership with the Geography Department of the University of Ottawa, and will take place in the Theatre of the Canadian Museum of Civilization on Tuesday, March 26 at 7:30 p.m., in French with simultaneous translation into English. Tickets are $7.00 for adults; $5.00 for students, seniors, and members of the CMC and Alliance Française, on presentation of membership cards.
Much of the information in this press release was taken from an article by Annick Miquel that appeared in La Recherche (1995, No. 174).
Information (media):
Media Relations Officer: (819) 776-7169
Senior Media Relations Officer: (819) 776-7167
Fax: (819) 776-7187
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