Cave Paintings Essay

1955 Words8 Pages
In 1994 a trio of speleologists led by Jean-Marie Chauvet discovered what are now widely believed to be the oldest cave paintings in human history, thought to be over 32,000 years old. These intricate designs of animal figures may be the first example of the use of painting to depict the stories and subjects most important to human existence. Tens of thousands of years later, painting still serves largely the same function. However, in both The Miracle of St. Dominic, by the renaissance artist Taddeo di Bartolo, and Christ and Disciple, by the French painter Georges Rouault, the subject matter is not a source of food but rather a source of spiritual fulfillment; the Christian religion. Though they may differ vastly in color, composition, and purpose, they both illustrate the ways in which their respective cultures understand their relationship to the world through their relationship to God. The earlier piece of artwork, Taddeo di Bartolo’s Miracle of St. Dominic, was created around 1403, and portrays the occurrence of a divine miracle in which a man is brought back from the dead by St. Dominic. The painting itself is a small, square composition with matte, gold background which acts as the sky. This, along with a multitude of other features, cause many art historians to believe that this image was once part of an altar piece. Due to the function and time period attributed to the painting, it becomes obvious that it was created to tell a story. The entirety of the narrative is contained within this single frame, much like the panels on Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Doors of Paradise, hung on the Florence Baptistery in 1424. The painting uses primarily muted colors, such as the light brown of the two mountains, the grey and white of the large horse, and the light peaches and neutral blacks that don the human figures in the story, except for the man dressed head to toe in
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