1. Cave Paintings
One of the earliest known arts is often called “ Cave Art” . This art has been found in many
different locations such as: Europe, Australia, Africa, China, as well as many other places.
This kind of art usually depicted animals, but also included humans, weapons, and symbols.
Many of these paintings were found very deep inside of the caves where the artists would
have needed a lamp of some sort to complete their work. This led scholars to believe that
the paintings, done inside the caves, may have had a social or religious purpose to these
early people. In the early paintings they seemed to be in only black. As they progressed in
their paintings they learned how to make many of the different types of colors. Most often
they used reds, blacks, yellows, maroon, and violet. By using these colors they made the
paintings seem more real, and they may have believed by making them look more realistic it
would bring them better luck, health, and maybe happiness. To make the paints they
typically used mineral pigments such as; ochre, manganese, oxides, or charcoal, and ground
them into animal fat. They also had paint brushes. They would use coarse animal hair and
tie them to a stick of some sort and paint with them. Many believe that the hunters or
gatherers did a majority of the paintings in the cave. It was thought that the drawings would
bring you a better chance of achieving what you were after. So the hunters would often
draw things like, bison, cattle and hinds, thinking it were better luck for the hunt ahead. The
painting of these animals were said to have had a ritual significance related to hunting, even
though human figures were often rare. They would draw these animals quite elaborately
while when they did draw humans they would often be less elaborate. They had very
realistic details in all of their drawings. One of the more famous caves is Lascaux in France.
The cave was discovered in September of 1940 by Fernand Windels. …
