The Lascaux
My Journey to The Caves
By: Natalie Price
Hall of the Bulls
The Hall of the Bulls, also called the Rotunda, is an
extension of the entrance zone. It is about 20 meters
long, and it varies in width between 5.5 and 7.5
meters. Between the ceiling and the lower part, a
corbelled zone contains nearly all of the iconography,
which extends uninterrupted for some thirty meters
on either side of the hall. The extremely white calcite
walls helps to show off the beautiful wall paintings by
contributing to the saturation of the colors. The
images in the Hall of the Bulls are amongst the most
striking in all of Palaeolithic art: 130 figures, including
36 representations of animals and some 50 geometric
signs. This extensive frieze is composed of three
animal themes – horses (17 individuals), cattle (11
cows and bulls) and deer (6 stags) – which recur
consistently in the various parts of the cave.
Exceptionally, a bear is also depicted.
The Axial Gallery
Figures appear on both sides of this 30metre-long gallery. On the right are
three panels, the Panel of the Chinese
Horses, the Panel of the Falling Cow and
the Red Panel, featuring two horses and
a bison. To the left is the Panel of the
Red Cows, the Panel of the Great Black
Bull, the Panel of the Hemione and, to
the rear, the Upside-Down Horse. The
totality includes 161 graphic entities, of
which 58 are figurative (mostly animals),
and 46 are various geometric signs –
quadrangular, branching, rectilinear,
nested elements, cruciform and groups
of dots. There are also 57 indeterminate
figures that may be signs, but that also
may be sketches for animal figures. We
are now entering a space that has been
called the "Sistine Chapel of Prehistory"
– one of the pinnacles of human
creative intelligence.
The Passageway
The Passageway links the Hall of the Bulls to the Nave and the Apse. It contains a great
concentration of images that are often difficult to decipher. A total of 385 engraved and
painted figures have been counted and identified, including horses, bison, ibexes, bovines,
stags and various signs in the shapes of hooks, crosses and squares.
The Nave
There are four panels on the left wall
of the Nave – those of the Seven
Ibexes, the Imprint, the Great
Black Cow and the Crossed Bison.
The right wall contains only the
Frieze of the Swimming Stags. The
slope of the floor is the cause of
this uneven distribution. The
species depicted include horses,
ibexes, stags, bison and aurochs,
but in quite different proportions.
As in every other part of the cave,
horses are the dominant theme,
with twenty-seven separate
depictions in the Nave. The
aurochs, on the other hand,
appears only once, but dominates
through its sheer size and its
position at the centre of this vast
tableau. There are also nine
ibexes, six five bison, and six stags.
Chamber of the Felines
The Chamber of the Felines extends for
roughly 25 meters, along which
André Glory counted more than 80
figures. Of the 51 animal figures in
this gallery, the horse is the dominant
species, with twenty-nine
representations, followed by nine
bison, four ibexes and three stags.
There are no aurochs. Images of
felines are more present here, with
six depictions, than in the rest of the
cave. The distribution of the figures is
uneven: 90% of them are found in
the first several meters of the
passage, which is the narrowest
segment in the Chamber.
The Apse
On a wall space of some thirty square
meters, and an average ceiling height
of 3.5 meters, the Apse contains over
a thousand figures. They include
nearly 500 animals and 600 geometric
signs or lines. They appear on the
walls and ceiling, and with no
interruption. Their density increases
at the entrance at the far end, and
reaches its peak in the Apsidiole,
which is located at the base of the
Shaft in the farthest part of this
gallery. The very soft limestone
surface provides a partial explanation
for such a graphic outpouring.
Lascaux's fame is essentially based on
the paintings in the Hall of the Bulls,
the Axial Gallery and the Nave. And
yet, if we count the number of figures
in the Apse, the Passageway, the Nave
and the Chamber of the Felines, we
see that the art of Lascaux is
dominated by engravings.
The Shaft
In contrast to the preceding sectors – the Apse, the Passageway and the Hall of the Bulls – the Shaft contains
only a limited number of figures: eight in all. Four are figures of animals (a horse, a bison, a bird and a
rhinoceros) and three others are geometric shapes (dots and hooks). In the centre of the composition,
the eye is drawn to a human figure. One notes on the right-hand wall a horse, and the left-hand wall
contains all the other figures in a space about three meters square. This arrangement, made famous by
its narrative potential, is one of the rare examples in which the subjects and themes refer to a specific
episode, leaving us to imagine the possibility that this is a message to be interpreted. Hence the name
that has been given to this panel: the "Shaft Scene".
Sources
• Lascaux