Hall of the Bulls

There is no meaning or purpose of the prehistoric painting “Hall of the Bulls” (left wall),Lascaux, France ca. 15,000-13,000 BCE. Largest Bull 11”6” long. They are unknown but it is clear that painters were concerned mostly with representing the animals, and not with locating them in a specific place or on a common ground line. On the walls of Lascaux cave,this painting shows the two basic approaches to drawing and painting. The difference in the styles suggest that different artists painted the animals at different times. While most of the drawing is on a common ground line (the horizontal base of the composition) Some seem to float above the viewers head, like clouds in the sky. The painting has no setting,background, and no indication of place. The Second painting “Rhinoceros, wounded man, and disemboweled bison, painting the the well, Lascaux France, Ca. 15,000-13,000 BCE. Bison 3' 8” long. Same as the first, suggest that they're were again two painters. At the left is a rhinoceros, rendered with all skilled attention to animal detail . Beneath it's tail are two rows of three dots of uncertain significance. To the right is a bison, more schematically painted probably by someone else, which nonetheless successfully suggested the animals bristling rage. Between the two beasts is a bird-faced man with outstretched arms and hands with only four fingers. The man in the painting is depicted with far less care and detail than either animal. The painter also made the gender of the “man” clear with the explicit rendering of his genitals. The man leaning in this painting is ambiguous. Is he leaning back and unharmed, is he wounded or dead? Do the staff and spear belong to him? There are also many questions with this painting pertaining to the placement of several objects such as the man, rhino, bison, and weather or not it was indeed the man who injured the animals. Researchers can be sure of nothing, but if the figures were placed beside each other to tell a story, then this is further evidence of the narrative compositions involving humans and animals at a much earlier date then imagined by most.