Cave paintings of animals – Chauvet Cave,  south-central France

Needless to say, this two-dimensional rendering of animal life was produced by prehistoric human hands, not by animals themselves! Yet, as Berman notes, Paleolithic people were powerfully influenced by animal life. Could we not then speculate that the two-dimensionality of the artwork reflects the two-dimensionality of animal consciousness that dominated the Paleolithic scene?

(back to chapter 5)