Art of the Old Stone Age. The Chauvet Cave in southeastern France contain some of the oldest cave paintings. These paintings were discovered in 1994 and date back 30,000 BCE. The Old Stone Age is also known as the Upper Paleolithic Period . The paintings in the Chauvet cave primarily use red ochre and black charcoal with a minimal use of yellow and depict lions, rhinoceros, buffaloes, mammoths, horses. Additional cave paintings have been located in Spain with Lascaux and Altamira being the most famous. The animals depicted in those caves are horses, bison, bears, lions, and mammoths as well as the outline of human hands.
Early analysis of these drawings suggested they were just random scribbles but further study has shown that the paintings were created by skilled artists working within an established tradition. The function of these paintings are unknown, with some of the leading theories suggesting that the art was a part of hunting ceremonies or other rituals.
Other famous artworks include small stone female figures that have exaggerated bellies, breasts, and pubic areas. These details are found in the Venus (or Woman) of Willendorf (28,000-25,000 BCE), which is about 4 and 1/8 inches high. The facial features are missing, the arms are barely visible, and the feet are missing. Scholars believe that the purpose of these figures were fertility figures although it was unknown how they were precisely used.
Chauvet Cave: 