The piece I chose is called “Rhinoceros panel” and its location is on one of the walls of the Grotte Chauvet cave in southeast France. It has been dated to about 30,000 BCE so it was done in what we consider the Paleolithic Era. It depicts a herd of wooly rhinoceroses facing left against a lone rhinoceros facing right. Wooly rhinoceroses are a now extinct animal but were a common appearance at the time appearing in numerous other prehistoric paintings. It’s an interesting visual with the perspective of the drawing causing the viewer to feel slightly above the scene, perhaps on a cliff. Charcoal and engraving were the primary tools used for this piece. In class we discussed how the only way ancient people could see their paintings was by firelight and I can easily imagine how these rhinoceroses would look illuminated by the flames.
