ART 101: ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL ART

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Film Worksheet #1:

Cave of Forgotten Dreams, a film by Werner Herzog (2010)

As part of our study of Art Before History: The Origins of Image Making, you will view this
interesting film by Werner Herzog. Herzog narrates the film, which focuses on a set of paintings found
in 1994 at Chauvet Cave at Vallon-Pont-dArc in Ardche, France. The film allows everyone to visit this
amazing cave, which will never be open to the public. So enjoy this chance to view these paintings, but
also take some notes about what you learn from the film, which features several experts in Paleolithic
art. Especially answer the following questions:
1) How old are the paintings at Chauvet?
2) How long ago was the original entrance to the cave sealed? And how?
3) How do experts know that these are authentic prehistoric paintings?

4) What animals are depicted in these paintings?

5) How did the artists who created these images of animals suggest a sense of life and movement?

6) What is the total length of the cave, from end to end?

7) What feature in the landscape may have attracted Paleolithic people to the site of the Chauvet Cave?
8) Describe the landscape and animal life experienced by the Paleolithic people.

9) Did humans ever live in the Chauvet Cave?

10) Were all the paintings created at the same time?
11) Experts can identify one particular artist who painted on the cave walls. How has he been identified?

12) Among the typical animals that appear in Paleolithic cave paintings, there are several unusual
paintings of animals and other creatures. What are these unusual animals and creatures depicted in
Chauvet Cave?

13) What technique was used to date the charcoal found in the cave?

14) In the farthest part of the cave, there is an unusual painting on a rock pendant hanging from the
ceiling. What is painted on this rock pendant? And why is it significant?

15) In southwestern Germany, there have been several important Paleolithic discoveries at the
Hohle Fels Cave, including the so-called Venus of Hohle Fels. How old is this sculpture?
What is found in place of her head? Which bodily features are emphasized?

16) Besides little sculptures, what other types of objects were found at the Hohle Fels Cave in Germany?

17) In terms of hunting, what tool was used to assist Paleolithic people in using spears?
How does it improve the use of spears?

18) The paintings in Chauvet Cave suggest that Paleolithic people had two concepts that changed their
vision of the world. What were these concepts?
And what did these concepts suggest about the relationship of humans and animals, or the world of the
living and the world of spirits?

19) What is the best evidence for some kind of spiritual or religious belief and ritual activity in the
Chauvet Cave?