Ancient Art

        The Lascaux cave paintings were quite an accomplishment for their painters. They would have only painted those things which were most important to them. Their paintings are almost saying for them: "This is what we do, we hunt. These are the things that are special and important to us that we want to remember and make a tribute to."
        Since it is likely that the Lascaux cave paintings are related to the religious beliefs of the artists, it makes sense that there are not many human figures. Many isolated cultures who have preserved their religions often have some form of animism in their beliefs. If the Lascaux paintings are religious-based, they could be depictions of the animal figures that hold special spiritual status to the painters. Another possible reason for the lack of human depictions is that the painters may have had a taboo on human images.
        These paintings show us that the people who inhabited the caves and painted them were very creative and inventive. They also can show us what their culture valued, or spent a lot of time and energy on. Since so many game animals are depicted with arrows, the paintings show us that the hunt was something that was very important and special to the painters. Painting those scenes was no easy feat, since they had to build scaffolds and advanced lamps to reach the dark ceilings, so they would only paint those things which were truly important to them. If they were able to have the tools and building skills to create these works of art them perhaps they had other uses for those technologies outside of their art.
       Reaching the high ceiling and walls of the cave would have been one of the trickiest problems that the Lascaux painters faced. While tools were obviously well developed, building was not as common, as evidenced by the fact that they lived in caves. They had no need to build structures, so they would have had to come up with the idea of scaffolding all on their own for the purpose of painting. Something like a ladder or scaffolding seems incredibly simple to us now, but if you had never seen either of those, they would be difficult to create. Providing adequate light would also have been difficult. Lamps, torch resin, and hearths were all found in the cave, which kind of seems as if they were trying several different methods to solve the problem.
        Anthropologists have speculated that the Lascaux cave paintings portray the painters' idea of the creation of the world. I think this makes a lot of sense, especially since many ancient cultures' works of art pertain to their religious beliefs/mythology in some way, like temples, frescoes, shrines, and idols. The cave paintings could be a tribute to their deity (or deities) who gave them the animals that they value, such as the horse and stag. Grand artistic displays designed to please the god(s), spirits, or figures that are worshiped are common among most belief systems.Art also could have been a highly stylized means of communication. The Egyptian hieroglyphs are another example of this. Pictures can pass along stories and information, and while the function may be practical, the painters could have wanted to make their work that much more special with a little artistic flair. Art could have also been used for social communication. Body art, special clothing, jewelry, and decorations can communicate social status, skills, and moods.


        I think that art still serves many of the same purposes today that it did for early man, such as social communication, but art for broader communication purposes has dwindled. With the widespread use of written languages using letters and characters, pictures are less and less important for communicating. Art is still a very important aspect to many religions today, and it is certainly important for social communication. Most cultures have some sort of special jewelry or article of clothing that shows their marital status, fashion can be used to portray oneself a certain way, and everything from clothing to home decorations is used for communicating status.


        I love ballet. I tried it when I was a kid and did not have the self control or patience to do it myself, but I still love watching ballet performances. Ballet performances, especially contemporary ballet, attempts to portray emotion and human experiences solely through movement. Ballet is unique to other forms of dance in it's emphasis on control and poses. It requires incredible amounts of control and strength to do the moves fluidly and gracefully. There is definitely a unique language and culture to ballet with the clothgin, shoes, costumes, and names of poses and moves involved in the dance. Many dancers dedicate their lives to the dance. Ballet benefits society through its shpwcasing of what the human body is capable of. It is a tribute to strength and grace. It can be bad when taken too far though and ballerinas are pushed to inhealthy extremes.