Today the cave of Altamira in northernSpain, with its famous ceiling decorated withmagnificent painted figures of bison, horses, deer,and wild cattle, is acknowledged as one of thegreat monuments of prehistoric art.

Today the cave of Altamira in northernSpain, with its famous ceiling decorated withmagnificent painted figures of bison, horses, deer,and wild cattle, is acknowledged as one of thegreat monuments of prehistoric art.

It seems surprising, therefore, that whenthe cave was first discovered in 1879 and pre-sented to the scholarly world, it was greeted withscepticism ranging from mild caution to outrightcontempt. The reasons for this reaction weremany. The discoverer of the cave, Marcelino Sanzde Sautuola, was not an academic prehistorian.Moreover, eve .rything about Altamira seemedexcessive: its great antiquity, its vast size, theastonishing quality of its paintings. Nothing evenremotely like it had been seen before.

Scholars in the late nineteenth centurybelieved that Paleolithic people were capable oflittle more than instinctive action. However, thedrawings, engravings, and especially the paint-ings in the Polychrome Chamber at Altamirawere clearly the work of artists whose mastery oftheir media and artistic sensibilities rivaled thoseof the great European masters. If the art atAltamira was genuine, theories accepted by themost distinguished authorities on prehistoric artwould have to be discarded. Not surprisingly,there was considerable resistance to acceptingthe authenticity of the paintings. The result wasthat one of the greatest works of Paleolithic artwas virtually ignored for more than twenty years.

As time went on, however, opinions beganto change. New discoveries during the 1890s and early in the twentieth century brought to light awealth of Paleolithic artifacts and paintings thatlooked strikingly like the art at Altamira. By 1905the paintings in the cave were finally accepted as what they are: some of the finest and mostimportant surviving works of prehistoric art.

This beautiful book presents a fresh look atthe cave at Altamira in light of the many excit- ing discoveries made in the field of Paleolithic archaeology in recent years. The thoughtful text examines a number of theories about cave art and brings together all that we now know about the people who occupied and created the art at Altamira.

Introduction

THE CAVE AND ITS SURROUNDING

THE CAVE OF ALTAMIRA:ITS ART,ITS ARTISTS,AND ITS TIMES

TECHNIQUES,INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS,AND ARTISTIC CONCEPTS IN THE PAINTING OF ALTAMIRA

PHOTOGRAPHING ALTAMIRA

CONSERVATION PROBLEM IN THE PAINTINGS OF ALTAMIRA

CONCLUSIVE:THE FUTURE

BIBLIOGRAPHY

NOTES

INDEX