Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T17:18:43.624Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reflections on the Art of the Cave of Altamira

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

F. H. Bernaldo de Quirós
F. H. Bernaldo de Quirós
Affiliation:
Museo y Centro de Investigacion de Altamira, Santillana del Mar, Cantabria, Spain
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Discovery of the cave of Altamira in 1879 introduced a new aspect to ideas on human evolution, requiring a fresh approach to previous notions of life and customs among prehistoric groups. In the final years of the 19th century the prevailing view of prehistoric life was still coloured by the prejudice and concepts which had marked early discussion on the origin of man. From what was known of their tools and art forms, early men were presented as living in simple communities which were considered equivalent to the ‘primitive peoples’ being described, often with a Euro-centric superiority, by contemporary ethnographers. The already classical volumes of the period, such as the Reliquiae Aquitanicae recording Lartet and Christy's discoveries, were full of interesting parallels to Eskimos and Bushmen. Up to this time, known Palaeolithic art was confined to engraved bone, some of it of high technical competence as at Chaffaud and La Madeleine. Consequently when the discovery of Altamira was presented at the Lisbon Congress it was received with some degree of caution.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 57 , Issue 1 , 1991 , pp. 81 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alcalde del Rio, H. 1906. Printuras y Grabados de las Cavernas Préhistoricas de la Provincia de Santander. Santander: Blanchard y Arce.Google Scholar
Alcalde del Río, H., Breuil, H. and Sierra, L. 1911. Les Cavernes de la Région Cantabrique. Monaco: Vve A. Chêne.Google Scholar
Alonso Silio, R. 1986. El modelado interior de los grabados rupestres Paleolíticos del None de la Peninsula. Estudio de Arte Rupestre, 133–214. Madrid: Monografías del Centro de Investigaciones y Museo de Altamira 15.Google Scholar
Balbín Behrmann, R. de and Moure Romanillo, J. A. 1982. El panel principal de la Cueva de Tito Bustillo (Ribadasella, Asturias). Ars Praehistorica 1, 47–97.Google Scholar
Barandiaran, I., Freeman, L. G., Gonzalez Echegaray, J. and Klein, R. 1985. Excavaciones en la Cueva del Juyo. Madrid: Mongrafías del Centro de Investigaciones y Museo de Altamira 14.Google Scholar
Beaune, S. A. de 1987. Lampes et Godets au Paléolithique. (23rd Supplément à Gallia Préhistoire.) Paris: CNRS.Google Scholar
Breuil, H. 1906. L'évolution de la peinture et de la gravure sur murailles dans les cavernes ornées de l'âge du Renne. Congrès Préhistorique de France, I, 1905, Perigueax, 74–83. Paris.Google Scholar
Breuil, H. 1906. L'Age des peintures d'Altamira. Revue Préhistorique, 237–49.Google Scholar
Breuil, H. 1952. 400 Siècles d'Art Pariétal. Montignac: Centre d'Études et de Documentation Préhistorique.Google Scholar
Breuil, H. and Obermaier, H. 1935. La Cueva de Altamira. Madrid: Academia de la Historia.Google Scholar
Cabrera Valdes, V. 1984. El Yacimiento de la Cueva de el Castillo (Puente Viesgo, Santander). Madrid: Bibliotheca Praehistorica Hispana, 22.Google Scholar
Cartailhac, E. 1902. Les cavernes ornées de dessins: La grotte d'Altamira, mea culpa d'un sceptique. L'Anthropologie 13, 348–54.Google Scholar
Cartailhac, E. 1886. Les Âges Préhistoriques de l'Espagne et de Portugal.Google Scholar
Cartailhac, E. and Breuil, E. 1904. Les peintures et gravures murales des cavernes pyrénées, Altamira de Santillana et Marsuolas. L'Anthropologie 15, 625–44.Google Scholar
Cartailhac, E. and Breuil, H. 1906. La Caverne d'Altamira à Santillana près Santander (Espagne). Imprimerie de Monaco.Google Scholar
Freeman, L. G. 1978. Mamut, jabalí y bisonte en Altamira: reinterpretaciones sugeridas por la Historia Natural. In Beltrán, A. (ed.), Curso de Arte Rupestre Paleolítico, 157–80. Santander: Universidad Int. Menendez Pelayo.Google Scholar
Freeman, L. G. 1988. The stratigraphic sequence at Altamira, 1880–1981. In Espacio, Tiempo, Forma, 1: Homenaje al DrE. Ripoll Perelló 149–64. Madrid: UNED.Google Scholar
Freeman, L. G. and Gonzalez Echegaray, J. 1981. El Juyo: a 14,000 year old sanctuary from northern Spain. History of Religions 21, 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, L. G., Bernaldo de Quiros, F. and Odgen, J. 1987. Animals, faces and space at Altamira: a restudy of the final gallery (‘Cola de Caballo’). Altamira Revisited. Santander: IPI.Google Scholar
Gomez Fuentes, A. and Becares, J. 1979. Un hueso grabado en la Cueva del Cierro, Ribadesella (Asturias). 25th Congreso Arqueológico Nacional, Lugo, 83–94.Google Scholar
Gonzalez Echegaray, J. 1960. El Magdaleniense III en la Costa Cantabrica. Bol. del Seminario de Arte y Arqueología 26 1–32.Google Scholar
Gonzalez Echegaray, J. and Barandiaran, I. 1980. La Cueva del Rascaño. Memorias del Centro de Investigaciones y Museo de Altamira, 3.Google Scholar
Harle, E. 1881. La grotte d'Altamira, près de Santander (Espagne). Matériaux pour l'Histoire de l'Homme 17, 275–83.Google Scholar
Leroi-Gourhan, A. 1965. Préhistoire de l'Art Occidental. Paris: Mazenod.Google Scholar
Leroi-Gourhan, Arl. and Allain, J. 1979. Lascaux Inconnue. Paris: CNRS.Google Scholar
Muzquiz, M. 1988. Análisis Estilistico de las Pinturas Rupestres del Gran Techo de la Cueva de Altamira: Materiales y Técnicas. Tesis Doctoral, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.Google Scholar
Sautuola, M. S. 1880. Breves Apuntes Sobre Alqunos Objetos Prehistóricos de la Provincia de Santander. Santander.Google Scholar
Utrilla Miranda, P. 1980. El Magdaleniense Inferior y Medio en la Cornisa Cantábrica. Memorias del Centro de Investigaciones y Museo de Altamira, 4.Google Scholar
Ucko, P. 1989. La subjetividad y el estudio del arte parietal Paleolítico. Cien Años Despues de Sautuola, 283–358. Santander.Google Scholar
Vialou, D. 1982. Niaux, une construction symbolique magdalenienne exemplaire. Ars Praehistorica 1, 19–46.Google Scholar