In
Antiquity, French archaeologist and filmmaker
Marc Azéma and collaborator Florent
Rivère suggest that the origins of cinema
lie in antiquity. After
studying cave art for more than 20
years, Azéma uses examples from the
Chauvet and other caverns to show that Paleolithic artists broke down animal movements in their portrayals to represent a graphic narrative. He found 53 figures in 12 French caves that repeated 2 or more
images to represent trot or gallop, head tossing, and tail shaking. Far more than just making the aurochs appear lively in the light of a
flickering fire, the early humans offset parts of the beasts with specific intention and precision to show their natural motion (
see video here). “
Lascaux is the cave with the greatest number of cases of split-action movement by superimposition of successive images. Some 20 animals, principally horses, have the head, legs or tail multiplied,” says Azéma. In addition, he and
Rivère conclude that the ancient artists manipulated images by spinning them on etched bone disks - previously misidentified as buttons - held taut with sinew, a far distant precursor to the 19th c.
thaumatrope (
see photos here). Wow.
__________
Cave-dwellers in the Cabinet:
No comments:
Post a Comment
You may add your comments here.