The Cave of Lascaux 

The Final Photographs

by Mario Ruspoli

First Edition 1987

Hardcover PREHISTORIC ART

Large Coffee Table Book 

Rare Very Scarce Highly Prized 

It is astonishing to turn to pages 102-103 in Mario Ruspolis The Cave of Lascaux: The Final Photographs and find the curving wall and mural in the Hall of Bulls, also called the Rotunda.

Part of this is the way the photograph is laid out over a page and a half, with the fold separating a quarter of the image on the left from the three-quarters on the right. This gives a curve to the pages as they each lift away from the fold, a curve that echoes, in a way, the bend of the wall, from left to right.

But, mainly, the amazement comes from the beauty and richness of the art, from the rhythm of the figures moving toward the opening that leads to the Axial Gallery, a procession of animals in action in unison.

And that these images, discovered in 1940, were created by an artist or artists some 17,000 years ago.

Thats roughly 50,000 human lifetimes ago

Their beautiful and daring compositions have earned the cave the name the prehistoric Sistine Chapel.