Sunday, December 27, 2009

Altamira


While waiting for our package to arrive from DHL in
Santillana del Mar, we visited the nearby Altamira cave
paintings and museum. Altamira is absolutely in the
same league with Lascaux and Pech Merle (both closed
this time of year), late Paleolithic, definitely Cro Magnons.
The cave was naturally closed around 13,000 BC, and most
of the paintings are now reckoned to have been done c.
18,000BC. Picasso visited the caves and exclaimed that
"after Altamira, all art is decadence." He had similar things
to say about Lascaux. We figure he was angling for a free
lifetime pass. Above, Vicki outside the museo.








 
The museum itself is one of the very best pre-history
museums we have seen








Like Lascaux, Altamira is really a replica, for reasons of
preservation, but a very convincing one








Mostly animals, mostly what they appear to have been
interested in








Another
My favorite, nearly a Picasso















Another still











Two of the three hands in negative; the really famous one is
at Pech Merle







The actual cave entrance

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