The Cathedral of Chauvet

 

Did you notice this Google doodle yesterday? It's an image from the Chauvet Cave in France offered on the 26th anniversary of their discovery in the modern era by three cavers. The caves and their paintings are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and carefully protected from the public. The images, which are as old as 32,000 years are stunning in their expression of life. While they reflect the keen powers of observation of their hunter creators, they are also reverent, a testament to creation and human expression. 

I have dutifully moved through the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican along with throngs of other tourists. Michelangelo's work is visionary, magisterial, and has become the part of the myth of creativity for Western culture. Are the paintings of Chauvet and Lascaux and other cave sites any less worthy of our admiration? I would offer an emphatic, no. 

I have watched Werner Herzog's documentary about Chauvet called Cave of Forgotten Dreams twice, and I wish I could watch in again on a large screen in a cinema -- remember movie theatres? . While describing the interior of the cave as a cathedral may seem trite, as someone who has visited many European cathedrals I know I would experience a similar sense of awe and reverence within these caves. 

There is an Aeon article by Izzy Wisher (what a wonderful name) which reflects on what cave art contributes to culture and while the conclusion refers to another cave, it is appropriate for Chauvet: 

Art was far more than a pleasant pastime that our distant ancestors indulged in; it was interwoven within the function of these Upper Palaeolithic societies and was integral to their way of life. The young hunter-gatherer who squeezed through the gap in the rock shelter would have emerged blinking into the light, transformed by her encounter with her ancestors and with the images of the animals that were essential to her group’s survival.

Amen, and I wonder how many other such adorned caves have yet to be rediscovered?