The animals in cave paintings tell us about art and empathy through the millennia
British art critic John Berger was a pioneer in highlighting the artistic character of Paleolithic cave paintings, which adorned caves and shelters around the world for 20,000 years. Berger proposes a different interpretation to the commonly accepted utilitarian idea that our ancestors painted to attract game and further their material interests.
According to Berger, early artists knew the animals they painted intimately and showed no fear in their depictions. His images convey respect and a human presence revealed by pleasure. Rock art is a traditional art, transmitting experiences that expand human freedom and capacity.
In rock art, the artist is anonymous and his gaze is focused on the animal, not the human being. Rock art could be considered the first manifestation of the defense and care of animals in human history.
In traditional art, the artist has an "idea" or vision that, in combination with his or her skills, he or she uses to create a representation of reality. Paleolithic artists achieved a particularly perfect process, focusing their works on the animal world. Animals act as mediators to express and achieve the deepest human experience of existence.
Cave paintings show us a pure art in which artists become the image they paint, as the great Japanese painter Hokusai suggested. Empathy is a path of communication open through thousands of years, in search of a deep objective in which ethics and aesthetics come together.
