Styles, techniques et expression graphique dans l'art sur paroi rocheuse (Styles, Techniques and Graphic Expression in Rock Art)

Research on rock art conducted during the last several decades has shown the skill and knowledge demonstrated by the painters, engravers and sculptors who executed the motifs on rock surfaces and supports. Some motif sets required their creators to acquire a strong graphic command while workmanship techniques have very often proved to be more complex than previously assumed, including for remote periods. It also appears that the motifs have been placed according to specific criteria in connection with spatial orientation or support shape, for instance. The aim of this volume is to question these aesthetic productions with the conceptual tools of art history. How were the techniques used put to the service of the aesthetic project? How can the iconographic study and the stylistic analysis contribute to the understanding of the decorated site? Can we approach the “short time” of the realisation of cave or rock art sets? Is it possible to target regional particularisms? These are some ofthe questions to which current investigation techniques may give some fresh insight.

Author Biography

Marc Groenen is an art historian and archaeologist. He is a professor of prehistory at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) and works in particular on issues related to Palaeolithic images. Marc and Marie-Christine Groenen have been studying the decorated cave of El Castillo (Spain) since 2003. They are also studying the rock art of the French cave of Pair-non-Pair, in collaboration with Marc Martinez.