"Cave Art: A Guide to the Decorated Ice Age Caves of Europe." Paul G.
Bahn. Francis Lincoln, London; 2007. ISBN 978-0-7112-2655-5. About 5
by 8 inches, 224 pages, softbound. $24.95.
"Cave Art." Jean Clottes. Phaidon, New York; 2008. ISBN
978-0-7148-4592-0. 11.5 by 10 inches, 334 pages, hardbound. $90.
Bahn's little book is a tourists' guide to the Paleolithic art sites
in Europe, mainly in France and Spain. Most are caves, but some are
cliffs, rock shelters, or museums. There is a short introduction to
ancient European cave art in general, and then a tabulation of sites
open to the public, with brief descriptive text and listings of data
such as location, hours, and fees. One or more color photos
accompanies most of the more than fifty listings.
Jean Clottes's book is the ideal coffee-table book of Paleolithic cave
art. The covers are an eighth of an inch thick, and the paper is about
as thick as the cover on a typical mass-market paperback. The whole
thing weighs four and a half pounds. There are a short introductory
text followed by nearly 250 color photographs, mostly of painted or
engraved art found deep in caves. The arrangement is chronological,
with emphasis on Chauvet, Lascaux, and Niaux caves as representative
of their periods, although many other caves are represented. Most of
the photos are at least a half-page in size, and many cover a full two-
page spread, which works well because the binding allows the book to
open nearly flat anywhere. Each photograph is accompanied by a long
paragraph of description, including a statement of scale. Still, I
regret the customary lack of anything for scale in photos of
Paleolithic art; reading that a bull in Lascaux is 395 centimeter long
is not the same as seeing that for oneself.
Compared to the other "Cave Art," Jean Clottes's book is a much better
deal, despite its higher price.--Bill Mixon
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