One particularly iconic type of
early art made by humans is the hand stencil. Often found in conjunction with
cave paintings of animals, the interconnectedness of the two types is
undoubted, therefore lending support to the belief that these ‘negatives’ of
hand prints are art.
The animals found painted in
caves such as those at Lascaux are often of unparalleled artistic merit, being
uncannily, lifelike and some even evidencing techniques such as perspective.
Alongside these exquisite images, sometimes called the Sistine Chapel of the
Palaeolithic, are a number of hand stencils. While completely overshadowed by
the plethora animal paintings they have, perhaps because of their association
become recognised as art.
This brings me to a question that
has been bothering me for some years. If they stood alone, without the
beautifully drawn aurochs and bison would they be seen as art? Or perhaps would
we view them as ancient graffiti, saying simply “I was here”?
Below are some examples from Spain.
Hand
stencils at the Fuente del Salín cave, from Ekainberri (2019).
Hand stencils from El Castillo cave, Cantabria, Spain. From Than
(2014).
Hand stencils from La Garma cave, from Till (2012).
False-colour image of hand prints from Maltravieso Cave,
Spain. From Anon. (2018).
Hand stencil from Fuente del
Trucho Cave, Aragorn, Spain. The cave contains 42 hand-stencils, only three of
which are outlined in black. This one is most curious, as the ends of the
digits are missing. Proposed reasons for this include a clenched fist, loss of
the terminal parts of the digits due to frostbite or ritual mutilation. From
the Parque Cultural del Rio Vero website (2022)
I do have an ulterior motive for
using these, particular images. All the above sites featured in a recent
publication by Fernández-Navarro, et al (2022).
Hand stencils are made by blowing
pigments through a hollow reed or bone at a hand placed against the surface of
the rock inside the cave. Fernández-Navarro, et al (2022), attempted to answer
the question “Who created this art?” The results were extremely
surprising. The scientists created precise,
3D models and took morphometric measurements.
Taking into account that the hand
stencils are slightly larger than the hand they outline, the researchers found
that up 27 percent of the hand marks were not large enough to belong to adults
or teenagers. They surmised, that they came from children between two and 12
years of age, with the majority of those likely made by three to 10-year-olds.
Example of morphometric measurements
taken, picture by Verónica Fernández-Navarro in Cascone (2022). Original
caption reads “Comparing hand measurement from a contemporary child and an
ancient hand painting from a Spanish cave.”
Whilst the percentages of child
hand stencils varied across the 5 caves, it was shown that ALL the caves had
some child hand painters. See table below:
Table of the extrapolated ages of
hand stencil painters, adapted from Fernández-Navarro et al (2022).
The phenomenon, therefore, seems
entirely real!
Coming back to my original question
of “Are hand stencils art or a graffito that say I was here?”, this evidence,
to me seems to lend weight to the latter theory. If I was a parent in the
Palaeolithic, intending to do a bit of symbolic painting, for my spiritual wellbeing
say, I may well have distracted the kids with a bit of pigment blowing. Art –
no. I rest my case.
References
Anon. (2018). Earliest cave art belonged to Neanderthals,
not humans: Study. Arab News at: https://www.arabnews.com/node/1253156/offbeat
Cascone, S. (2022). A Study of Prehistoric Painting Has Come
to a Startling Conclusion: Many Ancient Artists Were Tiny Children. Art News,
at: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/children-worlds-first-artists-new-study-finds-quarter-prehistoric-spanish-hand-paintings-kids-13-2084734
accessed 15/04/2022.
Ekainberri (2019) Fuente El Salín: el significado oculto de
las manos. At: https://www.ekainberri.eus/en/2019/01/23/fuente-el-salin-el-significado-oculto-de-las-manos/
Fernández-Navarro, V., Camarós, E. and Garate, D., 2022.
Visualizing childhood in Upper Palaeolithic societies: Experimental and
archaeological approach to artists’ age estimation through cave art hand
stencils. Journal of Archaeological Science, 140, p.105574.
Parque Cultural del Rio Vero (2022). Paleolithic Art (40,000
B.C.E. – 10,000 B.C.E.). At https://parqueculturalriovero.com/en/cave-art/river-vero-cave-art/paleolithic-art
accessed 15/04/2022
Than, K. (2014). World's Oldest Cave Art Found — Made by
Neanderthals? National Geographic online at: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/120614-neanderthal-cave-paintings-spain-science-pike
accessed 15/04/2022
Till, J. et al (2012). Songs of the Caves. Acoustics and
Prehistoric Art in Spanish Caves. At: https://songsofthecaves.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_0048.jpg
accessed 15/04/2022
