What can we tell from the most cursory examination of this painting? Well, it’s plain to see that a pride of lions is stalking something. The object of their fascination isn’t visible to us, but all of them are clearly fixated on something, the same thing.
What else? Well, by examining a bit closer we can surmise that at least three of the lions were drawn by the same hand. One or two look like sloppier copies, or apprenticeship efforts.
And could we look deeper still, we’d discover the calcite deposits and smudge marks from torches that reliably date the age of the Panel of Lions to as long ago as 32,500 years.
I raised a vague question in last week’s post as to the timelessness of art. This week I decided to definitively answer it.
Great line up. We will be linking to this great article on our site. Keep up the good writing.
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