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StillnessArt fact

France's 17,000-year-old Lascaux cave paintings were closed to the public in 1963 because the breath, warmth and lamps of thousands of visitors were feeding mould and algae on the walls.

Dordogne, France, 1963

ArtHistory

The story behind the card

Four teenagers found the cave on 12 September 1940. Marcel Ravidat, 18, came upon a hole left by an uprooted tree and returned with Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel and Simon Coencas. Inside were hundreds of painted animals, mostly horses, deer and aurochs, a huge wild ox now extinct; counting engravings, the cave holds nearly 6,000 figures made roughly 17,000 to 22,000 years ago. Lascaux opened to the public in 1948, and by 1955 about 1,200 people a day were filing through. The carbon dioxide and moisture they brought damaged the walls, and the cave was closed in 1963. Visitors now see full-size replicas nearby: Lascaux II, opened in 1983, and the larger Lascaux IV, opened in 2016.

Türkçe oku
Fransa'daki Lascaux Mağarası'nın 17.000 yıllık resimleri 1963'te ziyarete kapatıldı. Binlerce ziyaretçinin nefesi, vücut ısısı ve lambalar, duvarlarda küf ve alg üremesine yol açmıştı.
Dordogne, Fransa, 1963

Mağarayı 12 Eylül 1940'ta dört genç buldu. 18 yaşındaki Marcel Ravidat, devrilmiş bir ağacın açtığı çukura rastladı ve Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel ve Simon Coencas'la birlikte geri döndü. İçeride yüzlerce hayvan resmi vardı; çoğu at, geyik ve bugün soyu tükenmiş iri bir yabani sığır olan yaban öküzüydü. Kazıma resimlerle birlikte mağarada, yaklaşık 17.000 ile 22.000 yıl önce yapılmış 6.000'e yakın figür bulunur. Lascaux 1948'de ziyarete açıldı; 1955'te günde yaklaşık 1.200 kişi mağarayı geziyordu. Ziyaretçilerin getirdiği karbondioksit ve nem duvarlara zarar verdi ve mağara 1963'te kapatıldı. Bugün ziyaretçiler yakındaki birebir kopyaları geziyor: 1983'te açılan Lascaux II ile 2016'da açılan daha büyük Lascaux IV.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Lascaux
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