Reply to Christophe Delage regarding La Marche Sandström, Sven

Reply to Christophe Delage regarding La Marche Sandström, Sven

http://kulturarvsdata.se/raa/fornvannen/html/2016_197 Fornvännen 2016(111):3 s. 197-198

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– 1957. Iconographie humaine et animale du Mag- dalénien III. Grotte de La Marche, Commune de Lussac-les-Châteaux (Vienne). Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique FrançaiseLIV/10. Nanterre.

www. persee. fr

– 1970–71. Gravures de la Grotte de La Marche.

Archéocivilisation (Antiquités nationales et interna- tionales)9–10. Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

Mélard, N., 2006. Les pierres gravées du Magdalénien moyen à La Marche/Lussac-les-Châteaux (Vienne):

réalisation, fonctions et interprétations. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Institute of Human Paleontol- ogy, National Museum of Natural History. Paris.

– 2008. Pierres gravées de La Marche à Lussac-les- Châteaux (Vienne). Techniques, technologie et interprétations. Gallia Préhistoire 50. Nanterre.

Pradel, L., 1960. La grotte magdalénienne de la Marche à Lussac-les-Châteaux (Vienne). Textes divers.

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Christophe Delage

197 Debatt

Fornvännen 111 (2016)

Reply to Christophe Delage regarding La Marche

When writing my piece on the engraved draw- ings from La Marche, I hoped that my arguments would be met with an understanding or a count- er-argument of the anachronisms I pointed out. I was rather confident that the presence within the concerned imagery of an unmistakable elephant would be accepted as an argument against its authenticity, or tested and hopefully accepted as such by zoological specialists. My assertion that we find a quite modern type of obesity in female representations here relates to current conditions before the mid-20th century, familiar to my gen- eration. But of course, today my assertion might call for a confirmation from expertise in medical history. My third main argument demands some knowledge of art history, viz that the drawing in half-profile of a female body is clearly anachro- nistic.

However, Christoph Delage does not engage with my arguments at all. (I do not find his vague mention of “mammoth” – an animal with enor- mous curved tusks, pointed head and long hair – next to “elephant” to be a serious proposal of an alternative interpretation). So there is no direct contestation of my theses to discuss.

Instead, in getting into the extensive archaeo- logical research and discussion related to La Marche and to a number of Magdalenian sites in the same area, Delage seems to suggest that language problems might have prevented me from from orienting myself sufficiently in the archaeologi- cal situation of the area in question. In fact I have no problem reading in French. Of course, if there could be shown drawings/engravings from the epoch and from other caves sufficiently alike those from La Marche, that might have given me reasons for second thoughts, even if not neces- sarily making me retreat from my conclusions.

But when five and four years ago I spent time studying in the archaeological libraries of Les Eyzies and Saint Germain-en-Laye respectively, surveying many thousands of pages in archaeo- logical reviews and bulletins, I did not come across any imagery that was similar in the least.

With “image”, I here intend a consistent and articulate depiction. When we speak of forms found on a cave wall as “images”, we may perhaps partly rely on different features or criteria. Final- ly, it is true that I was unaware of current hypo- theses departing from the La Marche engravings.

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But if those can be shown to be fakes, then there is not much relevance to the aforementioned hypotheses here.

My article was intended as a contribution to a tradition of research that up to now has been entirely dominated by archaeology and anthro- pology. Only in preparing my contribution did I begin to realise that aspects and methods of art history apply perfectly also to Paleolithic image- ry. Now I think that it is about time to approach all of it as the initial part of the world’s history of pictorial art. It seems that I may be the first art historian consistently to enter into central prob- lems of Paleolithic imagery. Since my critical appreciation of La Marche was published, I have finished two papers that I would like to see dis- cussed, as I intend for them to open up new avenues (The oldest images now to be seen and their prehistory, 2015, and On learning and continuing the Paleolithic tradition of art, 2016. Both have been published on the web: www. svensandstrom. se).

From an art historian’s perpective, the main comparison in this case of suspected forgery must not necessarily be made between the La Marche engravings and other Paleolithic imagery. As soon as there is a possibility of a forger from our own time it may prove more fruitful to compare with artistic products from more recent times, not least from the suspect’s own day.

Numerous faces from La Marche looked curi- ously familiar to me, and as I have found, appar- ently also to other observers. While nothing within other known Paleolithic imagery seems to square with these images, there is a rich Western tradition of ”funny faces” drawn or modeled in an (often just affectedly) awkward way. This tra- dition goes back to the Middle Ages, but is recog- nised as a recurrent genre in the funny pages of the popular press at least up to the second half of the twentieth century. The forger might well have connected to this genre, well knowing that this phenomenon had so far been ignored by cul- tural studies.

And: nowhere within Paleolithic imagery is there to be found anything like the firm style in which the elephant I mentioned is drawn. As a matter of fact, as late as around 1900 this style would have been found most deviant – while it fits in quite perfectly after the style period of Neue Sachlichkeit, the stamp of which is often found in illustrations from the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

Sven Sandström

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