UNKNOWN ARTIST/S: Mural paintings of Altamira Caves (detail and reconstruction), c.13, 000-11,000 b.c. - Mural, Altamira Caves, Spain

The paintings found in Altamira have been called, in a somewhat enthusiastic way, “the Sistine Chapel from the Palaeolithic”. The extraordinary realistic figures are painted with a black manganese contour and an ochre and red filling, in such way that the figures already have a remarkable volumetric quality.

Perhaps these paintings are a primitive “hunting guide” to teach other members of the tribe how to hunt the preys, and where to find them; or perhaps they are a kind of magical spell to attract the animals. Anyway, it's evident that the Palaeolithic Art is indissolubly linked to the hunting. And as soon as this act stops being the main resource, the man leaves the caves, and these primitive drawings remain ignored by the humanity until, many thousands of years later, a small girl named Maria de Sautuola discovers astonished the first great masterpiece at the history of the Art. Art of survival, perhaps, Art without intention of being Art, but Art, after all.