WILDLIFE’S TIMELESS VISUAL APPEAL

PHOTOGRAPHS: ISTOCK

When the little narrow-gauge train came to a halt, we stepped out into the pitch blackness. A searchlight illuminated the void, its wide beam sweeping across the roof of Rouffignac cave. And there it was, a trio of two-horned woolly rhinoceros, almost at touching distance above our heads: a painting created by Ice Age hunter-gatherers some 20,000 years ago; a hair-standing sight.

Other caves in the Dordogne region of France revealed paintings of mammoths, bison and wild horses, many cleverly formed in 3D using rounded outcrops of rock, all startlingly realistic. Lascaux cave, containing many of these images, has been described as a ‘Palaeolithic Sistine chapel’. A sign of our times, however, this cave, now closed to the public due to the occluding effect of human exhalation, has been substituted by a facsimile, a ‘virtual Lascaux’.

Wildlife rock art, though generally not as ancient or as well realised as Ice Age cave art, occurs in many other parts of the world. In the Namibian desert hundreds of animals – rhinos, elephants, giraffes, lions and sundry antelopes – created by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, festoon rock outcrops in places where such big game is sadly, no longer found.

Highly stylised native art from Australia and Canada depicts recognisable creatures- snakes, lizards, birds-of-prey etc.- in distorted, sometimes sinister form; designed apparently to link the human tribe with the otherworld. Though originally prehistoric, this art continues today as an important expression of aboriginal culture.

One is struck by the innocent authenticity of prehistoric art, suggesting in its various iterations, direct inspiration, something often lacking in the ‘staged’ images for popular consumption in contemporary photography and film.

Ireland has long been seen as belonging in the oral and musical, rather than the visual side of the artistic spectrum. It is true that, despite the intensive searches at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, no wildlife art has been found in our caves. However, the beautifully designed curvilinear metalwork of the Late Bronze Age with its bird and animal motifs show that the visual appeal of wildlife was alive and thriving then. The extravagantly stylised and often playful images featuring wildlife such as cranes, otters, wolves etc. of the Early Christian Period (e.g. The Book of Kells) also reveal this visual connectedness.

Stiff, two-dimensional images of wildlife in Medieval texts, are presented thus as perceived threats to human society. Wolves, foxes, bears, bats, snakes, rats, mice etc. feature prominently. Giraldus’ Topographica Hiberniae contains such images as do the bestiaries, popular throughout Europe in this period. In contrast, Medieval Oriental art emphasises the intrinsic beauty of wildlife. Iconic species such as tigers and spectacular birds – particularly cranes – feature prominently. The stylised images of dragons and fanciful sea-creatures decorating the margins of western Renaissance maps may have derived from this Eastern tradition.

The early 19th century bird paintings of John James Audubon represent a major advance in the quality of wildlife art. His fine life-sized paintings of America’s birds caused a sensation when first produced and remain among America’s most revered masterpieces. Another American, Roger Tory Peterson, succeeded in popularising wildlife through the illustrated field guide. The accurate two-dimensional format, (initially of birds), has been utilised in facilitating the identification of mammals, butterflies, flowers, fish and other forms of wildlife besides. Since its initiation in the mid- 20th century, virtually every country on the planet has its wildlife field guide, based on Peterson’s revolutionary idea.

Despite its distinguished lineage, wildlife art nowadays has been relegated to the status of ‘artistic subset’, inward-trending post-modernism, for instance, showing little interest in the subject. With the looming concerns of climate change and its potential impact on all life and an inevitable artistic response, it may well emerge once again to prominence.

One place where it has retained its currency, is in the classroom among children. Despite the current dominance of screen-based education, hands-on, creative learning continues apace. Encouraged, primary school children draw and paint uninhibitedly, not just friends and family but also subjects from the wider world, including wildlife. Smiling dolphins, whistling birds, brightly coloured butterflies and flowers are favourite subjects. Importantly, when encouraged and directed, this engagement can become a valuable, enduring link to understanding and respecting the natural world.

Though the Ice Age cave paintings suggest this child-like uninhibitedness, their function remains shrouded in mystery. Were they depictions of hunt scenes, or representations of shamanic rituals? Do they conceal a mysticism lost through time, unfathomable today? Awesome (in the true sense of the word) and seminal this art certainly is. The timeless impulse to create and display art appears to have begun with wildlife painters on cave walls and students of art in general must reference this as their starting point.