Bison Paleolithic Altamira Cave Art

One of the bison on the ceiling Altamira,representing the final stage of polychrome art in which four shades of color are used. After Breuil. This image is in the public domain in the United States, where Works published prior to 1978 were copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years.

See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" PDF from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published before 1924 are now in the public domain.

The original two-dimensional work shown in this image is free content because: This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.

This applies to the United States, where Works published prior to 1978 were copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years. See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" PDF from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published before 1924 are now in the public domain and also in countries that figure copyright from the date of death of the artist (post mortem auctoris in this case between c. 16,500 and 14,000 years ago) and that most commonly run for a period of 50 to 70 years from December 31st of that year.

Title: Men of the old stone age: their environment, life and art. Hitchcock lectures of the University of California, Hitchcock lectures. Author: Henry Fairfield Osborn Edition 2. Publisher: C. Scribner, 1915. Original from the University of California, Digitized: Feb 20, 2007. Length: 545 pages

Altamira (Spanish for 'high view') is a cave in Spain famous for its Upper Paleolithic cave paintings featuring drawings and polychrome rock paintings of wild mammals and human hands. It is located near the town of Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Spain.

Lines engraved with flint, the surface of the limestone having been previously prepared by the thinning or scraping of the borders (raelage) to heighten the relief of the drawing; then a very strong contour is laid down in black, and this may be followed by a further contour line in red (the use of black and red is very ancient); an ochreous brown color is mixed in, conforming well with what we know to be the tints of the hairy portions of the bison.

Thus gradually a complete polychrome fresco art develops. The final stage of this art follows, in which the filling out of various tones of color requires the use of black, brown, red, and yellowish shades. The underlying or preliminary engraving now begins to recede, being retained only for the tracing in of the final details of the hair, the eyes, the horns, and the hoofs