Paleolithic cave paintings

by | Feb 3, 2022 | art

Who gets to visit the caves?
Soon after Paleolithic cave paintings were first discovered, tourists and scholars alike flocked to the caves. All of the bodies moving through these closed spaces changed the environments. The paintings began to change and disintegrate.

Governments had different responses. Some closed the caves. Some allowed in only a small number of people. Some built replicas.

Here are a few articles explaining the situation:

“Back to the Cave (Links to an external site.)” from the NY Times
“Dangers to Cave Art (Links to an external site.)” from the Royal Society of Chemistry
“The Chauvet Cave Replica is Nonsense (Links to an external site.)” from The Guardian
And for help understanding the big picture surrounding at-risk cultural heritage sites, consult ARCHES (Links to an external site.) (At-Risk Cultural Heritage Education Series) from Smarthistory.org.

The matter is complicated and pits the interests of science, preservation, tourism, economies, and human curiosity against each other. So it is perfect for our course learning objective related to civic and social responsibility as it relates to art!

For this discussion, you will explain the perspective of one of these parties and justify its solution. Then you will compare this to your own perspective. In some cases, you may have to imagine what the person’s perspective would be. In other cases, the perspective is spelled out in the articles.

Jigsawing Discussion (choose a piece that has not been taken already)
To understand this issue and how art relates to social responsibility, let’s use the jigsawing technique. Choose one of these “pieces” or aspects of the issue and make your posting. Remember that once someone has chosen a piece, you cannot use it. This means you have to read your groupmates’ postings to figure out which pieces are still available.

Pieces–Choose one and begin your posting explaining which one you have chosen.
Explain the perspective and solution of preservationists who want to close the caves, then compare this to your perspective.
Explain the perspective and solution of regional governments who offer replica models, then compare this to your perspective.
Explain the perspective and solution of art historians who want to study the original images, then compare this to your perspective.
Explain the perspective and solution of national governments who want the money generated by tourists, then compare this to your perspective.
Explain the perspective and solution of the landowner where the cave is located, then compare this to your perspective.
Explain the perspective and solution of someone who wants the caves open and accessible, then compare this to your perspective.
Choose one of your groupmates’ explanations and provide another point to support their argument, then compare this to your perspective.

Sample Solution

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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