FRANCO-CANTABRIAN SCHOOL

the oldest and most complete of several traditions of Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) art that flourished in southwestern France and the northern Cantabrian Mountains region of Spain between about 40,000 and 10,000 BC. It is called a school because it maintained a coherent development and consistent approach over nearly 30,000 years, covering the two major artistic phases of the Late Paleolithic Period, the Aurignacian and the Magdalenian. It developed in huge limestone caves, such as those at Altamira (q.v.) and Lascaux (see Lascaux Grotto), that served as habitation for ancient hunters in central and southern France and northern Spain. The art consists of highly naturalistic small carvings and monumental paintings, engravings, and reliefs. Magico-religious in inspiration, the art of the Franco-Cantabrian school consists almost entirely of large numbers of paintings of single, unrelated animals, which seem to have functioned as icons. Some may have played a role in dramatic rituals invoking success in the hunt and in animal fertility. Perhaps because the availability of protected wall space inside the caves favoured the development of graphic arts, Franco-Cantabrian art emphasizes the linear over the plastic: sculpture in the round is rare; small carved figurines are freely incised with linear details; and the monumental paintings of animals depend heavily on the rhythm of line and on flat, zonal areas of colour, even in the late Magdalenian phase, when volumes are well expressed. At the same time, the animals depicted by the Franco-Cantabrian school are often lively, sometimes with an overpowering vitality.