Painters with an introduction, “The Naked Cave Men,” that explains how the idea of this book took shape. Curtis begins by stating that “This book began in 1995 when my daughter Vivian saw a statue she called ’a naked cave man.’” At the time, the author was traveling in the south of France with his daughter. Curtis became “tremendously excited” by seeing the cave paintings in person. As he realized “Beauty in art or in nature or in a person is always surprising because it is stronger and more affecting than you could have anticipated.” In addition to the introduction, the book includes ten chapters, acknowledgments, notes, a bibliography, eight pages of color plates, many black-and-white photographs and illustrations, and an index. Curtis has given each of his chapters informative and amusing titles, such as “The Seductive Axe; The Well-Clothed Arrivals,” “The Trident-Shaped Cave; Pairing, Not Coupling,” “Three Brothers in a Boat; The Sorcerer,” and “Strange, Stylized Women; The World Below the World.”

With a few exceptions, “the only people who painted in caves lived in what is now southern France and northern Spain.” Despite the many caves that exist in a country such as Germany, there is as yet no evidence that the people who lived there expressed themselves through painting. The cave paintings found in the cave known as Chauvet are considered the oldest. It has been estimated that the paintings at Chauvet, France, are about 32,000 years old. The art at this site is in “full flower,” and, strangely, “cave painting remained much the same until it died out about 10,000 years ago.” For roughly 22,000 years, the caves of southern France and northern Spain were decorated with amazing skill.

The cave paintings in various parts of France and Spain are some of the most spectacular artistic achievements of Western art. With all the wonder and amazement they have generated, they still remain a puzzle to all concerned. There are seemingly endless questions about the purpose of these paintings, including why only certain animals are the subject of the paintings and why the painters chose to use only a limited number of colorsprimarily black and red. These questions and many more have gnawed at archaeologists, art historians, anthropologists, and other scholars alike. No definitive explanation to any of these issues has been found, but with remarkable care, Curtis lays out the history, the debates, and the central figures involved and describes the caves themselves in all of their glory. The cave paintings from this period are not primitive: The tremendous skill it took to complete such cave paintings cannot be underestimated. Curtis makes the crucial point that cave art has “all the refinement, subtlety, and power that great art has had ever since.”

Curtis is adept at presenting to the reader the various competing theories that have come to the forefront of the academic world over the years. To this day, debates have not been resolved to the satisfaction of reputable scholars. It seems that each new generation of experts latches onto a new explanation. In the last chapter, Curtis discusses one of the latest theories. The theory primarily states that shamans or religious visionaries may have created the cave art. The author explains that these shamans are believed to be “trying to reproduce the visions they saw while in a magic trance.” The idea that those in a “trance” created these marvelous works of “primitive” art has upset several experts. In the end, the mystery may never be solved to the satisfaction of all scholars, but the art remains to fascinate and seduce generations to come.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the author’s investigation is his musings on how “the contours of the wall had suggested a head or chest or horns.” For Curtis, it was as if the cave already had markings that represented the shape of an animal. As he describes it, “The paintings and engravingsmaybe not all of them, but manyweren’t adding animals on top of the rock but were a means of pulling out of the stone the animals that were already there.” One can envisage the rock and a human hand working in concert to create the images. Whether history ultimately unravels the mystery of the cave paintings, it cannot be denied that the ancient cave painterstook the trouble to create paintings that had graceful lines, subtle color, precise perspective, and a physical sense of volume. The cave painters may or may not have had the idea of art as we understand it, but when they chose to draw an appealing line instead of an awkward one, they were thinking and acting like artists trying to create art in our sense of the word.

In 278 pages, Curtis has written a concise study of the cave paintings and the principal experts who dedicated years to various theories to explain the paintings. Curtis knows the caves intimately as someone who has visited them and not merely as a researcher who has read the books. The sheer spectacle of the paintings has overwhelmed him. The reader vicariously can experience the caves by the guided tour that Curtis leads. From Altamirawhich was first discovered in the 1870’sto Chauvetwhich was first discovered in 1994Curtis vividly describes each cave. With The Cave Painters, Curtis has written an inviting and vivid exploration of art history, archaeology, anthropology, and metaphysics. It is to the author’s credit that he understands well how to keep the reader ever attentive. The book never drags but serves as a stimulating travelogue as it wends its way through the history of cave art and related matters.