From Cave Art & Petroglyphs, Egypt, China, India, Rome, Africa and in Modern times, References to Elephants in Art Have Been Plentiful

THE SYMBOLISM OF THIS NOBLE, WISE & POWERFUL ANIMAL HAS BEEN PRESERVED IN ART THROUGHOUT THE WORLD

As with any period in art history, generalizations may be made about the style and subjects of European Paleolithic cave art. When one looks at an Upper Paleolithic cave painting in Europe, the use of primary colors, the variety of technique, and the consistent subject matter are clearly visible. The Cro-Magnon palette was fairly colorful, considering the available materials and lack of art supply stores. Paint was made by mixing pigments from natural substances such as yellow, red, and brown ocher, black oxide of manganese, vegetable charcoal, and clay with binders such as sap, animal fat, blood, and even urine. The mixture was applied to the rock surface with anything from creative fingers to brushes made of animal hair, feathers, or splinters of bone. Blowpipes, straw-like tools usually made of reeds, were used to trace outlines and to blow pigments where we would use a ladder, on ceilings and in tight corners.

Engravings, just as common in caves as paintings, were created through different techniques. The rock surface was punctured with sharp objects (such as flint points) to produce an image made up of a series of dots, or delicately chiseled to create a fine outline. A somewhat less precise method involved scratching or scraping dark rock surfaces to reveal a picture in the lighter rock underneath.

A rock wall is certainly not as smooth a canvas as a closely woven strip of cloth. The natural swells and recesses in the rock were not necessarily an obstacle, though. Artists softened or flattened rough edges with a sharp stone, or used the uneven surface as a convenient three-dimensional enhancement to a picture. Bulges in the rock, for example, could literally flesh out fat or pregnant animals.

But even more noticeable than the colors or technique is the overwhelming presence of large animals. Prehistoric cave galleries are often the only visual documentation we have of long-extinct mammals, including the European mammoth (Elephas primigenius blumenbach), a long-haired, giant-tusked forerunner of the modern elephant.

Elephant head with stylized wide spread ears. Traces of red and white paint bands are visible on the face. Painting of elephants for ritual processions is a common practice in traditional India and the main colors are red and white. The date is approximately 2600-1900 BCE. This figurine may represent a tame elephant or an elephant that is being marked for sacrifice. Hand formed and incised.

Clay is essential to Indian culture, past and present. It is accessible everywhere; it takes form with very little effort; and its fragility assures its constant renewal. It has been the perfect vehicle for Indian creativity throughout the ages. The shapes and styles of items made of clay, both fired and unfired, are innumerable. They comprise everything from the miniscule to the gigantic, from simple to highly ornate, from realistic to abstract, from purely practical to utterly fantastic. Many of the potters who make them act dual roles as craftsmen and as links to the god. Their products are often remarkably similar to those found in ancient archaeological sites and many potters believe that they are directly descended from India’s earliest craftsmen.

There are more working potters in India than in any other country of the world -more than 3.5 million. Every community, however small, usually incorporates at least one working potter, while towns and cities have large potting populations. As these craftsman cater to an extraordinary diversity of subcultures, traditions and enviornments, their products are usually varied. They make vessels for every conceivable household use; from the simplest clay lamps, cooking pots and food containers, to storage bins eight feet high. They sculpt images to be used in religious ceremonies ranging from tiny figures made from pinches of clay to magnificent horses and elephants over eighteen feet tall, the largest terracottas ever created in the history of humanity. Also in Indian art, many of the first men and women are depicted as coming out of the tusk of an elephant.

This elephant is from the Mesolithic period (8,000 B.C.). The purpose of the cutout is unknown, but it does appear in other figures. It is from the Raisen region in the center of northern India.

The cult of the white elephant existed in Siam and Burma. The creatures were highly prized by Siamese and Burmese kings, ridden on state occasions by 14th-century kings of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and, some suggest, highly esteemed by the Khmers as well. The extraordinary rarity of a white elephant has given currency to the idea that it is an incarnation "at least of some being in an advanced stage of the journey to Nirvana." White elephants were, of course, not really white. The term was coined by English-speaking people. In Thai, for example, this most rare of all pachyderms is much more accurately described as a chang phuek, an albino elephant. The white elephant is dust colored. The color is somewhat ashy, and the elephant has pink eyes and white toe-nails.

A Mauritanian postage stamp, with a design based on ancient rock carvings of Zemmour, Sahara. The stamp was issued in 1975.

Medieval artists depicted elephants inaccurately because the west did not really know how elephants looked. They did know that elephants had a trunk and tusks.

Modern western artists started to portray elephants in their natural setting.

Elephants Represented in Art Click Above to See Pictures of Elephants Represented in Art.

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