Henri Breuil

Henri-Édouard-Prosper Breuil often referred to as Abbé Breuil (born February 28, 1877 - died August 14, 1961), was a French archaeologist and paleontologist, famous for his study of prehistoric cave art, like the one at Altamira and Lascaux.

Life

Henri Breuil was born in Mortain, France, but grew up in Clermont of Oise, where his father worked as a public persecutor. Already as a young man Breuil showed interest for entomology and zoology, and wanted to study medicine. However his poor health and strong faith in God led him to theology. He entered the Issey-les-Moulineaux Seminary in 1895, and was ordained a priest in 1897. However, it was exactly at the seminary that Breuil developed strong interest for archeology, which will become the primary focus in his life.

After meeting his fellow student, archeologist Geoffray d’Ault du Mesnil, Breuil joined several archeological expeditions to France. His love for archeology grew stronger, and in 1900 Breuil started to specialize in cave art. In 1901 he studied caves at Combarelles and Font-de-Gaume in the Dordogne, with beautiful drawings from prehistoric times.

In the next several years he spent much time in Spain, studying the Altamira cave paintings. Already by that time he developed an analytic power to classify, with much certainty, particular time frame when certain painting was made. He showed that paintings from Altamira were genuinely Paleolithic. The book with Breuil’s observations and copies of Altamira paintings was published by the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine in 1908.

Breuil was appointed lecturer in prehistory and ethnography at the University of Fribourg (1905-1910), and a professor of prehistoric ethnography at the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine (1910-1929). During his tenure at the Institute, in 1918, he participated in excavations of a nearly complete skeleton of Homo sapiens Neanderthalensis.

In 1929 he became Chairman of Prehistory at the Collège de France, at the same time carrying a duty as a professor of prehistoric art. He visited South Africa for the first time in 1929. In 1938 he was made a member of the Institut de France.

Just before the war broke out in Europe, in 1940, Breuil participated in one of the most famous discovery of his career – the cave at Lascaux, in southern France. Breuil was able to copy the drawings and classify them according to the classification system he earlier developed. The find proved to be one of the most important set of prehistoric art ever found.

During the World War II Breuil traveled around Africa, studying caves and rock formations rich with artwork. He visited the Orange Free State, Lesotho, Mozambique, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and the valley of the Vaal. After the war he spent almost six years in Rhodesia, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, the Belgian Congo, Angola and Namibia. But the most time he spent on studying the White Lady of Brandberg, a famous painting on a mountain in Namibia. This study will occupy the rest of Breuil’s career.

Breuil retired from teaching duties at the Collège de France in 1947, but continued to write and travel. His published his principal work Four Hundred Centuries of Cave Art in 1952. He died on Aug. 14, 1961, at L'Isle-Adam, Seine-et-Oise Department.

Work

Breuil is generally known for his work on cave art, and was regarded as an expert on the subject during his lifetime. His expertise in Paleolithic art started with his early study of Bronze Age sites near Paris. He copied each drawing or carving on the wall, and reproduced them in color. Through this he learned to distinguish different styles and times the paintings were made in. He could later, according to the color or style of painting, classify paintings and put them into the specific period of time in which they were made.

In his less-known paper from 1912, Les Subdivisions du Paléolithique supérieur et leur signification (“The Subdivisions of the Upper Paleolithic and Their Meaning”) he presents a classification system that was still used long after Breuil’s death. Breuil attempted to explain the meaning behind certain images. He developed a theory of “sympathetic magic”, arguing that particular images were used with specific purpose, like to promote fertility or boost hunt. Although Breuil’s ideas were used well into 20th century, they were largely superseded ever since.

Breuil’s work in Altamira and Lascaux was especially famous. He copied every little detail he found on the walls, and determined its origin. Based on his previous work at Font-de-Gaume and Les Combarelles, he was able to determine the authenticity of the paintings in Altamira, clarifying the previous dubiety about the painting as being a forgery. He claimed that the hands, silhouettes, and tectiforms found in the paintings date from the Aurignacian period, monochromes to the lower Magdalenian; while the polychromes to the upper Magdalenian period.

Breuil’s work, however, was not without its critics. It was the style of writing that his colleagues always objected the most. Breuil liked to paint vivid pictures in the minds of his readers. He found aversion toward the dry, analytical method archeologist often used in their work. Instead, Breuil would make up a story, and often speculate about many points of the artwork he was describing. Particularly controversial was his work on the White Lady of the Brandberg in Namibia. Breuil argued that an ancient tribe of Europeans that once lived in Africa painted the art. His claims were characterized as “overly romanticized”, and finally dismissed in 1956.

Legacy

Breuil made significant contribution to the development of classification system of data relating to Paleolithic era. His copying methods and a synchronology for dating the cave paintings are regarded substantial and accurate. He also contributed to the development of the technical vocabulary of the branch of paleontology dealing with primitive art.

Publications

• Breuil, Henri. 1935. The cave of Altamira at Santillana del Mar, Spain. Tip. de Archivos

• Breuil, Henri. 1946. The discovery of the antiquity of man: Some of the evidence. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland

• Breuil, Henri. 1954. Cave drawings: An exhibition of drawings by the Abbe Breuil of Paleolithic paintings and engravings. Arts Council

• Breuil, Henri. 1957. Peintures prehistoriques du Sahara. Les presses Artistiques

• Breuil, Henri. 1959. The rock paintings of southern Africa. Trianon Press

• Breuil, Henri. 1960. Anibib & Omandumba and other Erongo sites. Clairvaux

• Breuil, Henri. 1966. Southern Rhodesia: The District of Fort Victoria and other sites. Trianon Press

• Breuil, Henri. 1966. The White Lady of the Brandberg. Trianon Press

• Breuil, Henri. 1975. The Sphinx and White Ghost shelters and other Spitzkopje sites. Trianon Press

• Breuil, Henri. 1976. Beyond the Bounds of History: Scenes from the Old Stone Age. AMS Press Inc. ISBN 0404159346

• Breuil, Henri. 1979 (original published 1952). Four hundred centuries of cave art. Hacker Art Books. ISBN 0878172475

• Breuil, Henri & Burkitt, M.C. 1976. Rock Paintings of Southern Andalusia: A Description of a Neolithic and Copper Age Art Group. AMS Press Inc. ISBN 0404159354

• Breuil, Henri & Lantier, Raymond. 1980. The Men of the Old Stone Age: Paleolithic and Mesolithic. Greenwood Press Reprint. ISBN 0313212899

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Brodrick, A.H. 1973. Father of Prehistory: The Abbe Henri Breuil, His Life and Times. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0837168406

• Renner, Martha. Abbe Henri Breuil. Minnesota State University, http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/abcde/breu_abbe_henri.html Retrieved on December 12, 2006

• Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Retrieved on December 12, 2006

• Henri Edouard Prosper Breuil Biography. Bookrags.com. Retrieved on December 12, 2006

External links

• Henri Breuil – Short biography and bibliography

• The Abbé Henri Breuil Collection – Biography and collection of his works

• Cave of Lascaux I – Official site of Lascaux

• Cave of Lascaux II – Some information on Lascaux in France

• The White Lady – About the famous White Lady painting

• Photo of White Lady - Photo

• Prehistoric Art – Some resources on prehistoric art

• Art of Prehistory – Good website with lots of pictures of prehistoric art

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