Stone Age uncovered at Field Museum

March 19, 2013 (CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Who were the greatest artists of all time? Picasso? The great masters? Cavemen from 20,000 years ago?

Travel back in time at the Field Museum. The newest exhibit includes cave paintings from caves in Lascaux, France.

"The paintings you see here in Lascaux Cave are exact, and I mean exact. They are 3-D images that were taken, and photographs, wonderful photographs and the paintings were done by artists," Dr. Jim Phillips, curator, The Field Museum, said.

So, it's almost as if the Lascaux cave was packed up and shipped to Chicago. Same colors, same dimensions. It's exactly the way it was when in 1940 Marcel Ravidat and three teenage friends found the cave while searching for a lost dog. The scientific world went crazy about Stone Age man, some 20,000 years ago, being such great artists.

"It looks to me just like Picasso was doing it," Dr. Phillips said. "A wonderful artist who Understood how to draw figures."

"They used pigments. Magnesium and iron ore for the red and orange and other naturally occurring pigments," Dr. Bob Martin, curator, Field Museum, said.

Many scientists believe the paintings were part of a ritual that helped the ancient hunters in their search for food.

The exhibit runs through September 8.

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