Recreating Cosquer Cave: An Underwater Archaeological Treasure

This is a fabulous world full of horses, bison, antelopes, chamois, seals and penguins: an almost lunar landscape decorated with red and black handprints, carved with deep scratches and mysterious geometrical signs. Various scenes can be discerned here and there: a man falling, struck by a weapon; an animal on the ground, its belly pierced by an arrow; a megaloceros, the largest deer of all time, posing in all the majesty of its oversized antlers. Gilles Tosello stands before this ochre-veined beige wall like a painter before a monumental canvas. He handles charcoal and coal with the same attention to detail, working not in the soft northern light beloved by artists but in his dim Toulouse studio, lit here and there by spotlights. Tables and metal shelves are covered in pots of paint, bags of sand and marble powder, jars of colored mixtures, tools and brushes—the whole jumble tells…