Domingo Milella

Print 132 x 165 cm. 52 x 65 in.

Frame 138.5 x 171.5 cm. 54 1/2 x 67 1/2 in.

Edition 1 of 5 + 2 AP

Directly from the artist studio

Sotheby's Maison, Hong Kong, Domingo Milella LIMINAL, 10 June – 20 August 2026

Gravettian (between approximately 30,000 and 25,000 years ago)

The “black frieze” in the Pech Merle cave (Lot) clearly illustrates the phenomenon of superimposition, which is characteristic of Paleolithic cave art. Here, a mammoth overlaps and appears to follow a aurochs, while another bovine figure in an upright position is juxtaposed behind the pachyderm. The mammoth figure, in turn, seems to be surrounded by a larger outline of the same animal, which could suggest the presence of another individual of the same species situated in the background. These compositions and associations of figures are common in Paleolithic art, which, however, includes hardly any “narrative” scenes proper. As for the species depicted, not all those known to and hunted by the artists appear on the walls. On the contrary, they are limited to an “animal pantheon” of about six main species (horse, deer, bison, aurochs, goat, mammoth) that predominate, with some chronological and geographical variations, throughout the entire Paleolithic artistic cycle. Other bovids (reindeer, chamois, roe deer), carnivores (lion, fox), bears, and even fish and a few anthropomorphic figures occupy a very secondary place in the Paleolithic symbolic imagination.