Modern painters have been influenced by the Altamira cave paintings.
After a visit, Pablo Picasso exclaimed: "After Altamira, all is decadence"!
The Cave of Altamira (Spanish: Cueva de Altamira; pronounced: [ˈku̯e.βa ðe al.ta.ˈmi.ɾa]) located near the historic town Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Spain, is renowned for its numerous parietal cave paintings featuring charcoal drawings and polychrome paintings of contemporary local fauna and human hands, created between 18,500 and 14,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic by Paleo human settlers.
The earliest paintings in the cave were executed around 35,600 years ago.