Batty Cave Art

You'll be forgiven for thinking this is a line of sad Christmas decorations. It is in fact a cave painting of flying fox bats in Australia's Kimberley region, thought to date from the last Ice Age about 20,000 to 25,000 years ago. (Imagine Aborigines wearing furs.) A team led by Dr Jack Pettigrew, who took the photo, reckons this unknown species of bat is now extinct. Could be a lousy artist or one with too much imagination. We need more evidence, Doc. What I find fascinating is that painting or sculpting from nature has been the backbone of human artistic endeavour from the outset, and for many thousands of years an artist could be judged on how well he copied his subject. The camera created the modern quandary: To copy or to create tripe and call it art?