RAD 02 – Suckling Antelope

Original:

Sold

Available:

Signed & Numbered Limited Print Collection on Canvas.

View of actual frieze

This picture shows a young grey rhebok suckling its mother. Rhebok are highly territorial, the males having several females and driving off all other males from their territory.  In the breeding season the males appear to fight fiercely, but they rarely harm one another. Female rhebok give birth from November to January and the young suckle for about six months.  After this, male calves leave the group to look for their own territory. This calf is in the early stage of suckling and is too young for its gender to be determined. Since suckling is a seasonal activity, this painting is of a seasonal nature, capturing an activity that only occurs between January and June in Southern Africa. Given the size of this calf, it is closer to January than to June.

The rhebok in this panel are painted over a dancing figure in a typical forward-bending posture and with hair growing on its body. In the Kalahari, preference for animal potency songs seems to cycle, with new animal songs being invented and older ones going out of fashion and ceasing to be used. San groups drew upon the potency of different animals, not just for personal reasons, but also at different times as societal needs changed.

The idea that rock paintings can best be interpreted in terms of the rich cosmology and religious beliefs of the people who did them is the dominant view held by researchers.  Rock paintings, apart from their intrinsic beauty, played an integral and crucial role in the life of these early communities.  Through the paintings, communication with the past and the spirit world was possible.  The rock surface was seen as a veil between the real world and the spirit world.