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Which is more primitive, modern humans or our Paleolithic ancestors? Contemporary artists, from Juan Miró to Tacita Dean, Mario Merz and Banksy, are attempting to answer this question when they draw inspiration from Lascaux. The answer is not always flattering for modern man.

This masterpiece of Japanese art, intended to celebrate the harmony of nature, has had many iterations. Claude Monet, Takashi Kawamata, Hergé and Jean-Michel Othoniel all pay homage to the Great Wave off Kanagawa. It's an image that has become increasingly menacing, constantly reminding us of our own insignificance.

In the 20th century, Rodin and Brancusi were one of the few artists to view kissing as a romantic act. For Munch, the kiss was deadly; for Picasso, it was sexual; for Tino Sehgal, it was never just one; and for Witkin, it was morbid.

Picasso was inspired by everything. A brothel, African masks, the disorder of bodies, and there you go: a timeless artwork. His influence can be mapped out in pieces by Lee Krasner, and used as a sign of protest in work by Robert Colescott and Léonce Raphaël Agbodjelou.

The flayed ox reminds us that death waits for us all. Contemporary artists have seized upon this imagery and taken it further. Consider the raw realism in the work of Vanda Spengler, the bodies in Jenny Saville's art, the piles of meat in Anish Kapoor's sculptures, and the litres of blood in the work of Hermann Nitsch.

What is most striking about the statue is its wings. Choreographer Loïe Fuller and artist Yves Klein celebrate its flight, while artists Raphael Denis and Céline Robbe see it as a symbol of defeat. But as some artists moved away from the idea of victory, Beyoncé returned to it in a triumphant music video.

"We're all going to die!" is the core message of the Vanitas art genre. But it's a unifying theme that is surprisingly diverse. There's the sanitised death depicted by Jean-Pierre Raynaud, the gore of the Chapman brothers, a flashy death designed by Damien Hirst or the complete destitution depicted by Gerhard Richter.