i6 INTRODUCTION 



galleries of painted designs on the walls and ceilings that it 

 required a quarter of a century and the corroboration of 

 repeated finds on the French side of the Pyrenees for general 

 recognition that these rock paintings were of the Palaeolithic 

 age, and that features, which had been hitherto reckoned as 

 exclusively belonging to the New Stone Man, can now be 

 classed as the original property of the Man of the Old Stone 

 Age in the final production of his evolution. 



These primeval frescoes in their most developed state 

 (Evans, ihid., tells us) show not only a consummate mastery 

 of natural design, but also an extraordinary technical resource. 

 Apart from the charcoal used in certain outUnes, the chief 

 colouring matter was red and yellow ochre, mortars and 

 palettes for the preparation of which have come to light. In 

 single animals the tints are varied from black to dark and 

 ruddy brown or brilliant orange, and so by fine gradations to 

 paler nuances, obtained by scraping and washing. 



The greatest marvel is that such polychrome masterpieces 

 as the bisons standing and couchant or with Umbs huddled 

 together were executed on the ceilings of inner vaults and 

 galleries, where the Hght of day never penetrated. Nowhere 

 does smoke blur their outlines, probably (as Parkyn i suggests) 

 because of long oxidisation. The art of artificial illumination 

 had evidently progressed far. We now, indeed, know that 

 stone lamps, decorated in one case with the head of an ibex, 

 already existed. 



" Les extremes se touchent " was here aptly exemplified, 

 for to a very young child was it reserved to discover the very 

 oldest art gallery in the world. In 1879 Sefior de Santuola 

 chanced to be digging in a cave on his property, when he 

 heard his little daughter cry, " Toros, toros ! " Realising 

 quickly that this was no warning of an impending charge by 

 bulls, he followed her gaze to the vaulted ceiling, where his 

 eyes there espied " the finest expression of PalseoHthic art 

 extant." 



This little Spanish girl was the first for many, many 

 thousands of years to behold a collection of pictures, which 



* E. A. Parkyn, Prehistoric Art, London, 1915. 



