THE EARLIEST PICTURE IN THE WORLD u 



engravings have been thus printed off or developed, 

 and plaster casts made from the flat impressions are 

 preserved in the museum of St. Germain, the engraved 

 lines being rendered obvious by letting them fill with 

 printing ink. They often give us in this way a " printed " 

 drawing of remarkable accuracy and artistic quality. 

 The rolled-off print of our specimen is shown in Fig. 4. 

 The cylinder has been damaged by time, but the print 

 shows, more or less completely, a vigorous outline draw- 

 ing of three red deer, with six salmon-like fish placed 

 in a decorative way above them and between their legs. 

 Two lozenge-shaped outlines (above the larger stag) are 

 held by good authorities to be the signature of the artist. 

 The group of deer is represented in movement. The 

 largest stag is on the right; his hindquarters are broken 

 away by injury to the cylinder. He is commencing to 

 advance, and turns his head backwards to see what is the 

 thing which has alarmed him and his companions ; at 

 the same time his mouth is open, and he is " blowing." 

 The second stag is a younger and smaller animal, and 

 is retreating more rapidly. The cylinder is damaged so 

 that, although all the four legs of this second stag are 

 preserved, the head and neck are gone, though the points 

 of the antlers are preserved. The same damage has 

 removed all but the hind legs of the still younger animal 

 who heads the group. The beauty of the drawing of these 

 hind legs and the extraordinary impression of graceful, 

 rapid movement given by their hanging pose, side by 

 side, is not surpassed, even if it be equalled, by the work 

 of any modern draughtsman. It is clear that the youngest 

 and smallest member of the group is, as is natural, the 

 most timid, and that he has sprung off with a sudden 

 bound on the occurrence of the alarm from the rear, which 

 is setting the whole group into motion with increasing 

 velocity as we pass from right to left. 



