84 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



caves in France, all of which are ornamented with paint- 

 ings and drawings. Cavern painting passed through 

 four stages. In the first stage the drawings were simply 

 outlines done with a black or red crayon. In the second 

 stage the first attempts at modeling by shading appear. 

 These drawings are usually monochromatic silhouettes 

 in black. The third phase of development shows an ex- 

 cessive use of color which weakens the effect of the 

 modeling. Paleolithic painting reaches its zenith in the 

 fourth stage when several warm colors are introduced 

 to give realism and vigor to the picture. Although the 

 surface upon which the painting is made is usually 

 scraped and washed, spots are sometimes chosen which 

 give the figures the appearance of a bas-relief. The 

 colors used are brown, red, black, yellow and white. 41 

 The bison in figure 40 is done in warm sepia with bright 

 burnt sienna running into the sepia and becoming darker. 

 The art is generally remarkably realistic and the ani- 

 mals are often represented as in active motion. 42 



This cave art is the most striking achievement of 

 paleolithic man. It suffered eclipse, however, with the 

 passing of the fashion of cavern life ; men began to devote 

 their energies to other activities. One should keep in 

 mind that the period of the cave men was in general a 

 period in which the climate of Europe was extremely 

 cold. Large sections of the northern part of the conti- 

 nent were under ice, and from the highlands of the south- 

 ern part of the continent glaciers extended down into 

 the valleys, giving rise to glacial streams. It was the 

 age of the mammoth, reindeer, elk, hyena, of the wild 

 horse, the chamois, and the goat. Men and animals must 

 have been driven southward to a warmer zone by the 



4i See figures 38 and 39. 42 See diagram in figure 41. 



