ARTS 351 



found in the mountain caverns of Northern Spain, and in the 

 French district of Vezeretal. In this case the hunter-artist was 

 not content merely to scratch on the walls of the cave an out- 

 line of the animals he hunted (bisons, mammoths, horses, 

 antelopes, reindeer and ibex), but he added also shading and 

 colour, using the pieces of yellow ochre and black manganese 

 oxide found in the cave. How such animated pictures, so true 

 to nature, could have been completed in the darkness of the 

 cave, or lighted only by a torch, remains an insoluble puzzle. 

 These cave paintings of Northern Spain and Southern France 

 have something of the freedom of the palaeolithic art. With- 

 out conscious effort they spring solely and entirely from the 



FIG. 177. So-called sceptres with figures of animals. (Homes.) 



artist's enjoyment of form and colour. Together with the 

 outline drawings on reindeer, horn and chalk plaques, which 

 must be regarded as purely imaginary creations, they deserve 

 the first place in the early history of art. Certain drawings and 

 carvings may be given the second, which serve as a decoration 

 to some useful article, such as a spear-head, or the so-called 

 sceptres. These works of art also attained a position which 

 was never reached in the next or neolithic period. 



The characteristic of this period is the appearance of 

 conventional patterns. The palaeolithic hunter-artists did not 

 disdain to fill in their outline drawings here and there with 

 geometrical ornament by way of framing, or 'filling them in 

 with squares or zig-zags ; we even possess carvings which are 



