16 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 Paleolithic 
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, zbzd., tells us) show not only a consummate mastery 
of natural design, but also an extraordinary technical resource. 
Apart from the charcoal used in certain outlines, 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 limbs huddled 
together were executed on the ceilings of inner vaults and 
galleries, where the light of day never penetrated. Nowhere 
does smoke blur their outlines, probably (as Parkyn ! 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 Paleolithic art 
extant.” 
This little Spanish girl was the first for many, many 
thousands of years to behold a collection of pictures, which 
1. A, Parkyn, Prehistoric Art, London, 1915. 
