MAN, HIS ENVIRONMENT AND HIS ART 



21 



(Ariege) and a horse at Font-de-Gaunie (Dordogne) are also of this 

 class, as is a bovine head in the newly discovered cavern of Tuc 

 d'Audoubert (Ariege). Shortly after his discovery of the cavern Count 

 Begouen noted two red spots on the wall. The following day it was my 

 good fortune to identify them as a pair of eyes, the animal's head being 

 formed in bold relief by the projecting rock. Such fortuitous objects 

 as these might have been that which originally sensitized the human 

 imagination till it was able to catch and perpetuate a likeness to familiar 

 or cherished forms. "With the gradual perfection of the likeness both 

 with and without fortuitous assistance the fine arts were born. 



Xothing quite the equal of paleolithic cave art has since appeared 

 among any people in the hunting and fishing stage of culture; for it 

 must be remembered that domestication of animals and the arts of 

 agriculture were neolithic innovations; so was the ceramic art. 



It seems almost a pity that this artistically inclined old race was 

 not familiar with the plastic possibilities of clay. What exquisite 

 figures of their favorite game animals they might have left to us, both 

 in the round and in painted forms. Perhaps they did model in clay. 

 If so the objects were not properly tempered and either poorly fired or 

 not fired at all and have since completely crumbled away. Only one 



^M^^mm^ ^ 





Fig. 11. Wounded Bison, in part engraved and in part painted (red) ; to the 

 right, the head of a horse incomplete; below, six claviform figures. Pindal (Asturias). 

 After Alcalde del Rio, Breuil and Sierra. Les cavernes de la region Cantabrique 

 (Espagne). 



