Chapter XXII: Introduction: Industrial and Artistic Development (2)

The chief weapon of LATE MAGDALENIAN times is the harpoon with the double row of barbs, which is found at all the principal discovery sites extending from stations in southwestern and southern France far to the east. Besides the double-rowed harpoon, the cylindrical chisel of reindeer-horn frequently occurs, often pointed at the end and with a small curve at the side; this, like other bone implements, was richly decorated with engraving. This late Magdalenian level is distinguished everywhere by the rich decoration of all the bone implements and weapons, as well as of the 'bâtons de commandement.' The quantity of bone needles, more numerous in this stage than ever before, attests the greater refinement of finish in the preparation of clothing.

This was the culminating point both in Magdalenian industry and art, and probably also in the morale and modes of living. Characteristic types of this late Magdalenian culture are found at La Madeleine, Les Eyzies, and Teyjat, and extend into the northern Pyrenees, at Lourdes, Gourdan, and Mas d'Azil. Their easterly geographical distribution will be described on a later page. The microlithic flints now reach their culminating point; to the small bladed flakes with blunted backs are added little feather-shaped flint blades, and still others with oblique ends, which begin to suggest the geometric forms of the succeeding Tardenoisian industry. Among the flint borers we notice a prevalent type with a stout central point, also the so-called 'parrot-beak' borer; for the preparation of skins, scrapers are made, as before, of thin flakes, slightly retouched at both ends to give a rounded or rectangular form.

Following the late or high Magdalenian stage is a period of decline in industry. In southern France(18) both flint and bone implements show unmistakable indications of the approach either of the succeeding Tardenoisian or Azilian stage. In the Pyrenees both the flints and the great polishers of deer-horn begin to resemble those which occur in the post-Magdalenian levels. This industrial stage corresponds broadly with the period of decline in art, and with the change both in the industrial habits and in the artistic spirit of the Crô-Magnons.

The divisions of the Magdalenian are, therefore, as follows:

5. Decline of the Magdalenian art and industry.
4. Late Magdalenian typified at La Madeleine, Dordogne.
3. Middle Magdalenian typified at La Madeleine, Dordogne.
2. Early Magdalenian typified at La Madeleine, Dordogne.
1. Proto-Magdalenian typified at Placard, Charente.

FLINT AND BONE INDUSTRY

Through the four successive stages of development which we have already traced (p. 382) there are perceived certain general tendencies and characteristics which clearly separate the Magdalenian from the preceding Solutrean culture.

Compared with Solutrean times, when the art of flint working reached its high-water mark, the Magdalenian palæoliths show a marked degeneracy in technique, having neither the symmetry of form nor the finely chipped surfaces which distinguish the Solutrean types; indeed, they do not even equal the grooved marginal retouch of the best Aurignacian work. The Magdalenian retouch shows no influence of the Solutrean; it is even more blunt and marginal than the late Aurignacian. In compensation for this decadence in the art of retouch, the Crô-Magnons now show extraordinary skill in producing long, narrow, thin flakes of flint, struck off the nucleus with a single blow; these 'blades,' which are very numerous, are often not retouched at all; occasionally a few hasty touches are used to attain a rounded or oblique end; in other cases a very limited marginal chipping along the sides or the development of an elongated pedicle (_soie_) produces very effective implements for graving and sculptural work.

For the art of engraving perfect _burins_, _burin-grattoirs_, and _burins doubles_ were rapidly made from these thin flakes; also _burins_ with oblique terminal edge and with the 'parrot-beak' end. For industrial purposes some of the flints were denticulated around the border, doubtless for the preparation of fibres and of thin strips of leather for the attachment of clothing to the body and for binding of the flint and bone lance-heads to wooden shafts. Extremely fine perçoirs have been found adapted to perforating the bone needles; the _grattoir_, single or double, was also fashioned out of these flakes, and the nucleus of the flint was used as a hammer. Hammers of simple rounded stones are also found.

But the notable feature of Magdalenian industry is the extensive and unprecedented use of bone, horn, and ivory. From the antlers of the reindeer are early developed the _sagaies_ or javelin points of varying size, usually ornamented along the sides and with several forms of attachment to the wooden shaft, either forked, bevelled, or rounded. The ornamentation consists of engraved elongate lines or beaded lines, and of deep grooves perhaps intended for the insertion of poisonous fluids or the outlet of blood.

Of all the Magdalenian weapons the most characteristic is the harpoon, the chief fishing implement, which now appears for the first time marked by the invention of the _barb_ or point retroverted in such a manner as to hold its place in the flesh. The barb does not suddenly appear like an inventive mutation, but it very slowly evolves as its usefulness is demonstrated in practice. The shaft is very rarely perforated at the base for the attachment of a line; it is cylindrical in form, adapted to the capture of the large fish of the streams. That a barbed weapon was also used in the chase seems to be indicated by drawings in the grotto of Niaux and lines engraved on the teeth of the bear, but these drawings indicate the form of an arrow rather than of a harpoon. The length varies from two to fifteen inches. The harpoons may have been projected by means of the so-called _propulseurs_ or dart-throwers, which resemble implements so employed by the Eskimo and Australians of to-day. These dart-throwers are often beautifully carved, as in the case of one found at Mas d'Azil, ornamented with a fine relief of the ibex.

Then there were _bâtons de commandement_, carved with scenes of the chase and with spirited heads of the horse and other animals, which quite probably were insignia of office. Reinach has suggested that bâtons were trophies of the chase, and according to Schoetensack they may have been used as ornaments to fasten the clothing. The discovery of mural painting and engraving suggests the possibility that these bâtons were believed to have some magical influence, and were connected with mysterious rites in the caverns, for a great variety of such ceremonial staffs is found among primitive peoples. Geographically, the bâtons spread from the Pyrenees into Belgium and eastward into Moravia and Russia.

Slender bone needles brought to a fine point on stone polishers indicate great care in the preparation of clothing. Associated with the borers are many other bone implements: awls, hammers, chisels, stilettos, pins with and without a head, spatulas, and polishers; the latter may have been employed in the preparation of leather. The borers, pins, and polishers appear from the very beginning of the period of sculpture. The name of poniard (_poignard_) is given to long points of reindeer-horn; one of these was found at Laugerie Basse.

HISTORY OF UPPER PALÆOLITHIC ART

Following the pioneer studies of Lartet, the history of the art of the Reindeer Period, as manifested in bone, ivory, and the engraved and sculptured horns of the deer, occupied the last thirty-five years of the life of Edouard Piette,(19) a magistrate of Craonne who pursued this delightful subject as an avocation. He was a pioneer in the interpretation of _l'art mobilier_, the mobile art. It must be remembered that in Piette's time the fourfold divisions of Upper Palæolithic culture so familiar to us were only partly perceived; his studies, in fact, related chiefly to the mobile art of Magdalenian times, and he undertook to follow its modifications in every successive grotto, beginning with his brochure _La Grotte de Gourdan_, in 1873, in which he first announced the idea which underlay all his later conclusions, that sculpture preceded line engraving and etching. He divided the art into a series of phases; that of the red deer (_Cervus elaphus_) he termed _Elaphienne_, that of the reindeer _Tarandienne_, that of the horse _Hippiquienne_, and that of the wild cattle _Bovidienne_. In concluding this early work of 1873, he remarked: "To write the history of Magdalenian art is to give the history of primitive art itself." He observed that in sculpturing the horn of the reindeer the artist was obliged to work in the hard exterior bone and to avoid the spongy interior; this defect in material suggested the invention of the bas-relief. The statuette he regarded as the assemblage of two bas-reliefs, one on either side of the bone. Thus he described the ivory head of the woman of Brassempouy, the only human face of Upper Palæolithic times which is even fairly well represented; also the two imperfect feminine torsos in ivory. In 1897, at the age of seventy, Piette undertook his last excavations, and the sum of his labors is preserved for us in the magnificent volume entitled _l'Art pendant l'âge du Renne_, published in 1907.

The pupil and biographer of Piette, l'Abbé Henri Breuil, observes that his scheme of art evolution is exact along its main lines.(20) It is true that human sculpture appears for the first time in the lower Aurignacian, that it survives the Solutrean, and even extends into middle Magdalenian times, but this enormous period cannot be placed in one archæological division as Piette supposed; in truth, he did not suspect the prolonged gestation of Quaternary art, but contracted into one small division the documents of numerous phases. At the same time, Piette was right in attributing the flower of the art of engraving accompanied by contours of animal forms in relief to the second and third levels of the Magdalenian industry, but he had no idea that this development had been preceded by a long period in which engraving had been practised in a timid and more or less sporadic manner as a parietal art on the walls of the caverns as well as on bone and stone. It is also true that a considerable facility in sculpture preceded the art of engraving, but it was arrested in its progress while engraving slowly developed; in the early choice of subjects the sculptors of middle and late Aurignacian times showed a preference for the human form, while later, in Solutrean and early Magdalenian times, they inclined principally toward animal figures, so that sculpture was not suddenly eclipsed. The first engravings made with fine points of flint on stone are hardly less ancient than the first sculptures, and modestly co-exist beside them up to the moment where engraving, greatly multiplied, largely supplants sculpture. Finally, observes Breuil, it is one of the glories of Edouard Piette to have understood that the painted pebbles of Mas d'Azil represented the last prolongation of the dying Quaternary art.

It is fortunate that the mantle of Piette fell upon a man of the artistic genius and appreciation of Breuil, to whom chiefly we owe our clear understanding of the chronological development of Upper Palæolithic art. In the accompanying table (p. 395) are assembled the results of the observations of Piette, Sautuola, Rivière, Cartailhac, Capitan, Breuil, and many others, largely in the order of sequence determined through the labors of Breuil.

We are far from 1880, observes Cartailhac,(21) when the discovery by Sautuola of the paintings on the roof of the cavern of Altamira was met with such scepticism and indifference. Knowing the artistic instincts of the Upper Palæolithic people from their engraving and carving in bone and ivory, we should have been prepared for the discovery of a parietal art. The publication of the engravings in the grotto of La Mouthe by Rivière(22) in April, 1895, was the first warning of our oversight, and immediately Edouard Piette recalled Altamira to the memory of the workers on prehistoric art. The discovery of Sautuola ceased to be isolated. Led by the engravings found in La Mouthe, Daleau discovered the engravings in the grotto of Pair-non-Pair, Gironde. In 1902 there was the double discovery of the engravings in the grotto of Combarelles, and of the paintings in the grotto of Font-de-Gaume, communicated by Capitan and Breuil. Discoveries at Marsoulas, Mas d'Azil, La Grèze, Bernifal, and Teyjat soon followed.[AX]

STAGES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF UPPER PALÆOLITHIC ART

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | Sculpture | Incised Figures | Painted Figures |
|--------------|------------------|-----------------|-------------------|
|AZILIAN. | | VI. No animal | VI. Conventional |
| | | drawings. |Azilian decoration.|
| | | |Flat pebbles |
| | | |(galets) colored in|
| | | |red and black. Mas |
| | | |d'Azil, Marsoulas, |
| | | |Pindal. |
|--------------|------------------|-----------------|-------------------|
|LATE | | V. Entirely | V. No animal art. |
| MAGDALENIAN.| | wanting. |Various schematic |
| | | |and conventional |
| | | |figures and signs |
| | | |(bands, branches, |
| | | |lines, punctuated |
| | | |surfaces suggesting|
| | | |the Azilian |
| | | |galets). |
| | | | |
|MIDDLE | Slender human | IV. Graffites | IV. Polychrome |
| MAGDALENIAN.|figurines in ivory|feebly traced; |animal figures with|
| |and bone. |fine lines |the contour in |
| | Animal forms in |indicating hair |black and interior |
| |reindeer and stag |predominate in |modelling obtained |
| |horn on implements|the drawings, as |through a mingling |
| |of the chase and |at Font-de-Gaume |of yellow, red and |
| |ceremonial |and Marsoulas. |black color. |
| |insignia. |Perfected animal |Constant |
| | |outlines and |association of |
| | |details. |_raclage_ and of |
| | | Fine animal |incisions with |
| | |outlines, Grotte |painting. _Mains_ |
| | |de la Mairie, |_stylisées._ Great,|
| | |Marsoulas. |brilliant |
| | | Perfected |polychrome frescoes|
| | |engraving on bone|of Marsoulas, |
| | |and ivory. |Font-de-Gaume, |
| | | |Altamira. |
| | | | Animal outlines in|
| | | |black, Niaux. |
| | | | |
|EARLY | Animal sculpture.| III. Deeply | III. Figures of a |
| MAGDALENIAN.|Bisons of Tuc |incised lines |flat tint and |
| |d'Audoubert; high |followed by light|Chinese shading |
| |reliefs of horses,|graffite contour |without modelling, |
| |Cap-Blanc. |lines. Incised |also dotted animal |
| | |outlines and |figures as at |
| | |hair, _e. g._ |Font-de-Gaume, |
| | |mammoths of |Marsoulas, |
| | |Combarelles. |Altamira, Pasiega. |
| | |Striated | |
| | |drawings, | |
| | |Castillo, | |
| | |Altamira, | |
| | |Pasiega. | |
|--------------|------------------|-----------------|-------------------|
|SOULTREAN. | Bone sculpture in| Engravings. | |
| |high relief; | | |
| |Isturitz, | | |
| |Pyrenees. Animal | | |
| |sculpture in the | | |
| |round, | | |
| |Předmost. | | |
|--------------|------------------|-----------------|-------------------|
|LATE | Heavy human | II. Animal and | II. Filling in |
| AURIGNACIAN.|statuettes (idols)|human figures, at|lines at first |
| |of Mentone, |first very deeply|feeble, then more |
| |Brassempouy, |incised, then |and more strong, |
| |Willendorf, Brünn.|less so; four |finally associated |
| |Human bas-reliefs |limbs generally |with contour |
| |of Laussel. Heavy |figured. Designs |modelling which |
| |human figurines of|vigorous, |ultimately covers |
| |Sireuil, |somewhat awkward,|the entire |
| |Pair-non-Pair. |as at La Mouthe, |silhouette. Incised|
| | |then more |lines associated |
| | |characteristic, |with painting as at|
| | |as at |Combarelles, |
| | |Combarelles. |Font-de-Gaume, La |
| | | |Mouthe, Marsoulas, |
| | | |Altamira. |
| | | | |
|EARLY | Animals in low | I. Figures | I. Linear tracings|
| AURIGNACIAN.|relief. |deeply incised, |in monochrome, |
| | |heavy, in |single black or red|
| | |absolute profile;|lines, indicating |
| | |stiff in form as |only a silhouette. |
| | |at Pair-non-Pair,|Two limbs out of |
| | |La Grèze, La |four are ordinarily|
| | |Mouthe, Gargas, |figured. The most |
| | |Bernifal, Hornos |ancient paintings |
| | |de la Peña, |of Castillo, |
| | |Marsoulas, |Altamira, Pindal, |
| | |Altamira. |Font-de-Gaume, |
| | | Archaic animal |Marsoulas, La |
| | |outlines of |Mouthe, |
| | |Castillo. |Combarelles, |
| | | |Bernifal. |
|--------------|------------------|-----------------|-------------------|
| | Statuary and | Mobile and | Parietal and |
| |bas-relief. |parietal art in |mobile art in |
| | |line. |color. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

In 1908 Déchelette listed eight caverns in Dordogne, six in the Pyrenees, and seven along the Cantabrian Pyrenees of northern Spain, but there are now upward of thirty caverns in which traces of parietal art have been found, and doubtless the number will be greatly enlarged by future exploration, because the entrances of many of the grottos have been closed, and the remote recesses in which drawings are placed, as in the recent discovery of Tuc d'Audoubert, are very difficult to explore.

The chief divisions of Upper Palæolithic art are as follows:

1. Drawing, engraving, and etching with fine flint points on surfaces
of stone, bone, ivory, and the limestone walls of the caverns.

2. Sculpture in low or high relief, chiefly in stone, bone, and clay.

3. Sculpture in the round in stone, ivory, reindeer and stag horn.

4. Painting in line, in monochrome tone, and in polychromes of three
or four colors, usually accompanied or preceded by line engraving,
with flint points or low contour reliefs.

5. Conventional ornaments drawn from the repetition of animal or plant
forms or the repetition of geometric lines.

DRAWINGS AND ENGRAVINGS OF THE EARLY MAGDALENIAN

We have already traced the art of engraving, as it first appears in late Aurignacian times, into the Solutrean; in the latter it is but feebly represented. Its further development in early Magdalenian times is found in the engravings made with more delicate or more sharply pointed flint implements, capable of drawing an excessively fine line; these were doubtless the early Magdalenian _microliths_. The animal outlines, with an indication of hair, are frequently sketched with such exceedingly fine lines as to resemble etchings; the figures are often of very small dimensions and marked by much closer attention to details, such as the eyes, the ears, the hair both of the head and the mane, and the hoofs; the proportions are also much more exact, so that these engravings become very realistic. Breuil ascribes to the early Magdalenian the engraved mammoth tracings of Combarelles. Engravings of this period are also found in the grottos of Altamira in Spain, and of Font-de-Gaume in Dordogne, and to this stage belongs the group of does at Altamira, distinguished by the peculiar lines of the hair covering the face. The subjects chosen are chiefly the red deer, reindeer, mammoth, horse, chamois, and bison. The striated drawings of Castillo and Altamira, which partly represent hair and are partly indications of shading, belong to this period.

The engravings in the grotto of La Mouthe were discovered by Rivière, in 1895, and were the means of directing attention afresh to the long-forgotten parietal art found in Altamira by Sautuola in 1880. The drawings at La Mouthe begin about 270 feet from the entrance and may be traced for a distance of 100 feet, scattered in various groups; they manifestly belong to a very primitive stage, probably early Magdalenian, the point of chief interest being that, while the greater part of the engravings are in simple incised lines, here and there the contour is enforced by a line of red or black paint; this is the beginning of a method pursued throughout the Magdalenian parietal art, in which the artist carefully sketches his contours with sharp-pointed flints before he applies any color. This treatment, at first limited to the simple outlines, led to tracing in many of the details with engraved lines, the eyes, the ears, the hair; thus Breuil has shown that in its final development a carefully worked-out engraving underlies the painting. In the La Mouthe drawings the proportions are very bad; they represent the reindeer, bison, mammoth, horse, ibex, and urus; spots of red are sometimes splashed on the sides of the animals; here and there is a bit of superior work, such as the reindeer in motion.

The cavern of Combarelles, discovered in 1901, in Dordogne, near Les Eyzies, contains by far the most remarkable record of early Magdalenian art; there are upward of four hundred drawings and engravings representing almost every animal of early Magdalenian times, among them the horse, rhinoceros, mammoth, reindeer, bison, stag, ibex, lion, and wolf; there are also between five and six representations of the men of the time, both masked and unmasked; the style is more recent than that of the oldest drawings in Font-de-Gaume, but much more ancient than the period of polychrome art.[AY] The gallery is 720 feet long, and barely 6 feet broad; the drawings begin about 350 feet from the entrance, and are scattered at irregular intervals to the very end. In general the art is very fine and evidently largely the work of one artist; representations of the woolly rhinoceros and of the mammoth are very true to life; there is a pair of splendid lions, male and female; the drawings of the horse are abundant, and side by side we have a representation of several types of horses, the pure forest type with the arched forehead, the small, fine-headed Celtic type, and a larger type reminding us of the kiang, or wild ass. Here the greater part of the work is engraving, as contrasted with the painted outlines in the cavern of Niaux and with the etched outlines of the Grotte de la Mairie.

Even a large cavern like Combarelles offers comparatively few surfaces favorable to these engraved lines; but, small or large, such surfaces were eagerly sought, sometimes near the floor, sometimes on the walls, and again on the ceilings; even with the brilliant light of an acetylene lamp it is now difficult to discover all these outlines, some of which are drawn in the most unlooked-for places. If the extremely fine incisions, such as those representing the hair of the mammoth, are so difficult to detect with a powerful illuminant, one may imagine the task of the Crô-Magnon artists with their small stone lamps and wick fed by the melting grease. One such lamp has been found in the grotto of La Mouthe, about 50 feet from the entrance; the workman's pick broke it into four pieces, only three of which were recovered. The shallow bowl contained some carbonized matter, an analysis of which led Berthelot, the chemist, to conclude that an animal fat was used for lighting purposes. Like most other implements, this lamp is decorated--in this instance by an engraving of the head and horns of the ibex. Three of these lamps have been found in Charente and Lot, and it is noteworthy that lamps similar to those of the Magdalenian period are used in Dordogne at the present day.

In the great cavern of Castillo,[AZ] at Puente-Viesgo, discovered in 1903 by Alcalde del Rio, which is entered by the majestic grotto already described on p. 162, the animal drawings are mostly of an archaic character, belonging to the very beginnings of early Aurignacian parietal art. The most abundant subjects are horses and deer, which entirely replace the reindeer drawings so abundant in central France, outlines of the stag and of the doe being very numerous; on the other hand, the bison and the ox are rarely drawn. Belonging to the category of most primitive painting are the simple outlines in black of a horse and of a mammoth, the two limbs of one side being represented as inverted triangles, terminating in a sharp point, like the drawings of children. Of more recent style are the rather crude polychrome bisons, numerous hands outlined in red, and a vast number of tectiform signs and symbols which represent inferior work of the middle Magdalenian period.

On the other side of the same mountain is the grotto of Pasiega, discovered in 1912 by Doctor Hugo Obermaier. This small grotto, about 500 feet above the river, receives its name as a retreat of the shepherds. In the floor is a very narrow opening through which one rapidly descends by means of a tube of limestone barely large enough to admit the passage of the body. The interior is very labyrinthine. After passing through the _Galerie des Animaux_ and the _Galerie des Inscriptions_, one reaches, after a most difficult détour, the terminal chamber, which Obermaier has called the _Salle du Trône_, the throne-room; here there is a natural seat of limestone, with supports at the sides for the arms, and one can still see the discoloration of the rock by the soiled hands of the magicians or of the artists. In this _salle_ there are a few drawings and engravings on the walls, and a few pieces of flint have been discovered. In no other cavern, perhaps, is there a greater sense of mystery as to the influence, whether religious, magical, or artistic, which impelled men to seek out and enter these dangerous passages, the slippery rocks illumined at best by a very imperfect light, leading to the deep and dangerous recesses below, where a misstep would be fatal. The impulse, whatever it may have been, was doubtless very strong, and in this, as in other caverns, almost every surface favorably prepared by the processes of nature has received a drawing. No industrial flints have been found at the entrance to this cavern, but some have been traced into the interior. The art is considered partly of late Aurignacian, perhaps of Solutrean, and certainly in part of early Magdalenian times; in general it is much more recent than that of Castillo. It consists both of engravings and painted outlines, with proportions usually excellent and sometimes admirable. The paintings of deer are in yellow ochre, of the chamois in red. There are altogether 226 paintings and 36 engravings, in which are represented 50 roe-deer, 51 horses, 47 tectiforms, 16 _Bos_, 15 bison, 12 stags, 9 ibexes, 1 chamois, and 16 other forms, distributed in all parts of the cave. The outlines are in solid red color or in stripes of red or black, or there is a series of spots; the subjects are chiefly the stag, the doe, the wild cattle (which are rather common), the bison (which are less common), the ibex, and the chamois. Among the numerous representations of the horse there are two small engravings of a type with erect mane, both the feet and the hair being indicated with great care, the limbs well designed and of excellent proportions, clearly in early Magdalenian style. Of the utmost interest is the discovery here of two horses drawn with rounded forehead and drooping mane, the only instance in which the drooping mane of the modern type of horse (_Equus caballus_) has been observed in the cavern drawings.

In the advanced development of middle or high Magdalenian art, parietal engraving with finely pointed flint implements presents a nearer approach to the truth both of proportion and of detail than do the earlier stages. In this stage the engravings seem to consist chiefly of independent animal figures and to furnish a prelude to the application of color. A simple but striking example of approaching perfection of technique is seen in the bison (Fig. 205) engraved in the cavern of Marsoulas, where the profile is outlined and great shaggy masses of hair beneath the neck are admirably indicated. In these drawings the complicated details of the feet, with their characteristic tufts of hair, and of the head show far more careful observation. In the great series of bison at Font-de-Gaume the entire animal is sketched in with these finely engraved lines, as brought out through the wonderfully close observation and studies of Breuil. This is quite similar to the practice of the modern artist who sketches his figure in crayon or charcoal before applying the color.

There are two quite different styles in this engraving, one seen in the deep incised lines of the reindeer head in the cavern of Tuc d'Audoubert (Fig. 232), a complete design in itself, another seen in the deep incisions in the limestone outlining the horses and the bison as observed in the cavern of Niaux (Fig. 174). Here the engraved line is followed by the application of a black painted line, the effect being to bring out the body in the surrounding rock so as to give the silhouette a high relief.

In the drawings in the large on these curved wall surfaces, only part of which could be seen by the eye at one time, the difficulties of maintaining the proportions were extreme, and one is ever impressed by the boldness and confidence with which the long sweeping strokes of the flint were made, for one rarely if ever sees any evidences of corrected outline. Only a lifelong observer of the fine points which distinguish the different prehistoric breeds of the horse could appreciate the extraordinary skill with which the spirited, aristocratic lines of the Celtic are executed, on the one hand, and, on the other, the plebeian and heavy outlines of the steppe horse. In the best examples of Magdalenian engraving, both parietal and on bone or ivory, one can almost immediately detect the specific type of horse which the artist had before him or in mind, also the season of the year, as indicated by the representation of a summer or winter coat of hair.

The realism of most of the parietal art passes into the impressionism of the excessively fine engravings on bone or reindeer horn, executed with a few strokes, of a herd of horses or of reindeer (Fig. 207), or where a herd of deer is seen (Fig. 208) crossing a stream full of fishes, as in the well-known engravings on reindeer horn found in the grotto of Lorthet, in the Pyrenees. This is one of the very rare instances in Palæolithic art, either engraving or painting, which shows a sense of composition or the treatment of a subject or incident involving more than one figure. Others are the herd of passing reindeer found engraved on a bit of schist in the grotto of Laugerie Basse, the lion facing a group of horses engraved on a stalagmite at Font-de-Gaume, and the procession of mammoths engraved upon a procession of bison in the same cavern.

BEGINNINGS OF PAINTING

The beginnings of painting in Aurignacian times, consisting of simple contours and crude outlines in red or black, with little or no attempt at shading, pass in early Magdalenian time(24) into a long phase of monochromes, either in black or red, in which the technique pursues a number of variations, from simple linear treatment, continuous or dotted, to half tints or full tints, gradually encroaching on the sides of the body from the linear contour. Of this order are the figures in flat tints and shading, resembling those of the Chinese, without modelling; also the figures entirely covered with dots, such as are seen at Marsoulas, Font-de-Gaume, and Altamira. The tints, as in the drawing of the galloping steppe horse, pass inward from the black outline to enhance the effect of roundness or relief. In the splendid series of paintings in the cavern of Niaux there is little more than the black outline of the body, but the covering of the sides with lines, indicating the hair, lends itself to the rounded presentation of form. A somewhat similar effect is sought in the lines of the woolly rhinoceros painted in red in the cavern of Font-de-Gaume, which Breuil attributes to the Aurignacian stage, but which also suggests the early Magdalenian.

DRAWINGS IN VARIOUS CAVERNS OF THE EARLY AND MIDDLE MAGDALENIAN

The grandest cavern thus far discovered in France is that of Niaux (1906), which from a small opening on the side of a limestone mountain and 300 feet above the River Vic de Sos extends almost horizontally 4,200 feet into the heart of the mountain.(25) Not far from Tarascon on the Ariège it lay near one of the most accessible routes between France and Spain. Passing through the long gallery beyond the borders of the subterranean lake which bars the entrance, at a distance of half a mile we reach a great chamber where the overhanging walls of limestone have been finely polished by the sands and gravels transported by the subglacial streams; on these broad, slightly concave panels of a very light ochre color are drawings of a large number of bison and of horses, as fresh and brilliant as if they were the work of yesterday; the outlines drawn with black oxide of manganese and grease on the smooth stone resemble coarse lithography. The animals are drawn in splendid, bold contours, with no cross-hatching, but with solid masses of bright color here and there; the bison, as the most admired animal of the chase, is drawn majestically with a superb crest, the muzzle most perfectly outlined, the horns indicated by single lines only, the eyes with the defiant expression highly distinctive of the animal when wounded or enraged. Here for the first time are revealed the early Magdalenian methods of hunting the bison, for upon their flanks are clearly traced one or more arrow or spear heads with the shafts still attached; the most positive proof of the use of the arrow is the apparent termination of the wooden shaft in the feathers which are rudely represented in three of the drawings. There are also many silhouettes of horses which strongly resemble the pure Asiatic steppe type now living in the desert of Gobi, the Przewalski horse, with erect mane and with no drooping forelock; in contrast to the bison, the eyes are rather dull and stupid in expression. There are also drawings of other types of horses, a very fine ibex, a chamois, a few outlines of wild cattle, and a very fine one of the royal stag; we find no reindeer or mammoth represented. In some of the narrower passages the rock has been beautifully sculptured by water, and the artists have been quick to take advantage of any natural lines to add a bit of color here or there and thus bring out the outline of a bison.

Presenting the widest possible contrast to Niaux is the cavern of Le Portel, west of Tarascon, with its contracted entrance and a very rapidly descending passage hardly broad enough to admit the body. This narrow and tortuous cave terminates in an extremely small passage, so narrow as barely to admit the athletic and determined artist explorer, the Abbé Breuil. Here, as in Font-de-Gaume and other caverns, is one of the greatest mysteries of the cave art, namely, that these terminal and dangerous _diverticules finals_ were wrought with some of the most careful and artistic designs. Le Portel, like Niaux, reveals a single style, but one altogether different. Very numerous bison are drawn in outline both in red and black; the sides of the body are often dotted with red or hatched in close parallel lines. On a long horizontal panel are seen many bison in red, and one observes here a finely drawn pair of bison feet in the best Magdalenian style. The horse as represented here is of a quite different type with thin upper tail and a tail-tuft resembling that of the wild ass, so that one is almost tempted to believe that the kiang is intended, but the ears are too short; it has a high rump and a high, splendidly arched neck, like that of the stallion, and the eye is better drawn; the body is covered with long vertical or oblique lines which might be mistaken for stripes, but this hatching is a matter of technique only. Again, the mane is erect, and there is no forelock; in fact, none of these Magdalenian artists has represented the horse with the forelock, indicating that this character of the modern horse was unknown in western Europe and probably came in during Neolithic times.

Of an entirely different type are the beautifully engraved miniature figures of animals discovered in 1903 in the Grotte de la Mairie.(26) The outlines, from 18 to 20 inches in length, are sharply engraved on the limestone stalagmites; they are all in the middle Magdalenian style and include the stag, reindeer, bison, cave-bear, lion, wild cattle, and two very distinct types of horses: one of these types is large-headed with an arched forehead; this is probably the forest type and perhaps represents the horse most abundant at the Solutré encampment (see p. 288); the other horse is small-headed, with a perfectly flat, straight forehead, corresponding with the Arab or Celtic pony type.

DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS OF THE END OF THE MIDDLE MAGDALENIAN

The fourth and final developmental phase of painting flowers out toward the end of middle Magdalenian times in the grand period of polychromes. These are first etched with underlying lines engraved with flint, the surface of the limestone having been previously prepared by the thinning or scraping of the borders (_raclage_) to heighten the relief of the drawing; then a very strong contour is laid down in black, and this may be followed by a further contour line in red (the use of black and red is very ancient); an ochreous brown color is mixed in, conforming well with what we know to be the tints of the hairy portions of the bison. Thus gradually a complete polychrome fresco art develops. The final stage of this art follows, in which the filling out of various tones of color requires the use of black, brown, red, and yellowish shades. The underlying or preliminary engraving now begins to recede, being retained only for the tracing in of the final details of the hair, the eyes, the horns, and the hoofs. The early stages of this art are seen in the cavern of Marsoulas, and its height is reached in the mural frescos of Font-de-Gaume and in the ceiling of Altamira, the latter still in a perfect and brilliant state of preservation.

To prepare the colors, ochre and oxide of manganese were ground down to a fine powder in stone mortars; raw pigment was carried in ornamented cases made from the lower-limb bones of the reindeer, and such tubes still containing the ochre have been found in the Magdalenian hearths; the mingling of the finely ground powder with the animal oils or fats that were used was probably done on the flat side of the shoulder-blade of the reindeer or on some other palette. The pigment was quite permanent, and in the darkness of the Altamira grotto it has been so perfectly preserved that the colors are still as brilliant as if they had been applied yesterday.

The art of the grotto of Marsoulas, in the Pyrenees, is both of an earlier and of a later period; the engraved lines, as of the head and front of a bison, are beautifully done in advanced Magdalenian style, deep incisions representing the larger outlines and finer incisions representing the hair; here the outlines are also traced in color, and there are several masks or grotesques of the human face; these last are treated with a total disregard of the truth which characterizes the animal work. Among the few bison represented here, some are covered with dots or splashes of color, others show the painted outline which begins to extend over the surface with gradations of tint, anticipating the color effects attained in the finished paintings of Altamira and of Font-de-Gaume. All the details of the early technique are found here: the artist outlines the form with an engraved line; he traces in black color the contours of the head and of the body; he begins to apply masses of red over the figure. This beginning of polychrome art at Marsoulas is a step toward coloring the entire surface with red ochre and black, as in the finished paintings of a later period.

The grand cavern of Font-de-Gaume,(27) on the Beune, not far from Les Eyzies, contains the most complete record of Upper Palæolithic art, especially from the close of Aurignacian to the close of Magdalenian times. There are crude Aurignacian drawings, simple outlines painted in black, outlines supplemented by the indication of hair (examples of the early stages in the development of polychrome work as well as of the very highest stages), compositions like the lion and the group of horses, and the murals in the _Galerie des Fresques_, which show a general composition in the processions of animals, as well as some special compositions such as the reindeer and bison facing each other. The life depicted is largely that of the tundras, mammoths, rhinoceroses, and reindeer, but it also includes the steppe or Celtic type of horse, represented galloping (Fig. 211), and a small group of horses of the Arab or Celtic type. Of the meadow fauna the bison is generally represented in preference to the wild ox or urus.

Throughout the cavern the favorable surfaces of the walls are crowded with engravings, and in the _Galerie des Fresques_, beyond the narrow passage known as the 'Rubicon' (Fig. 221), we see altogether the finest examples of Upper Palæolithic art. On each side of this gallery is a peculiarly advantageous mural surface, broad, relatively smooth, and gently concave (Pl. VII), probably the best which any cavern afforded, and here we observe great processions of mammals superposed upon each other, like the records of a palimpsest, as if such a surface was so rare that it was visited again and again. The most imposing series is that of the bison, done in the finest polychrome style, mostly headed in one direction. The reindeer form another series and in some instances face each other, although mainly arranged in a long procession facing to the left. This superposition of drawing upon drawing ends with the latest superposition in finely incised lines of a great procession of mammoths upon that of the polychrome bisons. It is somewhat difficult to reconcile a religious or votive interpretation with the multiplication of these drawings upon each other. Moreover, it appears to be inconsistent with the reverent spirit which pervades the work in this and in all other caverns, for what impresses one most is the absence of trivial work or meaningless drawings.

It seems as if at every stage in their artistic development these people were intensely serious about their work, each drawing being executed with the utmost possible care, according to the degree of artistic development and appreciation.

In the great gallery of frescos we find not less than eighty figures, in some cases partly covered by a fine sheen of stalagmitic limestone; these include 49 bison, 4 reindeer, 4 horses, and 15 mammoths. The bison polychromes have suffered somewhat in color and are far less brilliant than those at Altamira. In the polychromes the color is applied either in long lines of red or black surrounding the contours of the animal or in flat tints placed side by side, or again the two colors are mingled and give intermediate tints with striking effect. On one of the finest of these bison is the underlying drawing of a reindeer, a wild boar, and the superposition of an excellent engraving of a mammoth, which is represented on an altogether different scale, so that it falls well within the body lines of the bison (Fig. 224). In each of these mammoths the grotesque but truthful contour is preserved in the drapery of hair which almost completely envelops the limbs; the emphasizing of the sudden depression of the dorsal line behind the head is everywhere the same and undoubtedly conforms very closely to nature.

After passing the _Galerie des Fresques_ we penetrate to the final recess called the _Diverticule final_, through excessively narrow tubular openings barely admitting the body, and we are again overcome with the mystery as to what impulse carried this art into the dark, deep portions of the caverns. If it were due to a feeling partly religious which, regarded the caverns with special awe, why do we find equally skilful and conscientious work on all the mobile utensils of daily life and of the chase, apart from the caverns? The superposition of one drawing upon another, which is especially characteristic of this cavern, does not seem to strengthen the religious interpretation.

It would appear that the love of art for art's sake, akin in a very rudimentary form to that which inspired the early Greeks, together with the fine spaces which these caverns alone afforded for larger representations, may be an alternative explanation. There is no evidence that numbers of people entered these caverns. If this had been the case there would be many more examples of inartistic work upon the walls. It is possible that the Crô-Magnon artists constituted a recognized class especially gifted by nature, quite distinct from the magician class or the artisan class. The dark recesses of the caverns opening back of the grottos may have been held in awe as mysterious abodes. In line with this theory is the suggestion that the artists may have been invited into the caverns by the priests or medicine-men to decorate the walls with all the animals of the chase.

The polychromes of the ceiling of Altamira in northern Spain, which rank in the crude art of Palæolithic times much as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel does in modern art, are somewhat more conventional in technique than those of Font-de-Gaume, but they are manifestly the work of the same school, and prove that the technique of art spread like that of engraving, of sculpture, and of the preparation of flint and bone implements all over southwestern Europe. One could not have more striking proof of the unity of race, of a community of life, and of an interchange of ideas among these nomadic people than the close resemblance which is observed in the art of Altamira, Spain, and that of Font-de-Gaume, 290 miles distant, in Dordogne.

Very picturesque is the account of the discovery of this wonderful ceiling, made not by the Spanish archæologist Sautuola himself, but by his little daughter, who, while he was searching for flints on the floor of the cavern, was the first to perceive the paintings on the ceiling and to insist upon his raising his lamp aloft. This was in 1879, long before the discovery of parietal art in France. The ceiling is broad and low, within easy reach of the hand, and the oval bosses of limestone (Fig. 227), from 4 to 5 feet in length and from 3 to 4 in width, led to the development here of one of the most striking characteristics of all Palæolithic art, namely, the artist's adaptation of the subject to his medium and to the character of the surface upon which he was working. It seems to show a high order of creative genius that each of these projecting bosses was chosen for the representation of a bison lying down, with the limbs drawn up in different positions beneath the body (Fig. 228) and very carefully designed, and with the tail or the horns alone projecting beyond the convex surface to the surrounding plane surface. This is the only instance known where the bison are represented as lying down, in most lifelike attitudes, showing the soles of the hoof, observed with the greatest care and represented by a few strong and significant lines. Thus while the Altamira coloring inclines to conventionality, the pose of these animals indicates the greatest freedom of style and mastery of perspective anywhere observed. In this wonderful group there is also a bison bellowing, with his back arched and his limbs drawn under him as if to expel the air. One striking feature in all these paintings is the vivid representation of the eye, which in every case is given a fierce and defiant character, so distinctive of the bison bull when enraged. We also observe a wild boar in a running attitude and several spirited representations of the horse and of the female deer. The cavern of Altamira, besides this _chef-d'œuvre_, contains work of a very advanced character, as indicated in the imposing engraving of the royal stag (Fig. 229), which is altogether the finest representation of this animal which has thus far been discovered in any cavern.

Altamira, like Font-de-Gaume, presents many phases of the development of art in Magdalenian times. There is a Solutrean layer in the foyer of this great cavern, but Breuil is not inclined to attribute any of the art to this period. The first entrance of Altamira by the Crô-Magnon artists is dated by the discovery of engravings on bone of the female red deer, which are identical with those on the walls and which belong to very ancient Magdalenian times, the period at which the caverns of Castillo and La Pasiega were also entered.(28)

SCULPTURE

Animal sculpture in the round, which is indicated by the few statuettes found with the burial at Brünn, Moravia, and by the ivory mammoth statuette found at Předmost, continued into early Magdalenian times and certainly constitutes one of the most distinctive features of the art of that period, because in the later Magdalenian it took a different trend in the direction of decorative sculpture. Only two fine examples of early Magdalenian animal sculpture have been found, but these are of such a remarkable character as to indicate that modelling in the round was widely pursued at this time. These are the bisons discovered in 1912 in the cavern of Tuc d'Audoubert near Montesquieu, in the Pyrenees, and the fine bas-reliefs of horses at the shelter of Cap-Blanc, on the Beune, in Dordogne.

In company with Professor Cartailhac the writer had the good fortune to enter the cavern of Tuc d'Audoubert a few days after its discovery by the Comte de Bégouen and his sons; it is still in the making, for out from the entrance flows a stream of water large enough to float a small boat, by which the first of a series of superbly crystallized galleries is reached. After passing through a labyrinth of passageways and chambers a favorable surface was found where the Bégouen party showed us a whole wall covered with low-engraving reliefs, very simply done, fine in execution, with sure and firm outlines of the bison, the favorite subject as in all other caverns; horses fairly well executed and of the same steppe type as those in the near-by cavern of Niaux; one superbly engraved contour of the reindeer, with its long, curved horns; the head of a stag with its horns still in the velvet; and a mammoth. All this work is engraved; there are no drawn outlines, but here and there are splashes of red and black color. Shortly afterward a great discovery was made in this cavern; it is described as follows by the Comte de Bégouen:[BA] "To-day I am happy to give you excellent news from the cavern Tuc d'Audoubert. As you were the first to visit this cavern, you will also be the first to learn that in an upper gallery, very difficult of access, at the summit of a very narrow ascending passage, and after having been obliged to break a number of stalactites which completely closed the entrance, my son and myself have found two superb statuettes in clay, about 60 cm. in length, absolutely unbroken, and representing bison. Cartailhac and Breuil, who have come to see them, were filled with enthusiasm. The ground of these chambers was covered with imprints of the claws of the bear, skeletons of which were buried here and there. The Magdalenians have passed through this ossuary and have drawn out all the canine teeth to make ornaments of them. Their steps left their fine impressions on the humid and soft clay, and we still see the outlines of several bare human feet. They had also lost several flakes of flint and the tooth of an ox pierced at the neck; we have collected them, and it seems as if they had only dropped yesterday; the Magdalenians also left an incomplete model of a bison and some lumps of kneaded clay which still carry the impression of their fingers. We produce the proof that in this period all branches of art were cultivated." This model of the male and female bison in clay has been described by Cartailhac as of perfect workmanship and of ideal art.

The procession of six horses cut in limestone under the sheltering cliff of Cap-Blanc is by far the most imposing work of Magdalenian art that has been discovered. The sculptures are in high relief and of large size and are in excellent proportion; they appear to represent the high-bred type of desert or Celtic horse, related to the Arabian, so far as we can judge from the long, straight face, the slender nose, the small nostrils, and the massive angle of the lower jaw; the ears are rather long and pointed, and the tail is represented as thin and without hair; they were found partly buried by layers containing implements of middle Magdalenian industry, and they are therefore assigned to an early Magdalenian date in which animal sculpture in the round reached its climax.