Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/290

218 the dawn of painting dates as far back as the Aurignacien Age, there can be no doubt that polychrome painting was the last phase in the evolution of Palæolithic art. M. Breuil has shown that in caverns with pictures of long standing a chronological sequence in the progressive stages of art can be established, by observing the superposition of one figure above another. But however this may be, it is now generally admitted that ultimately engraving on cavern walls became subservient to painting in colours and freehand drawing.

As it would be impossible within our present limits to notice the special features of all these ornamented caves, we shall select for descriptive purposes one or two of the best known examples. The first cave in which mural paintings were observed is that of Altamira, near Santander, in the north of Spain. In 1879 Don Marcelano de Sautuola, a Spanish nobleman living in the neighbourhood, while one day searching in the cave for the usual Palæolithic implements, was surprised to find that the roof of one of the chambers was covered with a crowd of polychrome figures, representing different kinds of animals in various sizes and attitudes, the largest being apparently life-size. These pictures, some thirty in number, were so well executed that the different species of animals could be readily distinguished. M. Sautuola forthwith published an illustrated brochure on his discoveries (1880), modestly giving his opinion that these designs were the work of the Palæolithic hunters. But the subject seemed so improbable at the first blush that it was received with profound scepticism. M. Vilanova y Piera, Professor of Palaeontology in Madrid, visited the cave and strongly advocated, but in vain, the contemporaneity of the mural figures, hearths, and other Palæolithic remains of the cave. On the other hand M. Ed. Harle, an engineer, also visited the cave and wrote an article against the antiquity and authenticity of the pictures (Matériaux, 1881, p. 257), notwithstanding that he actually recorded a fact which, at least, might have moderated his hostile criticism, viz. that some of the paintings were covered with a layer of stalagmite. Seeing that the existence of the cave was not known till 1868, when it was accidentally discovered by a hunter the original entrance having been blocked by a mass of fallen débris one might