Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

i6INTRODUCTIONgalleries of painted designs on the walls and ceilings that itrequired a quarter of a century and the corroboration ofrepeated finds on the French side of the Pyrenees for generalrecognition that these rock paintings were ofthe Palaeolithicage, and that features, which had been hitherto reckoned asexclusively belonging to the New Stone Man, can now beclassed as the original property of the Man of the Old StoneAge in the final production of his evolution.These primeval frescoes in their most developed state(Evans, ihid., tells us) show not only a consummate masteryof natural design, but also an extraordinary technical resource.Apart from the charcoal used in certain outUnes, the chiefcolouring matter was red and yellow ochre, mortars andpalettes for the preparation of which have come to light. Insingle animals the tints are varied from black to dark andruddy brown or brilliant orange, and so by fine gradations topaler nuances, obtained by scraping and washing.The greatest marvel is that such polychrome masterpiecesas the bisons standing and couchant or with Umbs huddledtogether were executed on the ceilings of inner vaults andgalleries, where the Hght of day never penetrated. Nowheredoes smoke blur their outlines, probably (as Parkyn i suggests)because of long oxidisation. The art of artificial illuminationhad evidently progressed far. We now, indeed, know thatstone 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 itreserved to discover the veryoldest art gallery in the world. In 1879 Sefior de Santuolachanced to be digging in a cave on his property, when heheard his little daughter cry, " Toros, toros !" Realisingquickly that this was no warning of an impending charge bybulls, he followed her gaze to the vaulted ceiling, where hiseyes there espied " the finest expression of PalseoHthic artextant."This little Spanish girl was the first for many, manythousands of years to behold a collection of pictures, which* E. A. Parkyn, Prehistoric Art, London, 1915.