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.
Fig. 223. Another portion of the left wall decoration of the Galerie des Fresques, showing the preliminary engraving (above), and the painting (below) of the great procession of mammoths, superposed upon drawings of the bison, reindeer, and horse. This section is about fourteen feet in length. After Breuil.
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.
Fig. 224. Detail of the engraving of the central group of figures on the left wall decoration of the Galerie des Fresques (see Fig. 223), showing the etching of a mammoth superposed upon that of a bison, superposed in turn upon those of a reindeer and of a wild boar. These figures are on different scales, and in the present faded condition of the frescoes are difficult to detect. After Breuil.
Fig. 225. Entrance to the cavern of Altamira, showing the proximity of the roof of the cavern to the present surface of the earth. Photograph by N. C. Nelson.