Fig. 235. Head of a horse sculptured on a reindeer antler, from the Magdalenian layer of Mas d'Azil on the right bank of the Arize. After Piette. Actual size.
Fig. 236. Statuette carved on a fragment of mammoth tusk, representing a horse of Celtic type with mane erect, from the grotto of Les Espelugues, Lourdes. After Piette. About one and one-third actual size.
From the early to the middle Magdalenian period animal sculpture in bone, horn, and ivory was followed as decorative art in a bold and highly naturalistic manner. Adaptation of the animal figure to the surface and to the material employed is nowhere shown in a more remarkable way than in the bâtons, the dart-throwers, and the poniards. Of all the work of the Upper Palæolithic, these decorative heads and bodies are, perhaps, the most highly artistic creations in the modern sense. The famous horse found in the late Magdalenian levels of Mas d'Azil (Fig. 235) and the small horses from the grotto of Espelugues, of the middle Magdalenian, are full of movement and life and show such certainty and breadth of treatment that they must be regarded as the masterpieces of Upper Palæolithic glyptic art. The ibex carved on the dart-thrower from the grotto of Mas d'Azil (Fig. 178) indicates observation and a striking power of expression; while all the details are noted, the treatment is very broad.
Fig. 237. Head of a woman with head-dress sculptured in ivory, from the Magdalenian levels of Brassempouy. After Piette. One and one-fifth actual size.
The continuation of animal sculpture in the round is seen in the well-known horse statuette from the grotto of Lourdes; the partly decorative striping is a step in the direction of conventional treatment. The sculptured reindeer discovered by Bégouen in the grotto of Enlène is treated in a somewhat similar style.
Small human figurines again appear in the form of statuettes in bone or ivory, representing the renaissance of the spirit of human sculpture. Some of this work is apparently in search of beauty and with altogether different motives from the repellent feminine statuettes of middle and late Aurignacian times, for the subjects are slender and the limbs are modelled with relative skill. As in the earlier works, there is a partial failure to portray the features, which is in striking contrast to the lifelike treatment of animal heads. Very few examples of this work have been found, and most of them have been broken. To this period belong the Venus statuette of Laugerie Basse and the head of a girl carved in ivory found at Brassempouy (Fig. 237) with the features fairly suggested and an elaborate head-dress.
Geographic Distribution of the Magdalenian Culture