| Show 12 i t art of vanished race special correspondence the wonderful prehistoric ture of central america and mexico is illustrated in a str kingly realistic manner at the st louis VI orld s pair by a set of models included in the exhibit made by the united states government these models exhibit in a good representative fashion the diverl ty of styles and types in this architecture the series includes the house of the governor at the ruined ty of urmal uxmal in yuca tan the castillo at chichen itza in yucatan the temple of the cross at the ruined city of palenque in the state of chiapas the palace in the ruined city of milta state of and the ru ned temple 0 in the state of morelos M JC the noble proportions of the cas tillo of ch chen itza which rises to a height of feet and is about feet square at the base are enhanced by the dignified simplicity of the de sign the ornament effectively concen grated at a few po ants that finely bal arce about the main entrance in the central panels above the entrance and in the conventionalized animal de signs that flank the main sta arway at the ground while the open stone work of the roof guard gives a corn plating touch of 1 at the sl line the rounded corners of the pyramid terraces contribute to the beauty of the work another magnificent structure the house of the governor at urmal uxmal resembles the mitia palace in form both having long and comparatively low walls but in style it is entirely different the ornament is d in effective contrast with the qu et surface of pla n walls and is corn posed of a combination of cal patterns with freehand sculpture and ons in a language whose key has not et been discovered the art illustrated in these models deserves the calef I 1 on of stu dents both of architecture and of decoration the builders worked evi dently with clear kno of bitely formulated pr of design the were architects in the true sense of the word they developed styles as as those of the egypt tian the greek and the gothic and they had clear concept ons of the value of ornament and its d on with relation to architectural effect ahey understood well how to achieve qualities of monumental impressive ness and knew how to util ze to such the melves although prehistoric in consequence of the fact that every thing before the european discovery of this continent is shrouded in a m astery almost impenetrable are comparatively modern young in corn with the parthenon or the coll seum and probably not antedating many well known historic european buildings erected in the middle ages abong ne amid ruins some of the a may have been almost new then the spaniards came but what became of the extensive civilizations that must have existed all around them and which could not wel have expressed themselves so monumentally without stable and long enduring cond we know muan about the aztecs and the incas but how shall we learn anything definite about the builders of these temples 7 will the words they carved upon i ien walls ever be deciphered and thus unravel the enigma of the literature developed by those peoples it is thought by certain eminent au thon ties that the civilizations were au developed solely by man on this continent hence it is held that certain s resemblance between this indigenous architecture and decorative art and similar forms of art in the old world are to be traced to the re instance that the mind of man working independently along lines that originate in human nature and human needs will in wide ly separated parts of the world reach travel in central america ends features like grand stairway ap roaches and ornamental elements like the frieze and the cornice the latter are admirably illustrated in the house of the governor and the temple the civilizations that these wonder ful ruins have sarv ved to represent still remain a mystery tor science all sorts of theories have been ed concerning them from the wildly imaginative conjectures of an en thusia st like who placed them at the beginning of all things in the history of civilization and of others who find them to be survivals pt the culture that distinguished the lost continent of atlantis to the sober investigations of trained students ike adolt bandel er mrs zei a and numerous others who have devot ed themselves in patient research to various aspects of the subject mr bandolier foi instance finds the strongest evidences of one great type of indigenous culture its diverse manifestations differentiated in vari ous degrees of advancement through coith and south america ansin from the crude organizations of the savage tribes up to tie mound builders the ruins of palace iff dwellers the pueblos of new and arizona and finding its highest express ons among the aztecs the incas and the lost cultures of ico and central america immense ant equity has been altria buted to these wonderful ruins but the best evidence goes to that however ancient may be the civilize civi liza alons that they represent the similar and possible identical so in architecture features like abe frieze and the cornice might be developed independently through suggestions derived from phases corn mon in construct on among those who hold that there must have been some connection be tween the cultures of the two conti bents it is ordinarily assumed that the influences proceeded from the east ern continent to the western but a belief is gaining ground among some of the most scientific investigators that abe influence must have proceed ed from the western continent to the eastern and that human institutions are of older date here than there the great ethnologist the late frank hamilton gushing in frequent visits to the chinese theater in san francisco discovered extraordinary agreements between the primitive be kiefs of the chinese and those of the buny indians and an investigator so keen and thoroughly equipped a stewart culm familiar alike with the culture athe far east and that of the american aborigines declares that in his mind there is not the sl doubt that the cultures are of didenti cal origin and that the influences proceeded from this continent to eastern asia so perhaps the origin of the chinese alphabet may yet be traced to the hieroglyphics carved upon the walls at urmal uxmal and palenque |
