File:The story of architecture- an outline of the styles in all countries (1896) (14579876218).jpg

Identifier: storyofarchitect00math (find matches)
Title: The story of architecture: an outline of the styles in all countries
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Mathews, Charles Thompson, 1863-
Subjects: Architecture -- History
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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d into perma-nent crystals. Gold and scarlet are the prevailing tones, andwithin the cells are paved with polychromatic mar-bles planed and polished like enamel. Bas-reliefs,sculpture, and painted figures adorn the walls, andmany of the doors are still framed in lignum-vitaefrom the jungles of Guatemala. As yet it has been impossible to fix the date ofthese buildings; but by counting the rings aftercleavage of certain trees which have forced theirway through the pavement we know that thesemonuments of New Spain must have existed longbefore the VisiffOths entered the mother country. Concerning the domestic architecture of ancientMexico, nothing has been definitely ascertained savethat the dwellings of the rich were of a light-redporous stone surmounted by a terraced roof clad in * I he i f this low doorway is due to the accumulation f banked up around the house, though legend has woven many tales concerning the su;>( .1 diminutive tenant who once inhabited this ruin.
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IOS MEX1 ENTRAL AMERICA, AND* PERU. verdure, while the huts of the poor were either ofIs, or adobe thatched with grasses and aloe leaves.Hence we who would know more but lack the enter-■ and ingenuity, can only wait and hope for someCharapollion of the future to read the inscriptionsand tell the talc of this oldest of old New Worlds. CENTRAL AMERICA. Material.—The explorations and excavations inCentral America have been comparatively few incomparison to those made in Mexico and Yucatan—too few indeed to be able to characterize the archi-tecture broadly. But such as they are, all point toa style almost identical with that of Mexico, withthe welcome addition of great monolithic idols whosesize entitle them to architectural rank. Solid masses of earth cased with brick or stoneand terraced palaces like those at Uxmal are both tobe seen in Honduras and Guatemala, but. thanks tothe destructive hand of Alvarado, in less perfect con-dition, while the glyptic art, if not always so refine

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