Climax and Later Developments.—From the beginning of the 17th century the prosperity of Spanish-America became so great that a wave of religious building swept over it. The i8th century found a complete religious unity and the power and wealth of the church reached an unsurpassed splendour, propitious to a great manifestation of the arts. The climax of all Spanish American Colonial religious architecture, as far as magnitude and excellence are concerned, is reached when the cathedrals of the 17th century were built. Mexico alone has 35 cathedrals. The first great cathedral of America was that of Santo Domingo, built in 1514. The first one in New Spain was that of Merida in Yucatan. The cathedral of Puebla was completed in 1649. That of Mexico City represents the work of three centuries—the maxi mum personal effort of Spanish colonial art. Its first stone was laid in 1563 ; it was dedicated in 1667 and completed in June 1813. It is undoubtedly the most remarkable monument that Spanish-American architecture produced. In all small cities the church had its atrium (q.v.), which served not only for religious purposes, but as a centre of concentration and defence. The outside defensive wall of the atrium became later an ornamental motif. A gre4 part of the social life of the community, including dances and processions, took place in these centres. The parish church and its atrium represent the most interesting factor of Mexican collective life for 30o years. In three centuries of Spanish domination nearly 15,000 religious buildings were built in Mexico alone, and of these 8,000 in the i8th century. There are more than 18,000 cupolas in Mexico.
The Ultra-Baroque of Spanish-America has rhythmic symmetry, exuberance of decoration, pictorial beauty and vigorous, plastic sentiment coupled with clever and artistic use of polychromic effects. Besides these elements, the co-operation between the monks and the native labourers, masons, carvers and painters, their intuition and skilful use of building materials, and their spirit of improvisation to satisfy the requirements of construction as they presented themselves, made them successful in their search for effects in chiaroscuro through carving, or pictorial through the use of mass, outline and colour.
In the 19th century Spanish-American architecture underwent a period of stagnation and decline because of political activities and unrest. It is characterized by the works of European archi tects, principally French and Italian, which unquestionably affect the architecture of the period. The early loth century records an initial movement toward the utilization of Spanish colonial types and motifs, chiefly in the solution of housing problems, which may lead to something worth while, provided there is a closer understanding of the changes that have taken place in the development of labour, industry, transportation and city planning, and a closer co-operation between architects, sculptors, painters and workers. Finally, the universal influence of the Exposition of Decorative Arts in Paris in 1925 has reached Spanish-America, and its architecture shows once more the ill effects of hybrid im ported architecture lacking the expression of the lives and needs of its people.