Various causes combined to shape the form and character of the public buildings of New Spain. The Aztecs, Mayas and other cultured races, owing to the weakness of their knowl edge of scientific construction, had been forced to erect excessively heavy walls to support massive roofs and high ornamental facades, and the builders brought to their work, during the Spanish regime, an ingrained belief in the necessity for and the beauty of sheer massive ness in the construction of walls and facades, a belief which continued throughout the 300 years of Spanish domination. Mexico has always been subject to heavy earthquakes, and these have helped to accentuate this belief in the necessity of massiveness in the construc tion of the main walls of buildings. The monu mental edifices of the country are often more massive in character than those of Spain. The walls of some of the Maya buildings still standing are from 6 to 10 feet thick and these are equalled in massiveness by the walls of the cathedral and other great edifices of the capital.
Building The more durable building material of Mexico was in no way inferior to that of Spain. A score of different kinds of excellent stone, all workable, much of it handsome and some of it, like the native tezontli (lava-rock), of a character to give a distinctive appearance to edifices constructed of it ; marble of a dozen different varieties; and onyx as handsome and as varied as any in the world, were all at the command of the Mexican builder. There was in Mexico for dwellings, no light, durable earthquake-resist ing building material such as existed in the forests of the United States and Canada in the early years of colonization and expansion. Adobe (sun-dried earthen bricks) took the place of lumber in the construction of the houses of the lower and middle classes of the upland plateaux; and it has kept its place to the present in the public favor. Owing to the fragile nature of this material, walls constructed of it are necessarily very thick. In country places even churches are frequently constructed of adobe, which, covered with stucco, presents a very pleasing appearance. There are towns of con siderable size in the interior of the table lands where practically all the buildings are con structed of adobe, and the plain mud walls of the Indian pueblos are familiar and picturesque parts of the landscape. These are constructed probably as in pre-Columbian days, and villages themselves, with their irregular, lane-like streets, are like their Aztec progenitors.
But as adobe is not suitable for the low lands with their torrential rains, it is replaced there by uncut stone, for the town houses; and in the villages and country by primitive thatched huts with walls of bamboo or other poles, through which the air makes its way at will. Owing to the prevailing mildness of climate all the year and the excessive heat in the hot season, these Indian huts, on the whole, meet the requirements of their occupants, who lead lives very near to nature's heart.
The Dome and the Facade.— The archi tecture of Spain was influenced by the Romans, Goths and Arabs throughout the periods of Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance suprem acy. The Greeks, Phoenicians and Cartha ginians, too, have left their impress upon it. It does not, therefore, belong wholly to any one of the recognized styles; but it is, for this reason, none the less interesting. Mexico fol lowed Spanish models more or less closely; but as the Indian mind is prone to florid orna mentation, her architecture departed, in mat ter of detail, of execution and of adornment, from that of Spain. The Moorish dome, with
its striking appearance, its handsome tiles and its frequently elaborate adornment, appealed to the Mexicans. It is, in a sense, related to their elaborately adorned aboriginal façades, tower ing often from one to two stories above the habitable part of the building. The dome is seen everywhere in Mexico. It peeps out from amid the clumps of trees sheltering the little Indian village; it crowns the summit of a com manding hill; it retreats, almost hidden from sight, to some little valley amid mountain fast nesses. Everywhere majestic, it lends a touch of Orientalism to a landscape for which it is eminently fitted.
Early Spanish colonial architecture in Mex ico was largely influenced by the Gothic and the Moorish; but the buildings erected after the close of the 16th century followed some one of the various phases of the Spanish Renaissance. The Mexican and the Spanish mind alike understood the value of contrast and concentration in decoration. In the Maya buildings the elaborate ornamentation which they lavished upon their monumental edifices was confined, for the most part, to the upper stories, the lower having a plain surface of cut stone or stucco. This disposition threw into relief and thus made more effective the ornate superstructure. The Spaniard confined his ornamentation to parts of the façades, to the doors and windows and the parts of the towers above the level of the roof. This had a splendid cumulative effect, which can be seen in [the illustration] the façades of the Sagrario and the cathedral of Mexico City. This ornate style of decoration was especially fortunate in having for its execution such trained work men as the Mexican Indians, artisans with ancient traditions to work by, the initiative to give individuality to their work and the skill to put it into execution. Side by side in Mexi can architecture, often mingling and blending so as to be indistinguishable the one from the other, are evidences of the many-faced tradi tions of the native dynasties and the influences of Spain The free hand of the native work man is best seen in the earlier buildings of colonial Spain, for later on he conforms in general to the standards set him by more exacting and better trained architects and master-builders. But this conformation is only outward. In the spirit of execution the atti tude of the Indian mind is still strong. He has taken instinctively to the Spanish idea of cumulative effect, which, in another form, was his own; and his inclination in this direction often displays itself in florid ornamentation frequently approaching the uncouth; but it is always effective. In its adherence to Spanish forms, Mexican art is as notorious a disre garder of convention as the Spaniard himself in his adoption of the Renaissance, in building, painting, sculpture and all the arts. It is in this respect that Mexican architecture differs from that of Spain; and it is this very differ ence that makes it specially interesting; for we see within it the activity of the highly-devel oped native races of America, these ancient artist artisans, stone-cutters, wood-carvers, metal-workers, tile-makers and designers of all kinds, essentially thinkers, creators, builders, in love with their work of creation.