270 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



structure above, that of the temple proper, has its walls as yet almost in- 

 tact and they were once completely covered with mural paintings depicting 

 domestic scenes, early migrations and war forays. Nature however has 

 passed her erasing hands over large portions of the smooth wall surfaces 

 and vandal man has proved more pitiless than Nature in defacing the 

 works of the ancient artists, yet even so, enough remains to make this 

 chamber the repository of what is probably the finest examples of this class 

 of mural paintings yet left to us for study and comparison. The walls of 

 the outer chamber were once covered' with paintings but of these not a 

 single legible outline remains. The great twin columns fashioned into the 

 conventionalized forms of serpents still hold in the deeper carvings and 

 cavities, like those of the mouth and the bulbous teeth, traces of the pig- 

 ments that once covered the surfaces of columns and chamber walls. 



The entire front of this beautiful structure, as chaste and artistic in its 

 own way as the temples of Greece and Rome, has fallen. Fractured and 

 wrenched apart by the growing tree roots at the apex of the roof, the weakest 

 point in all the structure, the overweight of the heavily ornamented facade 

 caused the whole mass to fall outward, and turning upon the two serpent 

 columns as upon gigantic pivots, to be tossed nearly clear of the temple 

 platform, crashing down to the hard and level space of the Ceremonial 

 Court full thirty feet beneath. 



This facade with its beautiful frieze of carved stone figures, graceful 

 meanders and noble proportions, it is hoped to reproduce in as nearly as 

 possible its pristine state. It is an undertaking much in line with the de- 

 sires of the late John La Farge, who with me had long felt the wisdom and 

 necessity of incorporating in some definite way the ideals and fruits of these 

 ancient distinctively American architects into what is fast becoming our 

 own modern distinctively American architecture. 



For these reasons I not only felt greatly honored by the action of the 

 high authorities of the Museum in confiding to me this important under- 

 taking, but I also felt that I had a double charge and a double incentive, 

 inasmuch as in so doing I was aiding in the fulfillment of the dead artist's 

 dream and in my own hopes as well. Such measure of success as I may have 

 attained must be attributed more to these incentives than to my own merely 

 personal abilities. 



Proceeding to Yucatan I attacked the task with enthusiasm. My 

 previous experience in reproducing the "Labna Facade" and in the still 

 more important undertaking at the AYorld's Fair in Chicago aided me greatly 

 in working out the problems and overcoming the obstacles in this task. 1 

 Then too the efficient aid of my oldtime companion in the field, Pietro 

 Grisante, the expert plaster-mold maker, was to be at my service and I 

 knew how much I could rely upon him. 



1 Official Report Mass. Board of Managers, World's Fair, page 161. 



