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struck both with the analogy and the contrasts 

 between the relief of Oaxaca, and the figures 

 which we find repeated in the hieroglyphical 

 manuscripts, on the idols, and on the covering 

 of several teocallis. Instead of those dwarfish 

 men, who are scarcely five heads high, and who 

 remind us of the most ancient Etruscan " style, 

 we distinguish in the relief represented in the 

 eleventh plate a group of three figures, of slender 

 form, and drawn too correctly for the infancy of 

 the art. There is reason to think, ^ that the 

 Spanish painter, who copied this sculpture at 

 Oaxaca, corrected the outlines in certain parts, 

 perhaps unintentionally, particularly in sketch- 

 ing the hands and toes. But can we suppose, 

 that he has changed the proportions of the 

 whole figures ? and is not this supposition devoid 

 of probability, if we examine with what careful 

 minuteness the forms of the heads, the eyes, and 

 particularly the ornaments of the helmet, are 

 traced? These ornaments, among which we 

 distinguish feathers, ribands, and flowers ; these 

 noses, of extraordinary size, resemble those that 

 are found in the Mexican paintings preserved at 

 Rome, Veletri, and Berlin. It is only by com- 

 paring what was produced at the [same epocha, 

 and by people of the same origin, |that we can 

 form an exact idea of the style, which charac- 

 terizes the different monuments ; if we may be 

 allowed to apply the word style to the analo- 



