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AN AISTALYSIS OF THE 



Associated variants of parrot, Dresden Codex. 



(5.) The often repeated signs of apparently the same value, so common in Aztec 

 art, must express a repetition of the same idea. Were it otherwise, the ideographs 

 would degenerate into the figures of a pattern. We must acknowledge that repeti- 

 tion is often a law of force. Such expressions as " Hail, hail, hail, Macbeth !" and 

 " Holy, holy, holy, art thou Lord of Hosts !" are strengthenings, — the result of unions 

 of simple factors. After the same method the parrot-head sign f^y^ of the Dresden 

 Codex is emphasized by r^^l] as though the meaning were : ^ " Great, great, 

 is this symbol." But in ^^Z-J a zoological sense repetition of similar parts — or, as 

 it is technically termed, " vegetative repetition," — is an evidence of low organiza- 

 tion. An idea when repeated through its symbol is thereby emphasized, but when a 

 form or part of a form not symbolic, is repeated, it remains the same, or exists with 

 impaired vitality. Should this reflection prove true, we may determine the value 

 of certain variants by their positions and number as well as by their form. 



Before entering upon the subject of variants, a series of ultimates may be sought 

 for among the higher phases of art-portraiture, the members of which may be termed 

 "types." Thus the following ultimate forms of lion-heads of Asia, Egypt and 

 Europe, are presented as art-types, many of which have never sat as models for 

 lineal abridgments, or radicals. 



The full-faced Lion Head imtli muzzle lines. This sej-ies is designed to exhibit the 

 style of lion-head marked by pronounced labiate or muzzle lines. 



