struck both witli 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- 
