ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY 
peoples generally, the esthetic in its 
higher manifestations grew as a vine 
upon the strong stem of religious sym- 
bolism. Religion furnished the concep- 
tion and the energy and skill necessary 
to its realization; it prepared the design, 
supervised its application to the stone, 
and drove the chisel that carved it. It 
demanded results in form, finish, and 
embellishment of the highest order, for 
in the view of their devotees the gods 
appreciated the beautiful as well as the 
essential. We do not lose sight of the 
fact, however, that appreciation of the 
qualities regarded as pleasing to- the 
gods had its origin in that which was 
pleasing to the man. Certain qualities 
of form, line, color, and arrangement 
gave pleasure to the eye; certain quali- 
ties of finish gave pleasure to the touch, 
while certain sounds were grateful to 
the ear, and this appreciation of the 
qualities called esthetic, was a thing of 
slow growth in the human mind, but of 
great moment in the history of culture. 
To the pleasure afforded by qualities of 
the works themselves were added the in- 
centive of religious fervor, the ambition 
to excel and the fascination of creating. 
The importance of the esthetic ele- 
ment in Maya art can hardly be over- 
estimated. It is doubtful if any people 
at a corresponding stage of cultural evo- 
lution was more highly gifted with ar- 
tistic genius and appreciation and gave 
more attention to its application to all 
forms of art than the Mayan race. 
Every plastic form and every line of 
the Dragon bear testimony to this fact. 
It was not religion that stipulated that 
no straight line and noright angle should 
appear in the image of the Dragon; it 
was not religious restriction that pro- 
vided that no curve should be the arc 
of a circle, that every curve should be 
subtile, and that all outlines of glyphs 
and cartouches should take the round- 
[45] 
ish, calculiform character. Every fea- 
ture of design had complete esthetic 
supervision and plastic freehand meth- 
ods prevailed at all times over the me- 
chanical. In the creation of this monu- 
ment the great motor force was relig- 
ion, but the ever-watchful esthetic im- 
pulse joined hands with that force in 
making it a masterpiece of art. 
Dependence of art on religion is am- 
ply shown in what has been said, but 
the fact may be further illustrated. If 
in the course of the progressive decad- 
ence of a primitive culture the religious 
impulse should lose its hold on the 
people, it appears that although the 
artistic sense might survive in large 
measure, no block would be hewn from 
the quarry, no great stone would be 
carried to sacred precinct, no glyphic 
inscription or mythic conception would 
be applied to the stone, and no hand 
would be available to undertake the 
task of esthetic realization. 
It is observed that the ancient Maya 
sculptor abhorred blank spaces in his 
designs and also that in cases there 
is an overcrowding of subject-matter, 
but no people has ever filled in waste 
spaces more effectively than the sculp- 
tors of Quirigua. The space-filling fig- 
ures are not, however, mere meaningless 
embellishments, but are doubtless gen- 
erally significant, having reason to be in 
the particular places where they are 
introduced. In this particular master- 
piece the introduced elements embody 
animal, human and grotesque figures 
with symbols and embellishments all in 
agreeable accord with the composition 
proper. A somewhat definite idea of 
the general character of the design and 
the remarkable elaboration and beauty | 
of the work can be gained by a study 
of the photographs and drawings here- 
with presented and equally those in- 
cluded in Part I of this paper. 
