Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/118

 The statue is Equestrian. The monarch is represented in Roman costume, his brow bound with a wreath of laurel, and in the act of curbing his horse with his left hand, while his right extends a truncheon. An antique sword rests on his thigh, and an imperial robe flows in easy folds from his shoulders covering the haunches of the horse, who is moving forward, and trampling on a quiver of arrows. The face of Charles was not remarkable for dignity or command, so that, in order to preserve the resemblance, the artist has been obliged to throw all the power of his work into the figure. But the result has been a statue of great majesty, and worthy of the most judicious praise. Although the model of the horse is certainly good, and the dimensions well preserved in the colossal size, yet it is quite evident that the artist had only the Mexican animal in his mind's eye when he moulded his masterpiece. The chief defects, as well as I was able to judge in its present unfavorable position, were disproportions in the neck and haunches; the former being entirely too thick and large, while the latter are too heavy and small, both for the legs of the animal and the figure they support. The drapery of the sovereign, the saddle-cloth, sword, bridle, a Medusa head on the martingale, and all the accessories, are admirably finished in the highest style of art. One of the most severe and tasteful critics who ever saw it, compares this work of the native Mexican with the famous statue of Marcus Aurelius at Rome, which has so frequently been the theme of praise by the most learned sculptors of the Old World.

Indeed, the art of imitating nature in statuary, is a talent perhaps nowhere more common than in Mexico. I do not mean by this, that fine sculpture is common there; but I know of few places where there is more talent to produce it.

The moment a stranger arrives in Mexico he is besieged by a host of wax figure makers, with small statues of the costumes and trades of the country. These, it is true, are cast in moulds, but the talent is not the less remarkable. They are admirably executed. Dress, feature, demeanor, action, are all caught and faithfully depicted to the very life, and no collection can be more worthily adorned than by a series of these figures. You can obtain them of any size, or any subject; and although the materials are frail, they may be safely transported from the Capital to the coast. If these statuettes are wonderful, their makers are not less so. You would be astonished to see the artist, who produces a gem of a figure which in Europe would command a couple of doubloons. A little room up two pairs of ricketty stairs, just large enough to turn in, where his wife cooks and sleeps with two or three children in one corner; while he, with his lump of wax and his portable furnace, stands working, moulding and dressing his figures in another. Such is the atélier, while the man himself, is scarcely distinguishable from the commonest léperos.