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"In the Taj Mahal,
Agra, India, the architecture of India finds its choicest and best
expression. It was erected by Shah Jehan, who began to reign in
1628, as a mausoleum of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The body of
the Emperor himself lies by her side. Twenty thousand men worked
twenty years to build this "mystic monument of love', which overlooks
the River Jumna. Impressive at all times on account of its supreme
architectural loveliness, its immaculate white walls and graceful
proportions appear to singular perfection in the pale starlight." |
| "Antiquities made by
the Incas of Bolivia--An author, learned in South American antiquities,
points out a striking resemblance between them and the Egyptian. To
the plain understanding there seems to be nothing surprising in
coincidences which represent like stages of artistic development the
suggestions of necessity or convenience, and the copying of natural forms
which have a general likeness all the world over. In the picture
before him the reader sees at least one subject of which the ancient
Egyptians had no knowledge, but of which the unknown Inca who made it had
as intimate knowledge as the Bolivian of to-day. The llama was a
pretty good subject for the primitive artist being an everyday object to
him; and it may be taken for granted that an ancient Egyptian would have
chosen, like him, that graceful animal for a model had he been acquainted
with it".
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