COVERED BY WHITEWASH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20070, 9 April 1927, Page 11

COVERED BY WHITEWASH.

VALUABLE WALL PAINTINGS. A series of what are said to be highly valuable mural paintings has been discovered at Mexico City, on the walls of a corridor in the Hospital of Jesus. The paintings, which were concealed under seven layers of whitewashing, were discovered by an attendant cleaning the walls of the corridor. The Hospital of Jesus, an old building, belongs to descendants of the family of Hernan Cortez, the great conquistador, who conquered Mexico in the sixteenth century. The paintings were found to be in a most excellent state of preservation, in spite of the heavy coatings of the whitewashing. An investigation of other parts of the old building is under way to determine whether similar paintings cannot be located elsewhere. Members of the Academy of Belles Artcs of Mexico have been assigned tq the task of classifying the paintings, and making a thorough study of them. It has already been determined that they belong to the sixteenth century. Tho subject master of the paintings varies. Some are allegorical. Others are believed to depict scenes from the family life of Cortez. Angels and cherubs appear on practically all, and swans and dragons likewise arc apparently in high favour.