Title: The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition
 - A Pictorial Survey of the Art of the Panama-Pacific international exposition
Author: Perry, Stella G. S. (Stella George Stern)
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.


*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition
 - A Pictorial Survey of the Art of the Panama-Pacific international exposition" ***


The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition

A Pictorial Survey of the Art of the Panama-Pacific International
Exposition



Described by
Stella G. S. Perry



With an Introduction by
A. Stirling Calder, N. A.
Acting Chief of Sculpture of the Exposition



Paul Elder and Company
Publishers - San Francisco



Copyright, 1915, by
Paul Elder & Company
San Francisco

The courtesy of the Cardinell-Vincent Company, official photographers of
the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, of granting permission to
reproduce the selection of official photographs appearing in this
volume, is gratefully acknowledged.



To the Memory of Karl Bitter



When I have fears that I may cease to be
   Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
   Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
   Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
   Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
   That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
   Of unreflecting love; then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
   Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

-Keats



Contents

Sonnet. Keats
The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition. A. Stirling
Calder, N. A.

Illustrations

Exposition Sculpture

The Mother of Tomorrow - Detail from the Nations of the West.
     Cardinell-Vincent, photo. (Frontispiece.)
Fountain of Energy - Central Group, South Gardens. Pillsbury Pictures
Equestrian Group - Detail, Fountain of Energy. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
North Sea-Atlantic Ocean - Details, Fountain of Energy.
     Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Mermaid Fountain - Festival Hall, South Gardens. Cardinell-Vincent,
     photo
Torch Bearer - Finial Figure, Festival Hall. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
The Muse and Pan - Pylon Group, Festival Hall. W. Zenis Newton, photo
Boy Pan - Detail, Pylon Group, Festival Hall. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Detail, Spire Base, Palace of Horticulture. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Cortez - In Front of Tower of Jewels. J. L. Padilla, photo
Pizarro - In Front of Tower of Jewels. William Hood, photo
The Pioneer - Avenue of Palms. W. Zenis Newton, photo
The End of the Trail - Avenue of Palms. W. Zenis Newton, photo
Historic Types - Finial Figures, Tower of Jewels. Cardinell-Vincent,
     photo
Fountain of Youth - Colonnade, Tower of Jewels. W. Zenis Newton, photo
Fountain of El Dorado - Colonnade, Tower of Jewels. W. Zenis Newton,
     photo
Frieze - Details, Fountain of El Dorado. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Nations of the East - Group, Arch of the Rising Sun. Gabriel Moulin,
     photo
Pegasus - Spandrels, East and West Arches. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
The Stars - A Detail of the Colonnade. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Earth - Detail, one of "The Elements." Cardinell-Vincent, photo
The Signs of the Zodiac - Frieze on the Corner Pavilions.
     Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Nations of the West - Group, Arch of the Setting Sun. Cardinell-Vincent,
     photo
Enterprise - Detail, Nations of the West. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Dance - Balustrade, Court of the Universe. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
The Rising Sun - Fountain, Court of the Universe. W. Zenis Newton, photo
Column of Progress - In the Forecourt of the Stars. Cardinell-Vincent,
     photo
Frieze - Base, Column of Progress. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Primitive Ages - Altar Tower, Court of Ages. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Primitive Man - Arcade Finial, Court of Ages. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Fountain of Earth - Central Group, Court of Ages. W. Zenis Newton, photo
Survival of the Fittest - A Panel, Fountain of Earth. Cardinell-Vincent,
     photo
Lesson of Life - A Panel, Fountain of Earth. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Helios - Separate Group, Fountain of Earth. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Water Sprites - Base of Column, Court of Ages. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
A Daughter of the Sea - North Aisle, Court of Ages. W. Zenis Newton,
     photo
The Fairy - Finial Figure, Italian Towers. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Flower Girl - Niche, Court of Flowers. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Beauty and the Beast - Fountain Detail, Court of Flowers.
     Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Caryatid - Court of Palms. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
The Harvest - Court of the Four Seasons. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Rain - Court of the Four Seasons. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Fountain of Spring - Court of the Four Seasons. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Fountain of Winter - Court of the Four Seasons. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Fountain of Ceres - Forecourt of the Four Seasons. W. Zenis Newton,
     photo
The Genius of Creation - Central Group, Avenue of Progress.
     Cardinell-Vincent, photo
The Genius of Mechanics - Column Friezes, Machinery Hall.
     Cardinell-Vincent, photo
The Powers - Column Finials, Machinery Hall. W. Zenis Newton, photo
Pirate Deck-hand - Niches, North Facade of Palaces. Cardinell-Vincent,
     photo
From Generation to Generation - Palace of Varied Industries.
     Cardinell-Vincent, photo
The Man With the Pick - Palace of Varied Industries. Cardinell-Vincent,
     photo
The Useful Arts - Frieze over South Portals. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Triumph of the Field - Niches, West Facade of Palaces.
     Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Worship - Altar of Fine Arts Rotunda. Ralph Stackpole, photo
The Struggle for the Beautiful - Frieze, Fine Arts Rotunda.
     Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Guardian of the Arts - Attic of Fine Arts Rotunda. Cardinell-Vincent,
     photo
Priestess of Culture - Within the Fine Arts Rotunda. Cardinell-Vincent,
     photo
Frieze - Flower-boxes, Fine Arts Colonnade. J. L. Padilla, photo

Exhibit Sculpture

The Pioneer Mother - Exhibit, Fine Arts Colonnade. W. Zenis Newton,
     photo
Lafayette - Exhibit, Fine Arts Rotunda. W. Zenis Newton, photo
Thomas Jefferson - Exhibit, Fine Arts Rotunda. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Lincoln - Exhibit, South Approach. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Earle Dodge Memorial - Exhibit, Fine Arts Rotunda. Gabriel Moulin, photo
Fountain - Foyer, Palace of Fine Arts. Gabriel Moulin, photo
Wildflower - Garden Exhibit, Colonnade. W. Zenis Newton, photo
The Boy With the Fish - Garden Exhibit, Colonnade. W. Zenis Newton,
     photo
Young Diana - Garden Exhibit, Colonnade. Pillsbury Pictures
Young Pan - Garden Exhibit, Colonnade. Cardinell-Vincent, photo
Fighting Boys - Garden Exhibit, Colonnade. W. Zenis Newton, photo
Duck Baby - Garden Exhibit, Colonnade. W. Zenis Newton, photo
Muse Finding the Head of Orpheus - Garden Exhibit, Colonnade. W. Zenis
     Newton, photo
Diana - Garden Exhibit, South Lagoon. W. Zenis Newton, photo
Eurydice - Garden Exhibit, Colonnade. W. Zenis Newton, photo
Wood Nymph - Garden Exhibit, Colonnade. W. Zenis Newton, photo
L'Amour - Garden Exhibit, Colonnade. W. Zenis Newton, photo
An Outcast - Garden Exhibit, Colonnade. Gabriel Moulin, photo
The Sower - Garden Exhibit, Colonnade. W. Zenis Newton, photo
The Bison - Garden Exhibit, South Approach W. Zenis Newton, photo
The Scout - Garden Exhibit, South Lagoon W. Zenis Newton, photo
The Thinker - Exhibit, Court of French Pavilion. W. Zenis Newton, photo


Mural Decorations
Earth - Fruit Pickers. Court of Ages. W. Zenis Newton, photo
Fire - Industrial Fire. Court of Ages. W. Zenis Newton, photo
Water - Fountain Motive. Court of Ages. W. Zenis Newton, photo
Air - The Windmill. Court of Ages. W. Zenis Newton, photo
Half Dome - Court of the Four Seasons. Gabriel Moulin, photo
Art Crowned by Time - Court of the Four Seasons. Gabriel Moulin, photo
The Seasons - Court of the Four Seasons. Gabriel Moulin, photo
Westward March of Civilization - Arch, Nations of the West. Gabriel
     Moulin, photo
Discovery - The Purchase. Tower of Jewels. Gabriel Moulin, photo
Ideals of Emigration - Arch, Nations of the East. Gabriel Moulin, photo
The Golden Wheat - Rotunda, Palace of Fine Arts. Gabriel Moulin, photo
Oriental Art - Rotunda, Palace of Fine Arts. Gabriel Moulin, photo
The Arts of Peace - Netherlands Pavilion. Gabriel Moulin, photo
Penn's Treaty with the Indians - Pennsylvania Building. Clayton
     Williams, photo
Return from the Crusade - Court, Italian Pavilion. Cardinell-Vincent,
     photo
The Riches of California - Tea Room, California Building. Gabriel
     Moulin, photo



The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition



The Sculpture and Mural Decorations



"In this fair world of dreams and vagary,
Where all is weak and clothed in failing forms,
Where skies and trees and beauties speak of change,
And always wear a garb that's like our minds,
We hear a cry from those who are about
And from within we hear a quiet voice
That drives us on to do, and do, and do."



The persistent necessity for creation is strikingly proved by the
prolific output of the Arts. Year after year, as we whirl through space
on our mysterious destiny, undeterred by apparent futility, the primal
instinct for the visualization of dreams steadily persists. Good or bad,
useful or useless, it must be satisfied. It amounts to a law, like the
attraction of the sexes. Discouraged in some directions, it will out in
others, never permanently satisfied. Each age and people must have its
own art as well as what remains of the arts of past ages and peoples -
in spite of scant patronage, commercial limitation, and critics'
hostility. The philosopher tells us that everything has been done, yet
we must do it again - personally.

Art is so much a part of life that to discourage it is to discourage
life itself - as if one would say: "Others have lived; all imaginable
kinds of life have been lived. Therefore it is unnecessary for you to
experience life."

The plastic and pictorial decoration of an Exposition offer unusual
opportunity to the Artist, at the same time imposing handicaps - the
briefness of time, the poverty of material. It affords chances for
experiment, invention, and originality only limited by the necessary
formal settings of the architecture, out of proportion to the initiative
of the artists, a majority of whom prefer, either from inclination or
necessity, to take the safe course, the beaten path of precedent.
Artists are of two kinds - the Imitators and the Innovators. The public
also is of two corresponding kinds - those who accept only what they
have learned to regard as good, preferring imitations of it to anything
requiring the acquisition of a new viewpoint; and that other kind,
receptive to new sensations. The first class is the more numerous, which
explains why most of our art, in fact most of all art, is imitative -
that is, imitative of the works of other artists.

The sculpture and mural decorations of the buildings and grounds of the
Exposition adequately represent the output of American art today. It is
the best possible collection under existent conditions.

Its many sources of inspiration - all European, like the sources of our
racial origin - are clothed in outward resemblances of the styles and
tinged with the thought of the masters, old and new, who constitute
Precedent. Thus, in sculpture we have imitations, conscious or
unconscious, of the Greek, of Michael Angelo, Donatello, Rodin, Barye,
Meunier, Saint Gaudens; in painting, of Besnard, Merson, Monet, et
cetera, as well as some more complex personal notes, more difficult to
relate, although they too are related in the main, adding only another
variation of character to the great mass of human ideality. As in
nature, there is nothing absolutely pure - nothing that can exist
totally unrelated to the whole - so it is in art. Its works should be
judged, not by their absolute adherence to any so-called standard, but
finally by the appeal they make to the receptive and unprejudiced mind.

Be brave, Mr. Critic - Madame Public, think for yourself, at the risk of
ridicule. Be not ashamed to admire what appeals, before learning its
author, and when it no longer appeals leave it without remorse.

In this introduction to the sculpture of the Exposition, it is unusually
fitting that grateful recognition be accorded the memory of the sculptor
whose lively faith in our growth, and tireless energy first launched the
enterprise. Karl Bitter possessed more than any other American sculptor
that breadth of vision that enabled him to discern talent - that
generosity that enabled him to give praise where he believed it due -
that suppleness of mind that could comprehend new concepts - and that
sense of justice that avoided no obligation. Such an unusual combination
of faculties defined a man broader and more profound than his broad
achievement - one of the rare personalities in our Art, the most this
exponent that sculpture has known in this land. In the initial stages of
planning, his fiery initiative and amazing grasp of detail commanded
attention, speedily resulting in the first general plan of the sculpture
of the buildings and grounds; while later his tenacity and generosity
assured the completed unity, as it now stands. Forty-four sculptors
contributed designs, the subjects of which were assigned to the number
of seventy-eight items, some of which comprise compositions involving a
score of figures. The number of replicas used as repeated architectural
motifs in order to create an effect of richness necessitated by the
styles of architecture, is very numerous.

Vitality and exuberance, guided by a distinct sense of order, are the
dominant notes of the Arts of the Exposition and pre-eminently of the
sculpture. It proclaims with no uncertain voice that "all is right with
this Western world" - it is not too much to claim that it supplies the
humanized ideality for which the Exposition stands - the daring,
boasting masterful spirits of enterprise and imagination - the frank
enjoyment of physical beauty and effort - the fascination of danger; as
well as the gentler, more reverent of our attitudes, to this mysterious
problem that is Life.

One of the strongest influences the sculpture will have will be in the
direction of a new impulse to inventive decoration. This field has
remained relatively undeveloped, partly owing to our fondness for the
portrait idea, but the direction is legitimate and worthy. Architecture,
which is the growth of a selective precedence, must be continually
supplied with new impulses - new blood to re-energize, rehumanize its
conventions - and on the other hand, all such new impulses must be
trained into order with architecture. Within the last few years a school
devoted to the development of this, as it might be styled, applied
sculpture, has been maintained by a group of public-spirited architects
under the management of the Society of Beaux Arts Architects and the
National Sculpture Society of the United States of America.

The Star Goddess on the colonnades of the Court of the Universe amounts
to a definite creation of a new type of repeated architectural finial -
a human figure conventionalized to be come architecturally static - yet
not so devitalized as to be inert. Based on another style of
architecture the finials of the cloister of the Court of Ages serve a
correspondingly related purpose, and the crouching figures on columns in
this court are excellent examples of decorative crestings.

The groups of the Nations of the East and the Nations of the West are
new types in motif and composition of arch-crowning groups - to be seen
in silhouette against the sky at all points.

Both of these are grandly successful solutions of problems never before
attempted since the ancients imposed the quadriga form of composition.
They were first of all made possible by the receptive attitude of the
distinguished architects, Messrs. McKim, Mead and White - which proves
conclusively to me that those who are most versed in the various forms
of antique arts are also those who are most capable of accepting the
application of new motifs when sufficiently proven, and of quickly
assimilating genuine contributions to the growth of progressive art. By
so doing they lend to them all that wealth of refined elegance that has
come down through the ages. This acceptance in itself is fraught with
much encouragement to the growing school of public sculpture that aims
to understand the principles of co-operation and to weld them to an
ideal.

The above is true also of the Column of Progress, which was again made
possible by the instant comprehension of the architect, Mr. W. Symmes
Richardson. The Column illustrates a new use for an ancient motif. A
type of monument which while distinctly architectural in mass has been
humanized by the use of sculpture embodying a modern poetic idea. Now,
Mr. Critic, it does not matter in the least whether you care for this
idea or not. The fact remains, and is all important, that as a type of
sculptured column it is new and fills architectural and aesthetic
requirements, so that other columns of the same or kindred types will be
designed.

The Fountain of Energy and the Fountain of the Earth are the two
original fountain compositions. By which is meant that while there are
many other very charming fountains on the grounds they are distinctly
conceived within the rules of precedent and offer no new suggestion of
type. An exposition is the proper place to offer new types in design and
execution and happy are they who accept the challenge.

The fountains in the Court of the Universe are examples of how the charm
of sculpture can vitalize architectural conventions. The crowning
figures of these fountains, representations of the Rising and the
Setting Suns, have achieved great popularity.

The still potent charm of archaic methods applied to modern uses is well
illustrated in the groups of the "Dance" and of "Music" on the terraces
of the Court of the Universe. Again on the rotunda of the Fine Arts
Palace and elsewhere this tendency crops out and always with the
assurance of pleasing. The group representing the "Genius of Creation"
lends a modifying note of refinement against the vigorous Western facade
of Machinery Building, and adds much to the interest of the vistas north
and south of the Avenue of Progress.

There are figures and reliefs of genuine feeling that do not gain by
resemblances to the mannerisms of Rodin and Meunier, that are not in
harmony with the surrounding architecture. The original figures in the
south portal of the Palace of Varied Industries and the panel over the
entrance to the Palace of Liberal Arts are quite successful inserts of
new thought in old frames in spite of a touch, of this influence. Rodin,
the emancipator of modern sculpture, and a notorious anarchist as
regards architecture, is not always applicable. The imitation of his
style induces a negation of modeling only in evidence in one of his
manners of execution.

There is a vague tendency voiced by some critics to advance the theory
that the real future democracy of art depends on the verdict of the man
in the street. This is ridiculous. The future of art depends on no one
class of men, aristocratic or democratic. It depends on all men. Art is
neither democratic nor aristocratic. It knows no class - it is concerned
with life at large - elemental life. Art is praise and all things in
life are its subjects.

The group "Harvest" surmounting the great niche in the Court of the
Seasons is a fine placid thing - and the bull groups on the pylons are
time-honored, virile conceptions strikingly placed.

The three-tiered sculpture groupings of the Tower of Ages make rich
appeal in relation to the romantic architecture.

There are groups in niches in the west walls that will remain caviar to
the general, but which are conceived with a fine sense of decoration,
and need only a touch of relation to reconcile them to the observer. To
him they are too strange. Yet strangeness exists and if sufficiently
medicated is even admired. It is strange when one thinks of it, to have
had an Exposition.

"The End of the Trail" is perhaps the most popular work on the grounds -
the symbolism is simple and reaches many, with just the right note of
sentiment. On the other hand, there are those who have gone beyond the
obvious and prefer less realistic subjects particularly in relation to
architecture. Of this kind may be found many inserts and details making
no particular claim for attention except that of delightful enrichment.
The details of the Exposition are excellent and sometimes brilliant.

"The Pioneer" is not well understood. The trappings here puzzle the
realists who insist on a portrait of a certain personage - Joaquin
Miller. The sculptor, I know, intended nothing of the sort. It is his
vision of an aged pioneer living over again for a moment his prime.
Astride his ancient pony hung with chance trappings, symbols of
association, with axe and rifle with which he conquered the wilderness,
he broods the past.

A mural decoration should be fitting for the place which it embellishes
- both in color and composition. The subject, also, should be relatively
interesting, but not the first consideration as is the color, the line,
the chiaros-curo. At a glance the decoration should be the jewel for the
surrounding space. The murals at the Exposition are rather unusual in
their settings, where every building and every court is so replete with
Mr. Guerin's splendid coloring.

Mr. Brangwyn's decorations are by far the most interesting in their free
joyous use of color and amusing composition. From about the middle of
the cloister under the arches one turns to the right or left and is
greeted with a pleasant surprise of color. Then the story appears and is
buoyant and rich in execution. One is rather shocked when standing
directly near or underneath by the big patches of color and coarse
drawing, the vulgar types not well enough drawn to move our admiration.
The cloister looked poor to have such rich notes in each corner, but one
glance without the arches into the rich and teeming court, and we were
reconciled to their placing.

Mr. Simmons' color note is pleasant, seen across the great court. How
much more pleasant it is than to have adopted the blue of the heavens as
the dominating note - all the blue decorations in spite of their many
excellences look dull and grey and weary - the painters have not been
able to play up to and dominate the brilliant blue of the sky. In the
Court of the Four Seasons one finds color notes that are fitting, though
lacking in imaginative interest.

From the Avenue of Palms one looks across the Court of Flowers and sees
over an opening what appears to be a crucifixion. On nearer view one is
undeceived. The rich orange coloring and darker contrast is very
handsome. It is to be regretted that the lunettes over the other doors
are again that watery blue from heaven. Though brilliant in themselves
and clear in coloring, none of the three decorations in this court are
sufficiently naive in design for the space - much too smart and knowing,
they might be easel picture motifs used for the occasion. The American
public is so quick and clever that it is difficult to find in the
painters the simplicity of mind necessary for such work. Again we find
good composition and brilliant coloring in the two wall paintings in the
Pennsylvania Building.

The Italians have given us an imitation of their frescoing - the doing
of it in this manner illustrates the simplicity of the Italian mind, but
does not convey to one who has not been to Italy the absolute grandness
of Italian fresco.

This is not a detailed review nor can justice here be done to all that
honest, earnest, hopeful effort of the world-loving artist - he who
delights in the myriad phases of our lovely-terrible life, who naively
labors to bring forth his sonnet of praise. Be kind to him all ye who
contemplate, and remember how much easier it is to criticize than to -
be intelligently sympathetic. It is all for you. Take what you like, and
leave the rest without pollution. It may serve to comfort and to joy thy
fellow-man.

A. Stirling Calder.



Illustrations and Descriptive Notes of the Sculpture and Mural
Decorations of the Exposition



Fountain of Energy
Central Group, South Gardens



The Fountain of Energy in the place of honor within the main entrance
gives the keynote of the Exposition - a mood of triumphant rejoicing.
The proud bearing of the equestrian group, the wide sweep of water when
the fountain is in play, the sportive movement of the figures in the
basin, all express the joy of achievement. In the conception of the
sculptor, A. Stirling Calder, this was fitting tribute to the completion
of the Panama Canal which the Exposition celebrates.

The fountain has a double significance. In the first aspect it records
the conquest by Energy of the labors of the Canal. In the second it
proclaims the approach of the Super-Energy of the future. Both
interpretations are detailed upon the following pages. On the globe
supporting the horseman are indicated the sun's course North and South
and the evolution of mankind from lower to higher forms of life. That of
the strenuous Western hemisphere is connoted by a bullman; the quiet
East by a cat-human. Great oceans and lesser waters revel in the
fountain-bowl. A garland of merfolk join globe to base with great
sculptural beauty.



Equestrian Group
Detail, Fountain of Energy



In the more obvious phase of the fountain's meaning, Energy, the Lord of
the Isthmian Way, rides grandly upon the earth, triumphing because of
the Canal so well achieved. His outstretched arms have severed the lands
and let the waters pass. Upon his mighty shoulders stand Fame and Glory,
heralding the coming of a conqueror. The second and more subtle
intention is nobly prophetic. Energy, the Power of the Future, the
Superman, approaches. Twin inspirations - of two sexes to denote the
dual nature of man - urge him onward. His hands point upward, contacting
human energy with Divine. It is interesting to note the steadiness of
the central figure, the sense of firmness, security, in spite of the
feeling of motion in the whole. This is largely due to the hold of the
feet upon the stirrups and the weight of the body in the saddle.



North Sea - Atlantic Ocean
Details, Fountain of Energy



The basin of the Fountain of Energy is devoted to the revel of the
waters. The genii of the four great oceans dominate the scene. They are
mounted upon cavorting marine monsters and surrounded by the smaller
waters, fearlessly playing, head-downwards, upon dolphins about to dive.
The Atlantic Ocean faces East; the Pacific, West; the North and South
Seas their appropriate quarters. The symbolic figures are designed to
interpret the spirit of the oceans they represent - the Atlantic, fine
and bright, upon her armored sword-fish; the Pacific, a beautiful,
graceful, happily brooding Oriental; the North Sea, finned and
glistening, strange and eerie; the South Sea, savage and tempestuous,
blowing a fitful blast. The lesser waters have a lighter quality. The
hair of the sea-spirits suggests seaweed and coral. From the mouths of
of the sea-chargers jets of water rise to meet the nimbus and rainbows
of the semi-spherical downpour of the main fountain.



Mermaid Fountain
Festival Hall, South Gardens



Long, quiet mirror pools flank the great Fountain of Energy, giving
balance and calm to the entrance plaza, or South Gardens. They are
oblong in shape with the farther ends curving into a graceful convex.
The pools are surrounded by formal flowerbeds planted to correspond to
the beds surrounding the central fountain, thus giving continuity to the
whole. These beds are enclosed by a decorative fence which follows the
outline of the pools; the entering paths, emphasized at the outer ends
by flower urns, at the inner by sculptural light standards.

The curved ends of the pools are marked by Arthur Putnam's beautiful
Mermaid Fountain, in duplicate. The crowning figure is by no means the
conventional mermaid. She is free, full of grace, charmingly poised. The
bifurcated tail is original and gives sculptural distinction as well as
greater human appeal. The figure is instinct with a spirit of play but
is not boisterous. Arthur Putnam is a Californian who has greatly
influenced the development of art in the West.



Torch Bearer
Finial Figure, Festival Hall



As Festival Hall is the seat of the Exposition's musical life, all the
sculpture on and about the building expresses a lyrical mood. The
sculptor has contrived to give this feeling great variety; but, on the
whole, the large reclining figures - the beautiful, relaxed Reclining
Nymph and the Listening God over the great pylons - seem to be
meditatively listening, the seated figures have a fanciful, lighter
suggestion and those standing give a gentle effect of rhythm. The great
arches are marked by a cartouche emphasizing this intention.

"The Torch Bearer" here pictured is lightly yet firmly poised above the
minor domes. Exquisitely silhouetted against the sky, she has a spiral
beauty, and the grace of one posed in the midst of a dance. The work of
Sherry Edmundsen Fry, who made all the sculpture on Festival Hall, is,
generally characterized by a classic correctness combined with a modern
robustness. It lends itself well to this French Renaissance building - a
type that depends upon its sculptured embellishments.



The Muse and Pan
Pylon Group, Festival Hall



At the base of the great pylons that flank the columnar entrance court
of Festival Hall, are low pyramidal masses of foliage and flowering
shrubs. An interesting group by Sherry E. Fry is set in the midst of
each. The more evident figure, mounted upon a decorative pedestal, is
identical in both groups - a classic, flower-bearing Muse, who seems to
step softly forward. But though the Muse is repeated, the groups vary in
the smaller seated figures at the base of the pedestals. This variation
is not felt architecturally, for the figures balance perfectly and are
nestled in a mass of leafage. At the feet of the Muse before the
northern pylon a Boy Pan sits among the flowers, balanced in the
southern group by a Young Nymph or Dryad.

The gentle dignity of the standing Muse and the reality and softness of
her draperies recall the same sculptor's figure, Peace, exhibited in the
department of Fine Arts and awarded a medal by the jury. The
architectural beauty of these groups, in relation to the arched panels
of the pylons forming their background, is worthy of study. It will be
seen that the group, in spite of its statuesque quality, is actually
part of the wall surface. The beauty of the ensemble is greatly enhanced
by the sympathetic planting.



Boy Pan
Detail, Pylon Group, Festival Hall



Without doubt the most popular, if not the most admired, of the statues
that adorn Festival Hall is the "Boy Pan," nestled in the foliage at the
base of the pedestal in the group just described. This roguish little
god of woodland music has, besides his traditional attributes, a certain
urchin quality that is very appealing. He has just taken his pipe from
his lips, momentarily diverted by the presence of an alert lizard his
melody has attracted. The lizard is here hidden in the leafage. The arch
amusement of the whole figure, the mischievous, boyish smile upon his
face, have allurement, just lifted from the normal by the quaint
suggestion of small horns still in velvet. Here in his youth is the
wholesome, simple, poetic Pan of the earlier myths, he who grew into the
"Great God Pan," rather than the hero of the more subtle and diversified
later legends. His pertness is contrasted with the shy modesty of the
Young Nymph, the companion figure at the foot of the opposite pylon.



Detail, Spire Base
Palace of Horticulture



The Palace of Horticulture, a combination of French Renaissance with the
Byzantine, is consistently flowery in decoration. It has been given a
carnival expression. The general sculptured adornments are heavy
garlands and overflowing baskets, and profuse ornamentations of flowers.
Large flower-decked jars stand in niches; the cartouches bear the flower
motif. Suggestions of lattices and arbors appear in the low domes on the
porches surrounding the great greenhouses, reminiscent of French garden
architecture of the Great Age.

The superb central glass dome that gives the building distinction is
crowned by a huge flower basket and draped at its base by a long
garland. At the foot of the sharply ascending spires - the slender
shafts of which are carved with conventionalized vines and bear tapering
flower urns as finials - stand graceful garlands of girls. These
pleasing spire bases, the attendants of Flora, are by Ernest Louis
Boutier, a Parisian. They carry small baskets of flowers on their heads,
a chain of flowers binds them. The same feeling is continued in the
caryatids on this building, by John Bateman. These, also flower-capped,
are repeated on the Press and Y. W. C. A. buildings, smaller structures
in the South Gardens adjoining the Horticultural Palace, thus unifying
the buildings in the plaza.



Cortez
In Front of Tower of Jewels



Equestrian statues of Cortez and Pizzaro stand in the Avenue of Palms at
the base of the Tower of Jewels to suggest the early history of the
South and West of this hemisphere as a background to the present
achievements at Panama and, indeed, at San Francisco. This spirited and
romantic presentation of the fearless conquistador, Hernando Cortez,
shows him at the very height of his proud successes. Charles Niehaus,
whose work is always direct and convincing, has made us feel the Spanish
conqueror's own sense of victory. We know that now Mexico, the
Tlascalans and the Emperor Montezuma have been vanquished, that the
victor's ruthless ambition is already dreaming of the conquest of New
Spain and the navigation of the Pacific. There are infused into the work
a brilliancy and dash that fill the imagination with the glamor of that
picturesque period of history. The perfect horsemanship, the restrained
but vigorous motion, the whole bearing, have a stirring beauty. There is
also intended and expressed in the countenance a sense of vision, as if
Cortez had here a prophetic moment in which he saw the future of the
continent he claimed.



Pizarro
In Front of Tower of Jewels



Pizzaro, the companion equestrian to Cortez, is the work of Charles Cary
Rumsey. The grim, stern and epic history of the bold, arrogant
adventurer who was merciless in success and dauntless in failure is
ruggedly suggested by this figure, mounted upon a heavily armored
charger and advancing with drawn sword. The fact that Pizzaro was a
member of Balboa's party when that explorer discovered the Pacific and
that he himself was in charge of a Spanish colony at Darien in 1510,
makes his appearance at this Exposition appropriate. But it is, after
all, the conqueror of the Incas, the indomitable, who spared neither his
men nor his enemy until the rich cities of the Southern Empire had been
pillaged of their gold and destroyed, who is here portrayed. After
achieving wealth and honors Pizzaro was slain by the followers of a
rival conquistador. The position of these two equestrians is well
chosen; the colonnade of the Tower makes an impressive background.



The Pioneer
Avenue of Palms



History of a later period, nearer to the heart of Westerners, is
embodied in Solon Borglum's lusty and venerable Pioneer. This impressive
equestrian stands on the Avenue of Palms at the entrance to the court of
Flowers. It is interesting to note that, in this rugged and commanding
figure, fineness, dignity and nobility are emphasized as well as the
more customary endurance and hardihood conventionally associated with
the character. On the leather trappings of the old Pioneer's horse, the
tepee, the canoe and other symbols of Indian life are marked. The
sculptor is himself the son of pioneers and has treated this subject
with sincerity and affectionate insight. The Pioneer has been greatly
appreciated and has received special notice in a number of addresses
delivered by distinguished guests of the Exposition. Its veracity is
attested by the fact that resemblance to several famous pioneers has
been imagined in it by their admirers.



The End of the Trail
Avenue of Palms



Still further back into the historical records of American stamina goes
The End of the Trail by James Earle Fraser. No single work of art at the
Exposition has attracted more popular applause than this. It has a
gripping, manly pathos that makes a direct appeal. The physical vigor of
the rider, over-tried but sound, saves it from mere sentiment. An Indian
brave, utterly exhausted, his strong endurance worn through by the long,
hard ride, storm-spent, bowed in the abandon of helpless exhaustion,
upon a horse as weary as he, has come to the end of the trail, beyond
which there is no clear path. It is easy to apply the message of this
statue to the tragedy of the American Indian's decline upon the
continent he once possessed. The sculptor acknowledges as his text these
words of Marian Manville Pope: The trail is lost, the path is hid and
winds that blow from out the ages sweep me on to that chill borderland
where Time's spent sands engulf lost peoples and lost trails.



Historic Types
Finial Figures, Tower of Jewels



As repeated alternating figures on the top of corner pedestals on the
first stage of the Tower of Jewels, stand The Four Agents of
Civilization, the historic influences that have developed our American
life. These, the Adventurer, the Soldier, the Priest and the
Philosopher, have been presented with vivid simplicity by John Flanagan.

He has given us, first, the Adventurous Explorer, romantic, courageous,
he who crossed the uncharted seas and found new worlds; then the
formidable conquering Soldier, he who founded settlements and held them
with his sword or fought with natives for empire or riches for European
monarchs; then the Missionary Priest, inspired with a holy zeal to
spread the divine message to strange peoples; and, last, the
Philosopher, the Thinker, whose great influence is but now beginning.
The treatment of these figures is quiet, restful and architectural in
feeling, as becomes their position. They supply the serious note to the
gala Tower.



Fountain of Youth
Colonnade, Tower of Jewels



Within the colonnades of the Tower are two wall-fountains by American
women. The Fountain of Youth in the eastern colonnade is the work of
Edith Woodman Burroughs. She has given us the eternally desired fountain
in a new aspect, not as the legendary restorative that changes age to
adolescence, but as the fount of perpetual youth that keeps inspiring
and vivifying the race and every stage of our life.

An exquisite nude girl stands in a beautifully balanced archway rising
like a flower from a pedestal on which are seen, like roots, vaguely
outlined, the faces of her ancestors. She is Youth, the center of life,
for which the world, its dreams and its rewards are made. The side
panels show the ships of life laden with the aged and manned by
infants, off on the sea of time on the endless quests upon which youth
and desire for its fulfillment's keep the world launched. However, the
enduring charm of the fountain certainly comes from the little-girlhood
of the central figure, the gentle, expectant sweetness of waning
childhood and the perfect purity of the emotion it produces.



Fountain of El Dorado
Colonnade, Tower of Jewels



Within the West colonnade of the Tower of Jewels is the other fountain
desired by all the world - the Fountain of El Dorado. Like the Fountain
of Youth it is connected by legend with early Spanish exploration in
America. Long ago, the story goes, there lived in Mexico or South
America a golden king who scattered treasures along his path. El Dorado
and his realm have long been symbols of the elusive gold sought by
mankind in all ages and every clime.

In this fountain by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, it is not the mere
possession of wealth that is so sought, but those joys of which our
mistaken imaginings make gold the symbol. In the central composition
here pictured, the Gilded One has vanished through the portals.
Impersonal, unresponsive attendants in Aztec garb guard the door from
suppliant followers. With subtle symbolism they give no sign as to
whether or not they will relent and give entrance. But the fact that
branches of trees have grown close across the opening seems to imply
that hope is slight.



Frieze
Details, Fountain of El Dorado



Two long curving panels supplement the main archway of the Fountain of
El Dorado. They represent the striving of humankind for Power and
Possession. Some by prowess, some by thought; some gaily, some
sorrowfully; some urgent, some patient; some rushing, some lingering -
all press onward toward the longed-for goal. Here and there one falls
fainting; another halts for love or pleasure or indifference. Some stop
to lift or help the fallen, others press by unheeding. The certain sad
fatality of the concept is relieved of its pang by the light and fluent
beauty of treatment. The idea is perhaps a little grim, but the handling
is pleasant and the impression agreeable. The beauty of both the
colonnade fountains is enhanced by the lines of the water in the cascade
stairway. In the Fountain of El Dorado this effect is increased by a
line of balanced jets flowing from dolphin heads in the lower panel.



Nations of the East
Group, Arch of the Rising Sun



Across the great Court of the Universe, the Court of Honor of the
Exposition, the Nations of the East and West face each other from the
summits of their triumphal arches. They express the coming brotherhood
of man, the nations brought closer by Canal and Exposition, and the fact
that civilization has girdled the earth. Inscriptions characteristic of
Eastern and Western wisdom are engraved beneath them. These heroic
groups are the result of the successful collaboration of A. Stirling
Calder, Frederick G. R. Roth, and Leo Lentelli.

In the Eastern group here pictured, about a richly caparisoned elephant
stand the camel drivers, Egypt and Assyria; the equestrians, Arabian and
Mongolian; two Negro Servitors; the Bedouin Falconer and the Chinese
Llama. The pyramidal composition is massive and the Eastern spirit nobly
sustained. On pylons before both arches, Leo Lentelli's Guardian Genii -
calm, impressive, winged spirits - guard the universe. The unity of men
and nature are denoted by the Rising and Setting Sun fountains, the row
of Stars, the Zodiac friezes and the Elements. Of these, "Air and Earth"
appear in the foreground of the picture. In the distance is "Music," one
of the classic groups contacting the Court with the carnival spirit. All
these are described on later pages.



Pegasus
Spandrels, East and West Arches



These spandrels, by Frederick G. R. Roth, are interesting artistically,
not only for the eager sweep and sense of bigness not usual in the
narrow scope of a spandrel, but especially for their warm decorative
value to the wall surface and the aspiring way in which they follow the
rising line of the archway over which they are placed. The spandrels are
made in very vigorous low relief. They express the place of poetry in
the Universe. For, in this court that celebrates man's achievements in
the East and West, and Nature's gifts to all, the poet on his winged
horse appears to inspire the one and interpret the other. The spandrels
throughout the Exposition are noteworthy. It is significant of the
artistic conscientiousness in detail of those who planned the sculpture
that these and other smaller pieces are so uniformly beautiful. Notable
among them are August Jaegers' spandrels in the Court of the Four
Seasons and Albert Weinert's in the Court of Palms.



The Stars
A Detail of the Colonnade



A sense of eternal spaces, the feeling of calm and elemental
tranquillity, is given to the Court of the Universe by the surrounding
Colonnade of Stars. The quiet stars look, down upon the activities of
men. The semi-conventionalized Star figure, light and firm, repeated
about the Colonnade is a highly important factor in the architectural
beauty of the Court. She stands a-tiptoe on the globe that forms her
pedestal; the circle of her arms about the starry head-dress implies the
endlessness of space. The pointed headdress is hung with jewels of the
kind that decorate the tower. These carry the jubilant idea of the tower
around the Court. They twinkle brilliantly where the sun strikes them
and are illuminated by thin shafts of searchlight at night. This Star
figure by A. Stirling Calder has been reproduced in the insignia of the
Exposition on a number of its official engravings and is the central
design of the gold badges of the Directors and the silver badges of the
Chiefs of Departments.



Earth
Detail, One of "The Elements"



The Four Elements, heroic pieces by Robert I. Aitken, are placed at the
top of the main stairways leading down into the sunken gardens of the
Court of the Universe. In spite of their imaginative themes, these
massive works have the same gripping reality that characterizes all the
later method of this sculptor. He has treated the elements, especially
"Earth" and "Air," in their relation to man. As here pictured, "Earth,"
the quiet mother, sleeps on her rocks, over which little human beings
struggle and toil. The rear view of "Air," the group on the opposite
side of the same stairway, may be seen in the foreground of the plate
illustrating The Nations of the East. "Air" holds a star in her hair;
she has great wings and is attended by floating sea-gulls. Behind her, a
man has strapped his arms to her mighty pinions, signifying the effort
of the present age to ride the winds. "Fire" and "Water," across the
gardens, are shown in vivid action; "Fire" roaring with his salamander,
and "Water" blowing a stormy gust across the waves.



The Signs of the Zodiac
Frieze on the Corner Pavilions



Low relief, the form that is so difficult and so beautiful and
satisfying when perfectly achieved, is at its finest in the sculptured
mural panels that crown the corner pavilions of the Court of the
Universe and the Forecourt of the Stars. These are the panels of "The
Signs of the Zodiac," by Hermon A. MacNeil, who is better known to
Exposition visitors by his finial group, "The Adventurous Bowman," on
the Column of Progress. The idea of the overhanging, serene heavens,
expressed by the Star Colonnade, is extended by these panels. About the
central figure of Atlas or Time, his heavenly daughters move, bearing
the Zodiacal symbols, to indicate the sweep of the constellations and
the onward march of time. This impression of the steady, slow passage of
our days is increased by the gentle motion of the figures, so slight as
to be felt rather than seen. The frieze has a clean-cut effect almost
cameo-like in its precision and the harmony and grace of the whole
composition have frequently been found suggestive of the decorations on
an Attic urn.



Nations of the West
Group, Arch of the Setting Sun



As we look across the Court of the Universe towards the Nations of the
West, the vastness of the Court and the commanding effect of these great
groups of the nations impress us. The high columns of the Rising and
Setting Sun fountains, the monumental groups of the "Elements," the
classic "Music" and "Dance" of heroic size, are merged in the splendid
sweep of the Court; the dignified circle of sculptured light-standards
is dwarfed by the perspective. But these mighty processional masses of
the Nations still dominate the whole. This western group, companion to
the Nations of the East, centers about the prairie schooner, which
balances the elephant in the opposing composition, and the girlish
figure of a young pioneer mother, poetically called "The Mother of
Tomorrow." Accompanying her are represented the nations that have
contributed to our American civilization. The group is by the same
sculptors in collaboration who made the group of eastern nations. The
four equestrians, the Latin-American, the French-Canadian, the
Anglo-American, the Indian and the trudging Squaw are by Leo Lentelli;
the pedestrian figures, the bowed Alaskan women, the German and the
Italian are by F. G. R. Roth, who made also the oxen and the prairie
schooner. The Mother and the crowning symbolic group of "Enterprise" and
the "Hopes of the Future" are by A. Stirling Calder, who is responsible
for the general composition.



Enterprise
Detail, Nations of the West



The prairie schooner that forms the axis of the Nations of the West is
crowned by an animated, imaginative group so perfectly co-ordinated with
the realistic main composition that it causes no sense of discord. This
group of "Enterprise" and the "Hopes of the Future" by A. Stirling
Calder, forms the apex of the pyramidal construction. It gives the
required height and balances the howdah on the elephant in the companion
group, the Nations of the East, on the opposite archway. The spirit of
Enterprise, a kneeling figure whose encircling wings carry the rewards
of the world, calls aloud to summon initiative, encouragement and
perseverance to the brave and adventurous who advance our progress. This
Enterprise is the pioneer spirit that discovered and developed America.
At the feet of Enterprise sit the Hopes of the Future; two boys, one
white, the other, negro. These sound the note of deep humanity that
underlies the poetry of the conception. This group of the Western
nations has an appropriate sub-title, "The Pioneers."



Dance
Balustrade, Court of the Universe



At the top of the longitudinal stairways in the Court of the Universe
are Paul Manship's "Music" and "Dance." These are typical examples of
that sculptor's power to combine classic restraint, sculptural dignity
and grace of line with complete freedom and untrammeled ease of method.
They express a musical mood, supplying the honor of musical art to the
otherwise incomplete celebration of man's achievements. In "Dance," here
reproduced, the beautiful movement of the figures and the garlands, full
in volume but light in weight, are superlatively well presented. A
glimpse of the companion group, "Music," can be had in the plate devoted
to the Nations of the East. In this are two classic male figures, the
Composer and the Musician. One holds an open scroll from which the other
reads as he pauses in touching the strings of a lyre. A number of
distinguished exhibits by Mr. Manship, showing all phases of his art,
appear in the Palace of Fine Arts where he has been awarded the honor of
a gold medal.



The Rising Sun
Fountain, Court of the Universe



"The Rising" and "The Setting Sun," by Adolph A. Weinman, stand high
against the heavens on tall shafts that rise from fountain bowls. They
are inspired with a sort of rapturous imagery and they so inspire the
beholder. "The Rising Sun," a youth with outstretched wings, a figure
suggestive of gladness, hope and the dawn of high adventure, is a
fitting symbol of the sunrise. He seems "a-tiptoe for a flight" on the
summit of his column; his profile against the sky is superb. On the
opposite column "The Setting Sun," a young woman with pensive face,
shaded by her hair and drooping wings, sinks to rest. These figures
stand on translucent shafts that are pillars of light in the evening.
They bear garlanded capitals and rise from double fountain bowls bound
together by rising and falling jets and sheets of water. The column
bases are finished with beautiful friezes, one symbolic of the Sun of
Truth, the other of the Peace of Night. Winged mermen support the upper
basin; sea-creatures gambol in the lower.



Column of Progress
In the Forecourt of the Stars



One of the most serious and thoughtful works of the Exposition sculpture
is the Column of Progress which faces the bay at the end of the
Forecourt of Stars. This column represents with direct imagery the
upward progress of man. The shaft itself is sculptured with
conventionalized waves in a gradually ascending spiral, upon which a
repeated vessel, the Ship of Life, sails upward, indicating the slow
upward rise of our life. The lower panels, significant of man's
endeavors, are described on the following page. The crowning group, "The
Adventurous Bowman," noble in intent and in sculptural power, is from
the hand of Hermon A. MacNeil. At the highest point of man's
achievement, stands this Adventurous Bowman, the super-hero, the leader,
the man with insight into the future, who shoots his arrow into the Sun
of Truth. Behind him the next man supports and is protected, by him.
Beside him kneels the woman with his reward in her hands. The frieze
beneath the group shows the Burden-Bearers on whose shoulders the hero
stands - an arresting thought; reminder of the true values in modern
life.



Frieze
Base, Column of Progress



The four panels at the base of the Column of Progress sympathetically
express its exalted idealism. They are by Isadore Konti, in richly
wrought high relief. The play of color values, the planes of light and
shade, are handled with mastery. These four panels indicate that the
thought, the dream, the aspiration, the dutiful devotion underlying all
the labors of the common day are the source of their progress. One panel
shows the higher toils of the mind, as in the arts and statesmanship. In
the center of this stands the inventor or leader of thought with the
eagle of aspiration above him. Another shows the motives of love and
pain and prayer and the central power of labor as movers of the world.
Still another, which is shown here, expresses the humbler toils of
mankind; even they, it says, progress upward through the thinker who
pauses in their midst to dream. The other panel here pictured represents
the triumph of man's endeavors, and the successes that spur to greater
achievements.



Primitive Ages
Altar Tower, Court of Ages



The Tower of Ages, in the Court of Ages, represents Evolution. The lower
group, here illustrated, presents "The Early Ages." This shows the
development of man from his physical beginnings among the creatures of
the ooze up through the cave man and the Stone Age to the growth of the
family ideal out of which sprang a higher civilization. The second group
shows "The Middle Ages." Its three figures are the Monk, the Armored
Bowman, and, at the apex, the Crusader, the highest expression of
idealism, of that period. "The Present Age" crowns the whole, upon an
altar sits the Woman Enthroned and Enshrined. Her children, the future,
are at her feet. Their finger-tips touch a symbol, the Cosmos. One bears
a book, the other the wheel of a machine. Figures of Mutation flank the
central composition. The sculpture on the Tower of Ages is by Chester A.
Beach, whose emancipated and vigorous manner is exactly suited to the
presentment of these strong ideas.



Primitive Man
Arcade Finial, Court of Ages



In accord with the basic idea of the beginning, change and upward growth
of the human race and its emotional life that are emphasized in this
eastern court, rough, plastic figures of "Primitive Man" and "Primitive
Woman" surmount the elaborate arcade. They harmonize with the conception
and treatment of the, group on the Tower of Ages. They are the work of
Albert Weinert, the sculptor who made the much-admired "Miner" in the
portal niches of the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy, and "Philosophy" on
Administration Avenue. He presents these parents of civilization at the
transition stage when they are still savage but have become physically
upright and begun to develop the elementary glimmering of intellectual
and emotional consciousness. They stand as finials on the continued
columns that pierce the arcade wall and emphasize the arches. Dividing
the spaces above them, on a higher level, are repeated finials of a pert
chanticleer, emblem of the east, the dawn and immortality.



Fountain of Earth
Central Group, Court of Ages



Here is one of the most majestic and imposing enrichments of
contemporary art developed by the Exposition. The Fountain of Earth by
Robert I. Aitken has compelled the attention of the world of art and won
the gold medal for sculpture of the year offered by the Architectural
League. In this fountain the idea of man's evolution takes a subtler and
more profound significance. In general, it shows the development and
growth of love from its lower to higher forms and the upward effect of
that spiritualization upon the life of the earth. In the secondary
group, a prelude and epilogue to the main composition, on the prow of
the Ship of Earth are grouped the loves, greeds, passions, griefs and
spiritual cravings of man and woman, who come and go from the Unknown to
the Unknowable. The great arms of Destiny, pushing and pointing, giving
and taking, guide the way. Between the four panels of Life on the Earth,
stand the Hermes, milestones of ancient Rome, here used as milestones
upon the road of Time. Sea-creatures indicate our origin in the waters.
The description of the panels follows on succeeding pages.



Survival of the Fittest
A Panel, Fountain of Earth



The central fountain shows the globe of Earth revolving in the Infinite.
Streams of water by day, clouds of luminous steam by night, give it the
effect of swimming out of chaos. The powerful panels of Earth are boldly
modeled in pierced relief, giving statuesque realism as well as the
picturesqueness demanded of a panel. They follow in a natural sequence
as regards their deep and arresting symbolism. The order is, first, the
Southern, then the Western, Northern and Eastern panels as the fountain
lies. The panel here illustrated is third in the sequence. In the first
panel are shown the motive Elemental Emotions - Vanity, Sexual Love and
mere Physical Parenthood without enlightenment. After the next milestone
is the second panel called "Natural Selection." This presents the
approach of the Strong Man; little wings beside his head indicate the
dawn of Intellect. Women turn to him attracted by his qualities. Of the
men whom they have deserted, one resigns in sorrow; the other prepares
to contend the the issue. In the next phase, here illustrated, "The
Survival of the Fittest," the struggle has begun. The following pages
resume the story.



Lesson of Life
A Panel, Fountain of Earth



In the panel of "The Survival of the Fittest" the battle of life is at
its height. The men are in a furious struggle of strength and prowess.
The interplay of human passions, the contests of wills and capacities,
has developed. The women, too, are taking a conscious part in life, one
weeping and shrinking from the fray, the other extending a restraining
hand. In the last and noblest panel, called "The Lesson of Life," we see
the spiritualized and intellect-guided emotions. A helmeted man and
pure-browed woman gaze tenderly in each other's eyes. Youth, full of
impulse and fire, stays to listen to the voice of Reason. The lover
keeps in touch with the guiding memory of the Mother. And the cycle is
completed from animal to mental toward the higher foundation of life
upon the earth. Seldom has more exaltation of thought or intensity of
feeling been infused, without mawkishness or exaggeration, into a work
of art. The Fountain of Earth, is deeply interpretive of the trend of
modern thought.



Helios
Separate Group, Fountain of Earth



On the wall of the basin of the Fountain of Earth, is a subsidiary group
called "Helios, the Sun." It is a decorative point of finish and is also
symbolic. The Sun is taken as the symbol of the Cosmos, the enduring,
the Day, the source of life. Man is pictured as clinging to it, in the
hope of being freed from the encircling coils of his baser self and the
old earthy entanglements that hold him down, and destroy him. This group
and the main fountain, as well as the sides of the beautiful court, are
mirrored in the long still pool in which the fountain stands - a pool
properly free from splashes or springs as befits the setting of this
intricate and massive work. The rapid and stable growth of Robert I.
Aitken, sculptor of the Fountain of Earth, is of particular interest to
San Francisco, the city of his birth, and the site of several of his
earlier efforts.



Water Sprites
Base of Column, Court of Ages



The "Water Sprite Columns" in the Court of Ages bring the somber
symbolism of this court back to the gay spirit of festival. The sprites
are the work of Leo Lentelli; they have a quaint elfin quality that is
very engaging. The amusing and lovely group seated about the base of the
column have a certain chic habit of pointing elbows, wrists and ankles
that lends an unworldly attraction. Their sister sprite at the top of
the slender decorated shaft is mischievously aiming an arrow downwards.
These Sprite Columns express the gay, frolicsome mood of the waters.
Their feeling harmonizes more with the sea-weed and shell decorations of
the court itself and its falling-water motif than with the weightier
sculpture it contains. They create a pleasing ripple of merriment. Their
light and airy modeling has the beauty of unconscious and unforced
artistry. The columns stand just within the northern entrance of the
court, guarding a vista of the bay.



A Daughter of the Sea
North Aisle, Court of Ages



In this "Daughter of the Sea," Sherry E. Fry has given us a nymph who
typifies the life within the watery sphere where it is deep and broad.
She has the robustness, volume and vigor of the great high seas. She is
deep-bosomed and broad of thigh and stands as though storms and monsters
had no terrors, as one accustomed to breast and conquer the waves. Water
creatures supplement her, but she seems made on too goddess-like a scale
to disport herself with them. It is interesting to contrast this nymph
of the fathomless trough of the sea with the arch and playful Water
Sprites of the froth and ripple, on the columns within the Court of
Ages. This statue is placed in the Forecourt of Ages, facing the Marina,
the court that is designed to graduate the richness of the larger court
toward the more severe facades on the Marina. Sherry E. Fry's work, in a
less rugged vein, appears upon Festival Hall.



The Fairy
Finial Figure, Italian Towers



The gay and gracefully ethereal towers on corner pavilions at the
entrance to the Court of Palms and the Court of Flowers, sometimes
called The Kelham Towers for their architect, are pointed by a long and
pleasing slope of wings. Carl Gruppe's slender Fairy stands upon them,
poised, as though just alighted. This finial figure has a pretty
wistfulness that suggests the whimsical firefly fairies of Peter Pan
more than the conventional gauzy creatures of ordinary fairy tale, and
is more like a female counterpart of Shakespeare's "delicate Ariel" who
sucks "where the bee sucks" than any other creature of fancy. The
curving antennae increase this impression. She carries in her hand a
whirling star. The silhouette of the figure is attractive and the halo
of sky behind the head framed within the circle of the wings, lends a
distinct charm. It is pleasant to have this symbol of imagination over
the Exhibit palaces, especially in the Courts of Palms and Flowers, more
suited to the fairy feeling than, perhaps, any other spot upon the
grounds.



Flower Girl
Niche, Court of Flowers



The perfect balance of this "Flower Girl" by A. Stirling Calder, saved
from any hint of rigidity by the graceful curves of its extended lines,
makes it an admirable wall decoration. Harmony with the wall-niche in
which it appears is part of its allurement. The sculptor has modestly
sought to merge the figure's loveliness into that of the Court and has
succeeded in increasing both. "The Flower Girl" appears in outer niches
of the attic cloister of the court bearing her name, the Court of
Flowers. A light garlanded mantle falls like a petal from her shoulders,
the floating edge following the line of the nymph's divided hair, so
that the maiden seems more like a flower itself than a flowerbearer.
However, she has the sculptural solidity necessary for her location and
resembles not some frail, wind-blown blossom, but the robust and buxom
California blooms that flourish in the court below her.



Beauty and the Beast
Fountain Detail, Court of Flowers



The Fountain of Beauty and the Beast in the Court of Flowers accentuates
the feeling of gentle fancy and the spirit of the fairytale that are the
mood of this and its companion court. It is by Edgar Walter, a
distinguished San Franciscan; he has given us a delightful, playful and
tender rendition of the old tale that has held the imagination of the
world since it first appeared in Straparola's "Piacevoli Notti" in 1550.
Since it was popularized by Madame le Prince de Beaumont in 1757, the
story has been translated into every language. The fountain shows, with
great restraint and refinement of handling, one of Beauty's
ministrations to the sick monster shortly before his transformation. It
is subject to the symbolism that may be read into the story itself; but
the note of fairy magic is the essential theme of the fountain. Quaint
fairy pipers, the unseen musicians of the Monster's Palace, stand about
the pedestal. The lower basin bears a frieze of charmed or enchanted
beasts, very lightly handled and not insistent. Their idea is continued
in the court by the gryphon decorations and Albert Laessle's
wreath-bearing Friendly Lions, at the entrances to the palaces.



Caryatid
Court of Palms



The Court of Palms is restful, meditative, a place where the feeling of
magical allure takes a deeper, more subjective character. It might well
be called the Court of Pools, for two, quiet pools, one circular, one
oblong except for its concave side to hold the other, fill the floor of
its sunken garden and reflect its pensive as well as its physical
charms. The Caryatids repeated throughout this court are the joint work
of John Bateman and A. Stirling Calder. They inject into the court its
fairy spirit without disturbing its repose. They are Puckish,
bat-winged, goblin-horned fairy creatures of an eerie beauty, elfin,
roguish and quaint. Their quality is enhanced by the beautiful color
that has been applied to them, to the garlanded panels between them, to
the cartouches over the archways and, indeed, to all the decorations on
the walls and columns of this court. This richness and depth of color
leads the eye to the three splendid mural lunettes in the arches. These
are Childe Hassam's "Fruit and Flowers" and Charles Holloway's "Pursuit
of Pleasure," at the entrances to the palaces, and Arthur Mathews'
"Victory of Culture Over Force" in the portal that leads to the Court of
the Four Seasons and frames a vista of the bay.



The Harvest
Court of the Four Seasons



The Court of the Four Seasons, classic in spirit, finished and chaste in
execution, required a perfect harmony of mass, line and feeling in the
sculpture that was to embellish it. It was the further task of the
sculptors and mural painters to give the court its meaning, to
illustrate the idea of the earth's abundance and the fruitful
beneficence of the seasons that is implied in the title of the court.
That they have nobly succeeded in this difficult double achievement is
an actual triumph. "The Harvest," by Albert Jaegers, crowning the
half-dome, is a magnificent bit of architectural sculpture. It seems a
faithful part of the surface it enriches; its outlines are faultlessly
balanced; although its sides are varied, its mass is superbly centered.
The Goddess of the Plentiful Harvest sits in the slope of an overflowing
cornucopia; a sheaf of ripe wheat rests in her supporting arm; she is
attended by a lad who can scarcely lift the weight of fruit he bears.
The group is bound more closely to the half-dome by a graceful garland
applied to the wall-surface Mr. Jaegers has further illustrated the
traditional idea of Harvest Home festivals by the vigorous groups, "The
Feast of Sacrifice," which adorn the huge pylons of this court.



Rain
Court of the Four Seasons



On separate columns flanking the Half-Dome of the Harvest, Albert
Jaegers has given us classic presentations of the two great resources of
nature that bring the blessing of rich harvest. These are symbolic
figures, "Rain," here pictured, and "Sunshine." In "Rain," the nymph of
the Earth, holds upward a shell, her cup, in grateful expectation of the
beneficent rainfall, while she shields her head from the storm with a
cloud-like mantle. On the other column, that of "Sunshine," the nymph
shades her head with an arching palm-branch, though she looks up in
happy appreciation to the welcome glow of the sun. As in his "Harvest"
and "The Feast of Sacrifice," Mr.  Jaegers has here given with perfect
restraint a sense of generous weight, of richness, profusion and mass
that are highly satisfying in their artistic aspect and are valuable
interpreters of the message of the Court. August Jaegers, a younger
brother of this sculptor, has embellished the arcade of this court with
an attractive repeated attic figure. In voluminous, decorative draperies
this female figure stands between two young orange trees, her arms about
them - significant of the harvest of California.



Fountain of Spring
Court of the Four Seasons



The seasons of the year are expressed in the Court that honors them by
four wall-fountains, the work of Furio Piccirilli. The sculptured groups
are set in colonnaded niches, against a warm background of deep pastel
pink wall. The water flows over a cascade stairway. The floors of this
and of the basin are painted pale Oriental green, giving a luminous
beauty to the water, especially at night in the glow of hidden lighting.
The planting about the niches and the trailing green on the walls are
component parts of the fountains' beauty. The sculptor has felt the
Seasons in their gradual changes, as found in California, rather than in
the usual sharp divisions. He has infused them with a wistful sadness,
however, as at the passing of time. In "Spring," here illustrated, for
example, we feel something more than the Youth, Flowers, Love and
Promise obvious in the composition - something tender and romantic but
by no means gay.



Fountain of Winter
Court of the Four Seasons



Fountains of Summer, Autumn and Winter, by the same sculptor as Spring,
just described, are similarly installed in their respective niches in
the Court of Four Seasons. In "Summer" is represented the earth's early
fruition. A young mother lifts her new-born babe for its father's kiss.
A gleaner harvests the grain. Over all is a gentle solemnity. In
"Autumn," probably the most admired of the four, against the background
of a fruit-bearing tree, a superb nymph bears proudly the full jar of
wine or oil. On one side a crouched figure gathers a richly-laden
garland of the vine; on the other, a youthful, kneeling female figure
plays with a lusty child. Even this period of completion is marked by
the general pensive beauty. It is emphasized most, however, in "Winter,"
here illustrated. The bowed, worn toiler rests on his shovel, the spirit
of the year waits, still and brooding. But, on the other hand, the sower
is ready to cast the new seeds; the cycle re-commences.



Fountain of Ceres
Forecourt of the Four Seasons



The Forecourt of the Seasons, the continuation of the Court of the Four
Seasons to the Marina, is officially called the Forecourt of Ceres,
because of Evelyn Beatrice Longman's Fountain of Ceres which commands
it. Ceres, or Demeter, the goddess of Agriculture, presided over the
Earth's abundance. By her favor, came the good harvest; she it was who
first instructed man in the use of the plough. In the loveliest of
antique myths she is the mother of Prosperine, the Spring. Miss Longman
has expressed her as exultant, regal, young - far less matronly than as
conventionally pictured - glorying in her power to bless the cooperative
labors of man and nature. She holds as her sceptre the stalk of corn,
and offers the crown of summer to the world. The central figure is not
more lovely than the pedestal base on which she stands. A frieze of
dancing maidens, wrought in cleancut low relief, Greek in manner,
celebrate the Harvest feast. In the accompanying illustration, the
groups on pylons, by Albert Jaegers, already described, may be seen in
the background.



The Genius of Creation
Central Group, Avenue of Progress



"The Genius of Creation," by Daniel Chester French, has the superb
simplicity of all works of that master of sculptural calm, intellectual
power and straightforward sincerity. Mr. French is said to make no
mistakes in composition; his precision is not dryness but technical ease
and infallibility; his classical quality is not obedience to tradition
but insight, into the underlying laws that made tradition. Here we have
a splendid example of his perfection of mass, balance and finish and of
quiet, inspiring depth and directness of feeling. Creation extends
life-giving arms over the universe. Serene, brooding, blessing, the
noble face emerges from mysterious shadows of the enveloping mantle. The
sculptural quality of the draperies, their weight and texture and grace
are notable. At the foot of the pedestal rock, man and woman stand -
facing different sides, but their hands are clasped at the back of the
group. The Serpent surrounds all, inevitably suggestive of the story of
Genesis, but symbolic of the waters from which life emerged and the
encircling oneness of the universe.



The Genius of Mechanics
Column Friezes, Machinery Hall



All of the sculpture about the Palace of Machinery partakes
appropriately of the size and strength of that huge building which
houses the world's progress in mechanical arts. The sculpture, like the
building, is Roman rather than Greek in type and modern American in
vigor and expression, as are the chief contents of the Palace. The
sculptor, Haig Patigian of San Francisco, has expressed this combination
with power and virility. The frieze here illustrated appears at the base
of massive columns, interestingly made of simulated Sienna marble, the
warm tones truly reproduced. The frieze is extremely energetic, although
well restrained, and supports the great column as a basic frieze should
do, especially when its subject is so appropriate to the purpose. Two
winged Genii, one holding a pulley, one upholding the column upon his
hands, alternate with two Disciples, for whom their extended wings
create a background. One of these is complemented by hammer and anvil,
the other by furnace and tongs. Both share the column's weight on
powerful arms. The imaginary figures show potential strength in repose,
the human figures potent strength in action. The frieze in low relief is
colorful and decorative.



The Powers
Column Finials, Machinery Hall



High upon the mighty columns that surround, relieve and give color to
the immense facades of Machinery Palace, are Haig Patigian's masculine
and trenchant figures "The Four Powers." These are of heroic height, and
create an impression of superhuman size and strength even when raised so
far above the ground. They have a simple robustness that accords well
with their theme. Two of the Powers are abstract, the driving powers of
thought; these are Invention and Imagination. Two are concrete,
representing the mightiest powers of modern mechanics, Steam Power and
Electric Power. Steam Power is forcing the driving arm of an engine;
Electric Power, the world at his feet, handles the lightnings. He wears
the winged cap of Mercury, messenger of the gods, for electricity is the
messenger of modern days. Invention, crowned with the bays of
achievement, holds in his hand a bird-man about to leave the earth;
Imagination, accompanied by the eagle making ready to soar, dreams with
closed eyes.



Pirate Deck-Hand
Niches, North Facade of Palaces



The northern facades of all the palaces along the Marina are beautifully
embellished above the vestibules with an intricate plateresque
decoration, modeled after portals in Old Spain. In the three ornate
statue-niches - in the original probably devoted to saintly images - are
romantic figures by Allen Newman. It is appropriate that these figures
facing the water-front should represent, as they do, the Conquistador
and the Pirate Deck-hand, who once were masters and terrors of the main.
The Conquistador stands in the central canopied niche, the strong line
from his helmet-point down his sword-hilt making a grimly decorative
axis for the whole. The Deck-hand is repeated in the niches on each
side. This ruthless minion of sea adventurers is here pictured beyond
the urchin's dreams. The line of the rope he carries is a touch of
excellently handled decoration. Both these figures are so well
harmonized architecturally and sculpturally to their pedestals and
location that the entire facade should be seen for their proper
appreciation.



From Generation to Generation
Palace of Varied Industries



In the portals on the south side of the group of palaces, facing the
Avenue of Palms, we have again the beauteous old Spanish doorways in
plateresque design, with niches filled with modern sculpture. The portal
of the Palace of Varied Industries, copied from a famous prototype in
the old hospice of Santa Cruz, in Toledo, Spain, was assigned to Ralph
Stackpole. He is a sculptor who delights to honor the laborer and the
craftsman and has supplied the figures for niches and keystone space and
the tympanum and secondary groups in the portal of Varied Industries
with evident affection. He treats the subject of labor with dignity,
according it respect and not sentimentality. In this secondary or
crowning group, a strong young man is taking the burden of labor from
the shoulders of the last generation - an old workman, bowed but still
hale and vigorous. There is a sense of responsibility and earnestness in
the group, but complete confidence and power. It might well have been
feared that these rugged types of American life might ill accord with
the ancient ornate doorway. But the decorative proprieties have been
thoroughly sustained.



The Man with the Pick
Palace of Varied Industries



In the repeated niches following the line of the archway in the portal
of Varied Industries, described in the foregoing page, appears Ralph
Stackpole's "Man With the Pick," a manly tribute to the intelligent,
self-respecting workman who is the basis of our national life. There is
a frank and unaffected realism in the work that attracts by its
uncapitulating sincerity. Its impression of rugged power and
self-respect saves it from becoming merely photographic, and its plastic
feeling is excellent. In this and the preceding group, as also in the
keystone figure and the tympanum, the courageous employment of the
actual commonplace garments of everyday labor instead of idealized
draperies has met success. The tympanum group is called "Varied
Industries." It appreciates the various daily labors of mankind through
which civilization continues and is almost devotional in its expression
- "in the handicraft of their work is their prayer."



The Useful Arts
Frieze Over South Portals



Another artist who appreciates the spirit and enterprise of our own day
and finds inspiration in its humble labors is Mahonri Young. This
feeling appears in much of his work and is notable in the panel of
"Useful Arts," as also in the niche figures that flank it and are really
part of the conception. These appear over the handsome portal arch of
the Liberal Arts Palace. The beautiful grouping of the many figures in
the panel is a delight; the planes of perspective are skillfully
handled, without in the least marring the flat surface requisite in a
mural panel. This panel of "Useful Arts" does honor to skilled labor.
Men and women are shown busy with the spinning-wheel, the anvil, the
forge and other implements of skilled craft. Satisfying figures in the
niches, the Woman with the Distaff and the Man with the Sledge-Hammer,
continue the same idea. Mr. Young's place in art is unique in that he
has won distinguished consideration in three branches - painting,
etching and sculpture. In the Palace of Fine Arts he exhibits twelve
etchings and nine works of sculpture, several of each devoted to the
phases of life expressed in this panel.



Triumph of the Field
Niches West Facade of Palaces



In the western facade of the Palaces of Food Products and Education are
examples of the new tendency in sculpture. These are "The Triumph of the
Field" and "Abundance" by Charles R. Harley, the modernist. He has made
them intricate and teeming with imagery, giving the beholder much food
for study and personal interpretation. These works have been useful in
arousing much artistic discussion. They endeavor to express a mood of
richness, fullness and success and have the effect of laden chariots in
a triumphant pageant. In "The Triumph of the Field," Man sits upon the
skeleton head of a steer, surrounded by a multitude of symbols
indicative of festivals of agricultural success in the past. Some are
pagan, some Christian. Above his head is the wheel of an antique wagon;
he holds crude farm implements of long-past days. In "Abundance," the
companion piece, Nature, a female figure, sits in the prow of a ship,
surrounded by the abundance of land and sea. Her hands are extended;
one, in order to receive greatly; the other, that she may greatly give.



Worship
Altar of Fine Arts Rotunda



This lovely, adoring figure, pure, devoted, appealing, emblematic of Art
Tending the Fires of Inspiration, is placed upon the Altar before the
Palace of Fine Arts and can be seen only from across the waters of the
lagoon. Her perfect self-surrender to her holy task of guarding
inspiration's flame is a sermon and a poem. She is the worshipful spirit
for whose reward the glow of genius is sent. She is an image of the
perfect reverence for an ideal. It is interesting to note that she is by
the same hand that fashioned those rugged laborers on the portals of the
Palace of Varied Industries, that of Ralph Stackpole. The altar of Fine
Arts, separated from the beholder by the whole width of the beautiful
lagoon, set before the great rotunda and surrounded by sculptured
barriers and growing green buttress walls of flowers that quite shut it
off from all access of the passerby, has the effect of a shrine. This
sense of seclusion adds much to the impressiveness of the statue.



The Struggle for the Beautiful
Frieze, Fine Arts Rotunda



A surpassingly beautiful contribution to the Exposition art has been
made by Bruno Louis Zimm in his panels of Greek culture. These lovely
panels in low relief, surely worthy of a permanent medium, are set in
the attic of the Rotunda or Belvedere before the Palace of Fine Arts,
used and known as the Temple of Sculpture. The panels express not so
much the historical Greek tradition - though they are, indeed, produced
in the purest Greek manner - as they do the high spirit and ideals of
Greek art, the devoted seeking for divine fire, the determined
opposition to the trivial and the base. Each of the panels is once
repeated. The panel of "The Triumph of Apollo" shows the fiery god of
Inspiration, Music and the Sun in a procession of worshipers; his
flaming wings are the rays of the sun. The panel of "The Unattainable in
Art" might well be called "The Struggle for the Beautiful." It pictures
the unending struggle with the gross and stupid, both objective and
subjective, that confronts the champion of the beautiful. Art stands
serene, aloof, unassailable in the center of the fray. The panel of
"Pegasus" shows the winged steed of the poets controlled by a true
aspirant, attended by Music, Literature and Art.



Guardian of the Arts
Attic of Fine Arts Rotunda



Two stately "Guardians of the Arts," one male, one female, of godlike
proportions and great dignity, are placed in the attic of the Fine Arts
Rotunda, separating the panels of Greek culture. They are the work of
Ulric H. Ellerhusen, who has shown a keen perception of the structural
necessities involved in these immense details. The Rotunda of Fine Arts,
the temple of Sculpture, is one of the most interesting architectural
features of the Exposition. It is the culminating beauty of the
marvelous colonnade of Fine Arts Palace, its chief distinction. Within
are some of the treasures of the exhibit sculpture. Under the arching
dome are Robert Reid's mural paintings described in a later place. The
Weeping Figures on top of the colonnade itself are also by Mr.
Ellerhusen. They express the humility that ennobles the true artistic
spirit and distinguishes it from the spurious. Instead of the
self-satisfied Triumph or Victory that might be expected to crown this
last of the Exposition palaces, these represent the spirit of Art
weeping at the impossibility of achieving her dreams.



Priestess of Culture
Within the Fine Arts Rotunda



High on the decorative columns that mark the great arches within the
beautiful Rotunda of Fine Arts, stand, repeated, the peaceful, dignified
and serene "Priestess of Culture," by Herbert Adams, an angelic figure,
modeled with the control and calm that fittingly express the mission of
culture upon the earth. Indeed the work of Mr. Adams may be said
generally to be characterized by that probity and intellectual beauty
ministering to the purposes of culture. These figures are harmonious
ornaments to the richly decorated ceiling which they touch and to which
they give a certain tranquillity. The slope of their wings connects
gracefully with that of the arches; this, with the quiet beauty of the
drapery and its accord with the line of the cornucopia, creates a
restful architectural effect. It is a pleasant coincidence that these
Priestesses of Culture look down upon the statue of William Cullen
Bryant by the same sculptor, an exhibit piece, charmingly installed at
the entrance to the great Rotunda.



Frieze
Flower Boxes, Fine Arts Colonnade



The very large flower boxes bearing masses of luxuriant California
shrubs that mark the Peristyle Walk in the Fine Arts Colonnade are
constantly admired for their own beauty, the beauty of their contents
and their part in the general effectiveness of the delightful Colonnade
they enrich. The friezes are by Ulric H. Ellerhusen, who made also the
Weeping Figures and the heroic "Guardians of Arts" already described. It
is interesting to note that the precision of handling has given this
design, in spite of its size, an exquisite delicacy. Standing at
charmingly balanced intervals, a circle of maidens bear a heavy
rope-garland. This rope makes a gratifying line that has given pleasure
to connoisseurs. The frieze is so successful largely because, though
frankly decorative as suits its purpose, its personality and charm
distinguish it from the pattern-like or conventional. The landscape
planting in the boxes, in the flower beds and above, is one of the
enduring attractions of this colonnade and walk. The green is
architecturally massed and the relief of flowers bright and delicate,
never intrusive.



The Pioneer Mother
Exhibit, Fine Arts Colonnade



The "Pioneer Mother" monument, by Charles Grafly, is a permanent bronze,
a tribute by the people of the West to the women who laid the foundation
of their welfare. It is to stand in the San Francisco Civic Center,
where its masterful simplicity will be more impressive than in this
colorful colonnade. It is a true addition to noteworthy American works
of art and fully expresses the spirit of this courageous motherhood,
tender but strong, adventurous but womanly, enduring but not humble. It
has escaped every pitfall of mawkishness, stubbornly refused to descend
to mere prettiness, and lived up to the noblest possibilities of its
theme. The strong guiding hands, the firmly set feet, the clear, broad
brow of the Mother and the uncompromisingly simple, sculpturally pure
lines of figure and garments are honest and commanding in beauty. The
children, too, are modeled with affectionate sincerity and are a
realistic interpretation of childish charm. Oxen skulls, pine cones,
leaves and cacti decorate the base; the panels show the old sailing
vessel, the Golden Gate and the trans-continental trails. The
inscription by Benjamin Ide Wheeler perfectly expresses what the
sculptor has portrayed.



Lafayette
Exhibit, Fine Arts Rotunda



Paul Wayland Bartlett's "Lafayette," of which this is a plaster copy,
should be known and honored by every loyal American. It is considered by
many the most successful equestrian statue of modern times and it was
the gift of the school children of America to the Republic of France.
The original bronze stands in the Court of the Louvre, the most coveted
location in Paris. The position of honor among the sculpture exhibits
accorded to this copy, as the central piece in the Temple of Sculpture,
gives the impressive beauty of the "Lafayette" the distinction it
deserves. Seen at a little distance, with the background of the lagoon,
the superb bearing of both horse and rider get their full effect. This
interpretation of Lafayette, commanding, heroic, graceful,
unselfconscious, his Gallic dash and fire evident but restrained by
military and aristocratic control, is stirring and convincing. The
upheld sword is a touch of fine artistry. Mr. Bartlett was Chairman for
Sculpture of the Exposition Jury of Fine Arts. He has just completed the
pedestal heads for the House wing of the Capitol at Washington. His
"Dying Lion," exhibited in plaster copy in the Fine Arts garden, has
been coupled by critics with the "Wounded Lion" of Rodin.



Thomas Jefferson
Exhibit, Fine Arts Rotunda



All the work of the late Karl Bitter bears a peculiar appeal at this
time, since he was Chief of Sculpture of the Exposition, was so close
personally to many of the men who made its beauty, was so valuable an
influence to the art of our nation and left so ennobling a memory as man
and as artist. His sustained, faithful and enduring works are well
represented in the exhibit galleries by his "Signing of the Louisiana
Purchase Treaty," made for the St. Louis Exposition and loaned by that
city; his Tappan Memorial from the University of Michigan; his
Rockefeller Fountain, and the appealing "Faded Flowers." A medal of
honor was awarded to him. Thomas Jefferson was always a sympathetic
study to Karl Bitter, who has interpreted that statesman, scholar and
patriot in his several capacities. The original of the present statue
was made for the University of Virginia; Jefferson said he preferred to
be remembered as founder of that institution rather than as President of
the United States. He is here represented in a moment of meditative
leisure.



Lincoln
Exhibit, South Approach



Two noble Lincolns by the great Augustus Saint-Gaudens do honor to the
city of Chicago and are distinguished by the titles "The Standing
Lincoln" and "The Seated Lincoln." Both have the homely beauty,
greatness and dignity of character that are essential to the presentment
of this national inspiration. "The Seated Lincoln" here shown is the
original bronze, not a replica. It was loaned, under the protection of
heavy insurance, to the Fine Arts Department, and will soon be installed
in a Chicago park. It is the property of the Lincoln Memorial Fund, a
foundation of $100,000 left by the late John Crerar to commemorate
Abraham Lincoln in Chicago. Saint-Gaudens, having made "The Standing
Lincoln" with such success, was given the opportunity for a new
presentation of this great theme. "The Seated Lincoln" has a
soul-stirring expression of figure and countenance; the crumpled shirt,
the square-toed shoes, the well-known shawl draped upon the chair, are
not more real than the simple greatness of soul that somehow expresses
itself throughout.



Earle Dodge Memorial
Exhibit, Fine Arts Rotunda



The "Princeton Student" made by Daniel Chester French as the Earle Dodge
Memorial, is lent to the Exposition by the trustees of Princeton
University. It is this master's expression of the type of young manhood
that makes for the winning of respect and enthusiastic friendship and
worthy leadership in our modern college life. Full of energy and spirit,
the youth steps forward, physically rugged, of athletic prowess and
sportsmanly character, intelligent, frank, clearbrowed, fearless and
straightforward of gaze, bearing his books with care and ease and draped
with the academic gown, symbol of scholastic achievement. To give this
figure of young manhood the solemnity of a memorial and still keep it
true to the hearty and cheerful vigor it depicts was a notable
achievement. The setting in one of the arches of the Rotunda, with the
lagoon and the landscape-planting in the background, is admirable. Two
great universities have in recent years been graced by Mr. French's
work; his "Alma Mater" on the great stairway of the Columbia University
Library is one of the art treasures of New York City.



Fountain
Foyer, Palace of Fine Arts



This fountain, by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who made the Fountain of
El Dorado for the Exposition, is strikingly different from that work in
treatment and character, showing a notable versatility and
responsiveness to change in motif. As that was poetically symbolic, this
is a massive direct work in a more virile and vigorous manner. It shows
three well-modeled nudes supporting a bowl heavy with richly laden
vines. Its installation in the center of the entrance hall of the Fine
Arts Palace is in itself a work of art. The white marble fountain - for
this is the original work, loaned by the artist - is cleverly contrasted
with vivid green water plants in the bowl; just enough of them and
tastefully placed. And in the rim small trees are set, of well-chosen
verdure, shape and size. The fountain was awarded a bronze medal.



Wildflower
Garden Exhibit, Colonnade



One of the most varied and interesting talents among the younger men of
distinction who have exhibited in the Department of Fine Arts is that of
Edward Berge of Baltimore. The entire originality and freedom from
mannerism with which each subject is met, and the variety of the
subjects themselves, are worthy of note, as are also Mr. Berge's
singular lightness and fluidity of method. His correctness is apparently
unlabored. No small piece has more admirers than this sweet and merry
little "Wildflower." A secret of her appeal may lie in the fact that the
artist is the father of the model. The little girl, crowned with a
wildflower, posed with the pertness of a wayside blossom, her hands
extended like pointed leaves, has a roguishness and playful grace that
charm. With something of the same humorous whimsy Mr. Berge exhibits a
Sundial showing a nude baby, buxom and cuddlesome, embracing a new doll
while the old one lies discarded, illustrating the legend, "There is no
Time like the Present."



The Boy with the Fish
Garden Exhibit, Colonnade



Bela Lyon Pratt, widely esteemed for his vital and imposing serious
works, of which a splendid collection here exhibited has been awarded a
gold medal, has amused himself and all of us with this jolly little
garden piece, "The Boy With the Fish." It is a unique bronze, never to
be reproduced or copied. Though hundreds of persons have wished to
purchase replicas, no one can ever do so, for the owner stipulated with
the sculptor never to allow reproduction. The moulds have been
destroyed. But no one can stop the joyous memory in many minds of this
spirited little elf, riding a turtle, struggling with his slippery fish
and having so much fun about the difficult feat. One of Mr. Pratt's more
serious works that is attracting the deserved attention of Exposition
visitors is "The Whaleman," a detail of his noble Whaleman's Memorial.
This sculptor has done much to encourage individuality and earnestness
among the younger men, not only by example but also in his capacity of
instructor in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.



Young Diana
Garden Exhibit, Colonnade



Janet Scudder, an American artist whose work has been as highly honored
in France as in her native land, is known chiefly for her poetic and
happy expressions of the out-of-door spirit. Her fountains and garden
pieces are small and sportive but intensely sincere and never trivial.
She has a pagan sense of natural imagery and a deep feeling for
childhood. Her finish is delicate and perfect. The "Young Diana," here
illustrated, girlish, with singularly natural untrammeled grace -
slender, beautiful and novel in conception - was awarded honorable
mention in the Paris Salon of 1911. The young goddess of the chase, the
moon and of maidens, is presented as still more of a maid than a
goddess, glad with the freedom of girlhood, unconscious of her Olympian
inheritance. Miss Scudder has received the distinction of having one of
her fountains purchased by the Metropolitan Museum in New York. This is
the Frog Fountain which, loaned by that Museum, appears in the Palace of
Fine Arts. Her "Little Lady of the Sea," also here exhibited, received
notable consideration in the Paris Salon of 1913. She is the holder of a
silver medal awarded by the present Exposition.



Young Pan
Garden Exhibit, Colonnade



One of the charms of the Exposition lies in the fact that the long
rainless summer and beautiful plant-life of California permit the garden
pieces to be displayed out of doors in the setting desired for them by
their sculptors. This little Pan of Janet Scudder's, for instance, is
far happier in his appropriate mass of foliage than if he were inside of
a gallery. "Young Pan," a garden figure, is witty, elfin, very engaging.
He is a seaside Pan instead of the woodland dweller usually portrayed.
His foot is - rather recklessly one would think, were this not a
magical, superhuman being - placed heel-down upon the back of a great
crab. A pretty pedestal base, with sea-shell decoration, supports the
baby god. This base, by the way, Miss Scudder attributes as the work of
Laurence Grant White. Pan is enjoying the music of the two long pipes he
blows-playing one of the unplaced wild lilts of nature, we may be sure.
This sense of enjoyment and his debonair little swagger are festive and
delightful. His mischievous gaiety communicates itself to the beholder.
This humorous quality appears in another merry little god by the same
sculptor, her "Flying Cupid," close at hand.



Fighting Boys
Garden Exhibit, Colonnade



Another evidence of the charm of outdoor installation is seen in Miss
Scudder's Fountain of the Fighting Boys, so beautifully placed, with the
waters in actual play, in the Peristyle Walk about the Fine Arts Palace.
The original of this little fountain is owned by the Art Institute of
Chicago. There can be no doubt that this fight is without rancor; the
faces of the cherubic contestants are so gay and good-natured that only
the determined little tug of the hair, the business-like pressure of
chubby knee upon knee, the uncertain possession of the big fish that is
the cause of contention, makes us see that a battle is raging. The boys
fight merrily, evidently enjoying both the contest and the downpour of
water that complicates it. An unexpected accidental beauty has been
added to this and all the Exposition fountains. Some colorful substance
in the water that plays upon them has given soft touches of the same
rich ochre tone that appears in the columns. This increases the
effectiveness and takes away the appearance of boldness or newness,
substituting a weather-beaten and permanent aspect. When long spires of
flowers are in bloom and reflect their beauty in this little fountain
pool, the gayety and loveliness of the spot are entrancing.



Duck Baby
Garden Exhibit, Colonnade



The contagious mirth of "The Duck Baby," a garden figure by Edith
Barretto Parsons, is irresistible. This plump little image of good cheer
conquers the most serious; every observer breaks into answering chuckles
as this smile-compelling small person, holding fast her victims, beams
upon them. The frieze of busy ducklings on the pedestal base adds to the
amusing impression. This figure makes such a universal appeal that
thousands of postal card pictures and amateur photographs by exposition
visitors have been sent in a steady stream throughout the land,
scattering the Duck Baby's good cheer far and wide ever since the
Exposition opened. In the presence of so much that is weighty and
powerful, this popularity of the "Duck Baby" is significant and touching
indication of the world's hunger for what is cheerful and mirth
provoking. Another well-liked and winsome work with a chubby baby figure
at its center is "The Bird Bath" by Caroline Risque, in which a lovable
baby, with an expression of the tenderest sympathy, holds a little bird
to his breast.



Muse Finding the Head of Orpheus
Garden Exhibit, Colonnade



Under the branches of a low tree the poetic group by Edward Berge, "Muse
Finding the Head of Orpheus," a white marble group of superior elegance
and texture, arrests the passerby. A Muse kneels, drooping in exquisite
pathos over the head of Orpheus found in the waves. The sculptor has
chosen the tragic side of the Orphean myth. The son of Apollo and the
Muse Calliope, whose heaven-taught lyre charmed men and beasts, melted
rocks and even opened the gates of Erebus, had failed to win from death
his bride, Eurydice, lost to him for the second time. As he wandered
disconsolate, the Thracian bacchantes wooed him in vain. Maddened by
failure and by their bacchanal revels, they called upon Bacchus to
avenge, and hurled a javelin upon him. But the music charmed the weapon,
until the wild women drowned it with their cries. Then they dismembered
the singer and threw him to the waves; but the very fragments were
melodious and reached the Muses, who buried them where the nightingale
still sings "Eurydice." So runs the allegory; even drowned by earthly
clamors, slain and torn by wanton hands, the song of Poetry continues,
the weeping Muses save.



Diana
Garden Exhibit, South Lagoon



In a setting of surpassing appropriateness and beauty, installed high
amid the tall shrubbery as if emerging from the edge of one of her own
forests, the huntress Diana points the arrow she is about to let fly.
This rendering by Haig Patigian, who made the heroic Powers and other
decorations on Machinery Hall, is simple, classic, pure, imaginative,
poetic in purpose and in effect. He has softened the traditional
coldness of the goddess by a warmer humanity without injuring the sense
of proud aloofness. The Maiden goddess of the Hunt bears in her hand the
crescent bow, its lines here strongly suggestive of those of the young
moon, of which it is the symbol and this goddess the deity. Mr. Patigian
exhibits in the Colonnade a companion piece, "Apollo, the Sun God," twin
brother of Diana. A vivid figure of manly grace, Apollo is presented in
the guise of the sun of the morning. He kneels and shoots an arrow
upward; the long, pleasing curve of his bow suggests the outline of the
sun above the horizon as Apollo releases his first bright shaft of
light.



Eurydice
Garden Exhibit, Colonnade



This "Eurydice," by Furio Piccirilli, pictures the nymph as standing
against the background of an echoing rock, listening to the distant
strains of the magic lyre of her lover, Orpheus. Orpheus had been taught
to play by Apollo, his father, and could enchant the animate and
inanimate world by his music. So he charmed the nymph, Eurydice; but
Hymen, god of marriage, refused to prophesy happiness at their nuptials
and soon Eurydice, in escaping from a pursuer, trod upon a snake, was
bitten and died. Orpheus' sorrowful music moved all the earth to pity.
Even Pluto and the keepers of Erebus relented, allowed the musician to
descend into their forbidden realm and lead Eurydice back to life,
provided he should not turn backward to gaze upon her until they reached
the world of mortals. But the lover could not resist the desire to
assure himself of her presence, looked, and lost her forever. Furio
Piccirilli, who made this marble, is the sculptor who has graced the
Exposition with the four Fountains of the Seasons in the Court of that
name. For this "Eurydice" and his other small group, "Mother and Child,"
he has taken a silver medal.



Wood Nymph
Garden Exhibit, Colonnade



Isadore Konti, from whose hand came also the inspiring, panels at the
base of the Column of Progress, described in a preceding page, is the
sculptor of this pretty "Hamadryad." The Dryads and Hamadryads lived,
according to old legend, within the trunks of trees and perished with
their homes. So it was an impious act to destroy a tree without cause.
This nymph of the woods has emerged from the tree-trunk home or from
some rocky fastness and taken the urn of a naiad, a sister nymph of
brook and fountain, to give drink to the gentle, confident fawn that is
her charge. The little animal is lapping the stream that flows from the
overturned vase. This study in white marble follows tradition and is
regarded chiefly for its gentle grace and careful tooling. It is
harmoniously composed and has a beautiful surface. Mr. Konti's varying
moods are, represented in the Fine Arts collection by a number of works,
each revealing a different intention - from the pretty and restful, like
this, to the large and stirring.



L'Amour
Garden Exhibit, Colonnade



There are few more complete examples of delicacy of feeling and of
refined, caressing perfection of tooling than this exquisite marble
group, "L'Amour," by Evelyn Beatrice Longman. The purity of its emotion,
the tenderness and fidelity of its poignant pose, are surpassed only by
the marvel of surface finish. The surface has been gone over so
lovingly, so painstakingly, so repeatedly that the marble has taken on
the soft, warm impression of living flesh. And the gentle unstrained
modeling has the plastic grace of the human body. Miss Longman, winner,
by the way, of a silver medal for exhibits in the Fine Arts, is the
maker of the Fountain of Ceres in the Forecourt of Seasons that has been
described. She is an earnest and serious artist of abundant talent whose
work is treated with ever-increasing respect and admiration. She won the
competition for the doors of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, for which
there were many distinguished aspirants. She presents Love in the group
under discussion as a rarefied and inspiring emotion in which the
physical and spiritual commingle and "sense helps soul" as well as "soul
helps sense."



An Outcast
Garden Exhibit, Colonnade



This epic figure, "An Outcast," compelling by its earnestness and the
tragedy of its motive idea, is handled with firmness, assurance and a
perfect sense of volume and sculptural mass values. It is exhibited by
Attilio Piccirilli, the artist who designed the Maine Memorial in New
York City. The appeal of "An Outcast" is too direct to need any
illumination. Its frank bigness and physical power and tenseness, so
suggestive and so desperate, are Rodinesque. But though the work is
influenced by that master's school and thought, it is by no means a copy
of his method. This sculptor has a number of interesting groups in the
exhibit palaces and has been granted a gold medal. The dejected and
desolate Outcast, so huge and so tragic, is in sharp contrast with the
quaint and fanciful "Fawn's Toilet," by the same hand, at the entrance
to the Colonnade. Attilio and Furio Piccirilli, whose work has been here
noticed, are brothers, members of a family of sculptors.



The Sower
Garden Exhibit, Colonnade



One of the most useful services of a great Exposition, especially as it
relates to the world of art, is its service in bringing to the attention
of the public the power of new and rising stars on the horizon of
achievement. Albin Polasek has made his work generally felt at this
Exposition, where he received a silver medal. He is one of the most
talented sculptors of the American Academy at Rome. He won honorable
mention in the Paris Salon in 1913, and the Prix de Rome in 1910. He was
the holder of the Cresson scholarship. His "Sower" was the culminating
work of his early labors, the product of his final year at Rome, in
which year a heroic figure is required of every student. It caused the
critics to prophesy for this sculptor the future that is developing. Mr.
Polasek's work has the same unassailable rigor of truth as that of
Charles Grafly, who was his teacher. "The Sower" ennobles an humble
theme. It has sweep and life and distinction of bearing. In "The Girl of
the Roman Compagna," close at hand in this Colonnade, the sculptor shows
his equal power in a softer theme. The Roman girl is a well-poised and
beautiful expression of the spirit of old Rome in the days of her grand
simplicity.



The Bison
Garden Exhibit, South Approach



These mighty monarchs of the plains, now disinherited by human progress,
the American bisons, are here more than portrayed; they are realized.
Their essential characteristics, their strong mass, bulky without
clumsiness, are made present and convincing in these two statues by A.
Phimister Proctor, a master of animal sculpture. There is good reason
for the living and sharp aspect of these plaster models. They are not
copies of the permanent statues; they are the sculptor's own original
plasters from which the permanent pieces were cast. A number of Mr.
Proctor's animal studies stand in the great zoological parks of our
nation. He does not idealize or humanize the beasts he depicts; but he
understands them and reverses the underlying life that gives them their
racial and personal individuality. Partly his Canadian love of the wild,
partly a technician's delight in mastering this difficult phase of art,
has caused a lifelong devotion to animal studies. They are not
photographic, but combine the qualities of sculptural beauty with rugged
and imposing freedom. A varied and stimulating collection of Mr.
Proctor's work, exhibited at the Exposition, has won a gold medal. It
includes the famous "Princeton Tiger."



The Scout
Garden Exhibit, South Lagoon



Cyrus Edwin Dallin has devoted many years and much of his high talent to
the poetry and beauty of the American Indian. He says that this Scout is
to be the last of his long series of Indian studies, and he believes it
to be the best of them all. Surely it has an exalted beauty and is a
noble example of Mr. Dallin's firm, finished, accurate method,
perfection of restraint and free grace of modeling. It has a clear and
beautiful directness that is almost Greek in feeling. Those who do not
believe in the picturesqueness and dignity of the Indian as celebrated
in these bronzes, need only to have seen the photographs in the exhibit
of the Indian Memorial booth in the Palace of Education. Some of the
chiefs there shown have the dignity of Caesar and the knightly splendor
of heroic periods. Copies of almost all the Dallin Indians and other of
his notable works appear in the Palace of Fine Arts, where Mr. Dallin is
a gold medalist; They include the famous "Appeal to the Great Spirit,"
which stands before the Boston Museum of Art.



The Thinker
Exhibit, Court of French Pavilion



It is a satisfaction that at the entrance to the Pavilion of France
should stand this great work of the master sculptor of our age. This is
a replica of "Le Penseur" (The Thinker), placed before the doors of the
Pantheon in Paris. Paul Gsell says of it: "Before us, the Thinker, his
fist beneath his chin, his toes clutching the rock upon which he sits,
bends his back beneath the overpowering weight of a meditation that
surpasses the endurance of the human spirit." Here, tremendous, rugged,
primitive human strength at its highest power suffers under the first
great grapple of the human mind with problems of the unknowable
universe. It is majestic, true, an expression of our age; it is
everlasting art. Rodin kept this replica outdoors for a long time,
thinking the rigor of the elements helpful to its finish. "The Thinker"
and other Rodins in the French Pavilion are loaned by Mrs. A. B.
Spreckels of San Francisco. Americans and American museums have long
appreciated this master of whom Octave Mirbeau says: "Not only is he the
highest and most glorious artistic conscience of our time, but his name
burns henceforth like a luminous date in the history of art."



Earth
Fruit Pickers, Court of Ages



In the corners of the ambulatory about the Court of Ages, crystallizing
the color and design of its long, arched ceiling, are the opulent, warm,
vibrant murals by Frank Brangwyn. They introduce to the general public
of America this Belgian-English artist who has long been esteemed among
the great of the world. He has presented here the Elements, two
interpretations of each, in relation to their service to simple human
life. The paintings are neither allegorical nor photographic, but highly
interpretative of the luxuriant picturesqueness of nature and the
everyday labors of man. The luminosity of color, dash and daring of
contrast, fairly crackle with life and yet have rich depths of
quietness. The two panels of Earth glow with the earth's abundance. The
first, the "Fruit Pickers," here shown, in which harvesters gather
fruits from high trees and the laden ground, is notable for its
marvelous massing of composition and color. The second, "Dancing the
Grapes," is remarkable for its shimmering contrasts of light and shade.
In both you get the tang of the harvest season.



Fire
Industrial Fire, Court of Ages



The two Fire panels represent this element in its two phases of
serviceability. The first shows its simplest use, that of giving warmth
to man; the second, its more developed employment as an agent of
manufacture. In the "Primitive Fire," a gray, woodsy plume of smoke
rises to the autumn sky. A group of workers have made a fire at the edge
of a grove; they surround it, some encouraging the growing blaze by
blowing upon it, others leaning forward toward its warmth. The thin
pillar of waving smoke is executed with such fidelity that it explains
why this artist's admirers dwell upon his handling of fugitive surface
tones, as smoke or clouds, as much as upon his more obvious excellences.
In "Industrial Fire," here reproduced, the smoke rises not in fine line,
but in heavy mass from a kiln. It is a rich cloud, colorful with
iridescent metallic lustres. Workers feed the blaze, their warm flesh
glowing in the mixed light. Whole vessels and broken bits of pottery are
heaped and scattered upon the ground.



Water
Fountain Motive, Court of Ages



As the Earth panels are luxuriant, teeming with a sense of plentitude,
and the Fire panels are moving with the grace of rising smoke, those
that represent the phases of Water are moist and lush. In the one here
shown, "The Fountain," people have come through the damp grasses,
bearing their bright vessels to fill them with water that flows downward
from a spring in a long, fine, curving bow. The beautiful grouping, the
pose of the figures and the graceful lines of the vessels are
unforgettable.  The air is fluid; great white clouds stretch across the
sky, which has the same liquid beauty as the water in the background.
Water-birds and dewy flowers add life and color. The grateful use of
water for man's thirst is beautifully told. In the other water panel,
"The Net," hardy fishermen, standing in the water-reeds and blossoming
flag-lilies, haul in the last catch of the brightly dying day. Others
bear on their heads baskets heavy with the success of earlier castings.
Heavy sea-clouds are tinted by the late afternoon sunshine.



Air
The Windmill, Court of Ages



The two panels of Air may well be thought of as the air that moves and
the air that supports. In the first, "The Windmill," which is
illustrated, the motion of the wind and of the world it blows is
dazzling. The field of, golden grain, bright in the glow of the sun that
has just broken through the rain clouds, is quivering with graceful
undulations. The great wings of the windmill turn, with flapping sails.
The little kites are blown tempestuously. The garments of the workers
wave forward as they walk, braced against the wind that blows from
behind them. A brilliant rainbow and wind-blown dark rain-clouds tell
the end of a passing storm. In the second Air panel, which is called
"The Hunters," the air supports the arrows just shot from the bows of
hunters who hide behind the last trees at the edge of a wood. It bears
also flocks of homing birds and light clouds blown across a ruddy sunset
sky.



Half Dome
Court of the Four Seasons



The murals in the Court of the Four Seasons are the work of Milton
Herbert Bancroft. They are smooth, flat, highly decorative to the wall
surfaces into which they blend with rare discretion and harmony. They
have a soft beauty of coloring and a classic definiteness of outline
that accord well with the pure feeling of this court. Mr. Bancroft has
kept two ideas consistently throughout these murals. One is the
abundance of rewards and delights brought by the changing seasons; the
other, the fruitful labors of man. In this second idea special honor is
tendered to those who labor in the arts and artistic crafts. To these
two ideals the sculptor has given the unifying title, "The Pleasures and
Work of the Seasons." The panels of The Seasons appear in the walls of
the fountain niches. In the place of honor is the beautiful Half Dome;
beneath its colorful decorated roof are the great, panels, "Man
Receiving Instruction in Nature's Laws" and "Art Crowned by Time." In
the former, Nature holds her child, Man, in her arms. She has summoned
for him all the forces of the Universe, who attend in a group of calm
dignity. She teaches him that by obedience to her laws all these forces,
Earth, Fire, Water, Life, and even Death, will serve and never harm. The
other panel is described on the following page.



Art Crowned by Time
Court of the Four Seasons



In this calm and classic panel, "Art Crowned by Time," the sculptor has
done honor not only to the Fine Arts but also to those artistic crafts
that fulfill the perfect combination of use and beauty. In the center of
the panel stands Art, a superb, regal figure, serenely indifferent to
the wreath of appreciation with which she is being crowned by the hand
of Time. She is surrounded by her attendants, the Useful Crafts:
Weaving, with her distaff; Glasswork, holding carefully a delicate
example of her skill; Jewelry, a beautiful youth severely garbed,
bearing an ornate casket; Pottery, with a finished vase upon her knee;
Smithery, carrying in his strong arm a piece of armor; and Printing,
cherishing in both hands a beautiful clasped book. The panel has a fine
Olympian dignity and an ornateness that becomes simplicity through grace
of handling, and does not mar the correct mural flatness of surface. In
spite of the gracefully composed grouping each figure has individual,
almost statuesque, distinction. The treatment of the draperies is
interesting.



The Seasons
Court of the Four Seasons



The fountain niches of the Seasons in the Court of the Four Seasons are
graced by Milton Herbert Bancroft's appropriate panels. Two of these,
one on each wall of the fountain niche, are devoted to each season. One
represents the pleasures that that period of the year brings forth for
man; the other shows the duties it demands of him. In "Spring," we have
the poet's conception of the time of blossoms and garlands, of young
loves, piping shepherds and dancing maidens, while the goddess of the
season dreams of coming glories. In the companion panel, "Seedtime," the
waiting farmers attend her as she stands, sceptered with an Easter lily,
and extends her benison on the land. "Summer" crowns the victors in
athletic sports; while in "Fruition" the goddess of the season receives
the tribute of the successful workers of the soil. The panel called
"Autumn" is gay with the dance of the vineyard festival; three happy
figures modeled with grace and much refinement are placed on a
background divided into panels by a vine. But "Harvest" is quiet and
serious; the goddess, bearing the torch of Indian Summer, receives the
sheaves of the gleaners. So in "Winter," one panel shows Festivity, with
the old bard, the Christmas garland and the gaieties of the home; the
other, the distaff by the fireside, the huntsman and the wood-cutter.



Westward March of Civilization
Arch, Nations of the West



Decorating the inner walls of the Arch of the Setting Sun are two long,
colorful panels by Frank Vincent Du Mond, inspired by the historical
background of the West. They have refreshing vividness of color, clear
precision of draughtsmanship and a bright enthusiasm for their subject.
With a narrative quality unusual in a mural they commemorate the
adventurous spirit that led a stable civilization in the march across
the continent of America. In the panel, "Leaving the East," emigrants
depart from a barren, snowy coast, upon which stands the meeting-house,
source of so many national traditions. A youth bids farewell to his
sorrowing friends; a group of adventurers bearing the bare necessities
of life leads the way to the frontier. In the central group, surrounding
the old Concord wagon laden with household goods, appear the Jurist,
Preacher, Schoolmistress, the Child - Symbol of the Home - the Plains'
Driver and the Trapper. A symbolic figure, "The Call of Fortune,"
accompanies them. Some of the characters are actual portraits, as are
also the Artist, Writer, Scholar, Architect and Sculptor in the opposite
panel, "The Arrival in the West." In this the lavishness and opulence of
California welcome the pioneers. Mr. Du Mond is a member of the
International Jury of Awards in the Fine Arts Department of the
Exposition.



Discovery - The Purchase
Tower of Jewels



The murals in the great tower are properly dedicated to the Panama
Canal. In them William de Leftwich Dodge admirably interprets its
history, labors and triumphant achievement. Each of the long decorative
bands is divided into three panels. The central panels, 96 feet long,
are, on the west wall, "The Atlantic and the Pacific," celebrating the
united nations face to face across the united waters, and on the east,
"The Gateway of All Nations," an allegorical pageant of triumph. The
"Gateway of All nations" is flanked by "Achievement" and "Labor
Crowned," noble and timely tributes to the Workers who made the canal.
Those here reproduced, opposing them on the western wall, are historic.
"Discovery" shows Balboa, "on a peak in Darien," in awe at his great
moment of discovering the Pacific. The Spirit of Adventurous Fortune
attends him. Watching him, sits the Indian guarding his treasures, a
tragic prophecy in face and figure. "The Purchase" commemorates the part
of France in this achievement. Columbia is purchasing the title from her
sister republic. American workmen, led by Enterprise, take up the tools
that French laborers have relinquished.



Ideals of Emigration
Arch, Nations of the East



The mural panels in the Eastern arch are devoted to the ideals and
motives that brought men across the sea. They are by Edward Simmons and
show that fresh juvenility of touch, that exquisite lucid tenderness of
color and gentle lightness of motion that give his work its delightful
poetic quality. But Mr. Simmons' art has always a deep accent and the
imagery in these panels touches fundamentals. "Visions of Exploration,"
the upper as here pictured, are Hope and Illusory Hope - she who casts
bubbles behind her - Adventure, following the lure of the bubbles; then,
in a dignified central group, Commerce, Imagination, Fine Arts and
Religion; these, followed at a little distance by Wealth and The Family,
potent motives of the immigrant of today. In the background, the Taj
Mahal and a modern city indicate the ideal and the practical. On the
opposite panel, called the "Lure of the Atlantic," the Call of the New
World, a youth blowing a trumpet, summons the brave explorers, the man
of Atlantis, of the Classic Age, of Northern and Southern Europe, the
Missionary Priest, the Artist and the Modern Immigrant. They are
followed by the Veiled Future, still hearkening to the onward call.



The Golden Wheat
Rotunda, Palace of Fine Arts



The richly ornate ceiling of the Rotunda of Fine Arts is embellished by
a double series of eight panels from the brush of Robert Reid, in the
luminous, fervid, joyous vein that characterizes the method of this
highly honored American artist. The task assigned him here was a test of
skill. The arched effect, so beautifully achieved, and the great
accomplishment of merging the huge, brilliant panels into the decorative
plan, were not the only difficulties. He had also to calculate the scale
of proportion to a mathematical nicety, to make the figures large enough
to appear the proper size when viewed so high overhead. The panels are
in two sequences, four of them devoted to each subject. The sequence of
which an example is illustrated is the Four Golds of California: "The
Golden Poppy," the "cup of gold" that makes the spring a glory on
California hills; "The Golden Fruit," the citrus fruits that are her
pride; "The Golden Metal" that called the world to her hill-sides, and
"The Golden Wheat," here shown, the treasure of her fields, borne high
in honor. These alternate with the sequence of the Golden Arts,
described on the succeeding page.



Oriental Art
Rotunda, Palace of Fine Arts



The great panels of the Golden Arts alternate, in the ceiling of the
Rotunda of Fine Arts, with the Four Golds of California. All of these
panels so tone their brilliancy into the great sweep of the ceiling that
the beholder gets a sense of the beauty of the whole rather than that of
any part. This arching, floating unity of the ceiling is an admirable
example of the self-control of the muralist. The Golden Arts are
interpreted by symbolic groups including a larger number of figures than
The Four Golds. They are entitled "Inspirations of All Art," "Ideals in
Art," "The Birth of European Art," and "Oriental Art," here illustrated
as typical. In this, against the soft but sparkling background of bright
sky and clouds that supports all of the panels, are set with much verve
the historical, legendary and romantic inspirations of Oriental art. The
group is dominated by a contest between an eagle and a knight mounted
upon a dragon - based upon a legend of the Ming dynasty. Fugi, the
sacred mountain, is in the distance; the sacred dog attends the Chinese
hero in the foreground. A beautiful Japanese woman - indicating the
inspiration of romance, East and West - sits among flowers. The space is
filled in a manner appropriately and charmingly suggestive of Oriental
composition.



The Arts of Peace
Netherlands Pavilion



The Pavilion of The Netherlands is inevitably reminiscent of the Peace
Palace of The Hague, by natural association of ideas and because of the
spirit of its central mural painting, "The Arts of Peace." It is
therefore an interesting fact that Hermann Rosse, the artist who painted
this imposing work, and, indeed, designed the entire interior decoration
of the pavilion, was also muralist and decorator of the Palace of Peace.
The pavilion walls and hangings - steel blue, olive green and silver
grey, relieved by quaint conventional stencils of orange trees and
tulips and severe shields of the four divisions of the kingdom - has a
broad, cool puritanism that lends itself well to the rich depth of the
painting. Holland holds high the image of Peace, surrounded by the
peace-nurtured arts and industries on whose support all human welfare
rests. Among them stand not only representatives of trades and crafts,
with their symbols and implements, but also the Art of Motherhood and
the Art of Play shown by a happy child. Ships of all ages in side-panels
and background tell of the maritime history of Holland which so largely
and peacefully colonized the world. Beneath the painting is a comforting
and inspiring legend.



Penn's Treaty with the Indians
Pennsylvania Building



The Pennsylvania Building was designed with the patriotic purpose of
enshrining the Liberty Bell. The Bell stands in a loggia between two
wings, the architectural motif following that of Independence Hall. On
the walls of the loggia are two mural lunettes of distinction by Edward
Trumbull of Pittsburg. Their deep glowing color and massive grouping
mark Mr. Trumbull a worthy pupil of his master, Frank Brangwyn. "Penn's
Treaty with the Indians," here given, shows William Penn and the
foremost of his shipmates on "The Welcome" making with Chief Tamanend
and his braves the Treaty of Shackamaxon in 1683, the treaty that never
was broken. The plainness of the kindly Friends, the barbaric splendor
of the Indians, the deep green of the overarching Treaty Elm and the
lovely typical Pennsylvania landscape have enduring attraction. The
panel is in contrast with Mr. Trumbull's vigorous and burning modern
picture, "The Steel Workers," on the opposite wall. In the reception
room of this building are seven delightful small panels by Charles J.
Taylor, showing the early life of Pennsylvania villages. They are
painted in the quaint style of old colonial decorations and have charm,
humor, naivete and beauty too pleasing to be overlooked.



Return from the Crusade
Court, Italian Pavilion



The courts and palaces of Italy, with their appearance of age and their
remote, sheltered calm, present an education in artistic reserve and
decorative uses of space that all who linger may learn. They represent
four centuries of architecture, of three historic types. The lovely
piazzetta with its antique well is the center of beauty. On one of its
walls is what appears to be an ancient mural, soft, flat, with that
faded, velvety coloring associated with age. It was recently painted by
Mathilde Festa-Piacentini, in the ancient manner to harmonize with the
court. It represents "The Return from the Crusade" of one noble
Pandolfo, and bears date and description in Latin. Quaint old-time
stiffness and weather-worn coloring combine with modern correctness and
fluency. The young artist is the wife of the architect of the pavilion
and has won a silver medal in the Italian section of Fine Arts. Below
this lunette stands a bronze copy of an antique David with the marble
head of Goliath. Other interesting murals appear in Italy's pavilion, by
Pierretto Banco and Bruno Ferrari, son of the sculptor, Ettore Ferrari.



The Riches of California
Tea Room, California Building



The tea-room of the Auxiliary to the Woman's Board, in the California
Building, was decorated by Florence Lundborg, a Californian whose work
has won consideration in this country and in France. In her large mural,
"The Riches of California," one of the most extensive ever painted by a
woman, and in the supplementary medallions she has expressed the
generous abundance of California's fruitage. Feeling a similarity
between copious California and Sicily, where she has lived and painted,
the artist chose for her text a line from Theocritus describing that
country: All breathes the scent of the opulent summer, the season of
fruits. This inscription, in old Spanish lettering, surrounds the great
canvas. Across a restful, soft-toned landscape, bright but tempered, the
peaceful, happy harvesters bear homeward the plenteous fruit. A mood of
quiet gladness is over all. The window arches, throughout the soft gray
walls of the room, are marked by brilliant medallions of fruit and
flowers, sumptuously composed upon a gold background.



Here ends The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition, with an
introduction by A. Stirling Calder. The Descriptive titles have been
written by Stella G. S. Perry. Edited by Paul Elder. Published by Paul
Elder and Company and seen through their Tomoye Press under the
typographical direction of H. A. Funke, in the city of San Francisco
during the month of October, Nineteen Hundred and Fifteen





*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition
 - A Pictorial Survey of the Art of the Panama-Pacific international exposition" ***

Copyright 2023 LibraryBlog. All rights reserved.