  Title: The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition Author: Stella G. S. Perry Edition: 10 Language: English This eBook was produced by David Schwan <davidsch@earthlink.net>. The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition A Pictorial Survey of the Art of the Panama-Pacific International Described by With an Introduction by Paul Elder and Company Copyright, 1915, by 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 -Keats Contents Sonnet. Keats Illustrations Exposition Sculpture The Mother of Tomorrow - Detail from the Nations of the West. Exhibit Sculpture The Pioneer Mother - Exhibit, Fine Arts Colonnade. W. Zenis Newton, Mural Decorations The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition The Sculpture and Mural Decorations "In this fair world of dreams and vagary, 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 Fountain of Energy 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 "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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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. |
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