Part 6 (1/2)
As alked toward the main court, the architect called my attention to the vieeen the columns on the other side of the Tower of Jewels, with the houses of the city running down the hills ”San Francisco architecture may not be beautiful when you study individual houses But in mass it is fine And, of a late afternoon, it is particularly good in coloring It seeht have given the mural decorators a hint It would have been effective in the h-keyed architecture It's easy here to iine that you're in one of those ancient Hindu tohere the gates are closed at night You almost expect to see ca in the Court was its ih it comes from Bernini's entrance court to St Peter's in Roer
There are those who think it's too big But it justifies itself by its splendor The use of the double row of colureatly favored by the Romans In St Peter's Bernini used four in a row And what could be finer than those two triu Sun and the Arch of the Setting Sun, with their double use of sy the close relation between California and the Orient, as well as their geographical ? They are, of course, importations from Rome, the Arch of Constantine and the Arch of titus all over again, with a rather daring use of ith colored lattices to give the proportions used in place of the Roinally, the intention had been to use here the naed to the Court of Honor, and finally to its present naest the international character of the Exposition
Those two groups represented by far the most ans by Calder, they were made by three sculptors, Calder, Roth and Lentelli They presented proble to work out First, they had to balance each other What figure in the Pioneer group could balance the elephant that typified the Orient? Calder had the idea of using the prairie schooner, associated with the coreat oxen
The Oriental group doubtless shaped itself in picturesque outlines much more quickly than the sturdy, but more homely Americans of the earlier period The Orientals displayed an Indian prince on the ornamented seat, and the Spirit of the East in the howdah, of his elephant, an Arab shi+ek on his Arabian horse, a negro slave bearing fruit on his head, an Egyptian on a ca a Mohammedan standard, an Arab falconer with a bird, a Buddhist priest, or La his symbol of authority, a Mohaolian on horseback
The Nations of the West were grouped around that prairie wagon, drawn by two oxen In the center stood the Mother of Tohly dressed, but with character as well as beauty in her face and figure On top of the wagon knelt the syure of ”Enterprise,” with a white boy on one side and a colored boy on the other, ”Heroes of Toures, the French-Canadian trapper, the Alaska wo totem poles on her back, the A a standard, a Gerlish descent, a squaith a papoose, and an Indian chief on his pony The wagon was e and bulky to be easily raised to that great height
The architect was ins and to the spirit that had been put into them ”It's very seldom in the history of art that sculptors have had a chance to do decorative work on so big a scale It ures up there in pieces and putting the blown off Some of theel on top of the prairie wagon would be there if Saint Gaudens hadn't put an angel in his Sherro soldiers in his Robert Gould Shaw monument in Boston He liked that kind of syot it from the mediaeval sculptors orked under the inspiration of the Catholic Church”
Varying notes we found around the Agested Egypt and the Nile That crenellated parapet once belonged to military architecture: between those pieces that stood up, the merlons, in the embrasure, the Greek and Roman archers shot their arrows at the enemy and darted back behind thepurely ornamental it told its story just the same, and it expressed the spirit that still persisted in ion and war had always been associated Besides, in an International Exposition it was to be expected that the art should be international How many people, when they looked at Cleopatra's needle, kne closely it was related to the newspapers and historical records of today? The Egyptians used to write on these monuments news and opinions of public affairs The Romans had a similar custom in connection with their columns On the column of Trajan they not only wrote of their victories, but they pictured victorious scenes in stone
The little sprite that ran along the upper edge of the court in a row, the star-figure, i an unfortunate contrast with the stern angel, repeated in front of each of the two arches My criticisht out the reply that it was beautiful in itself and had its place up there ”These accidental effects of association are soood and so effect In the first place, a Court of the Universe ought to express soruity in our life Ideally, of course, it isn't good in art to represent a figure in a position that it's hard to maintain without discomfort But here the outlines are purely decorative and don't suggest strain In reatest ornaht note”
The two fountains in the center of the sunken garden were gaily throwing their spray into the air The boldness of the Tritons at the base represented a very different kind of handling fro Sun and the Rising Sun, both executed with poetic feeling In the Rising Sun, Weinure of the youth life, ure, just ready to spread its wings, one felt as if it were really about to sweep into the air Though the Evening Sun ht be less dramatic, it was just as fine ”It isn't often that you see sculpture of such ireat sy a re perfectly adapted to the Court, and to their subjects, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water But reed, however, that they were both original and strong There was cleverness in , ready to attack a Greek warrior, sy air there was a humorous reference to ure of Icarus Water and earth were or, the two figures under earth suggesting the coinning here in San Francisco Though he often did poor stuff, everything of his showed artistic courage and initiative Even then anyone could see there was so out in the work he has contributed to this Exposition The qualities in these four statues we shall see again e reach the fountain that Aitken made for the Court of Abundance They are individual without being eccentric
Coroups in front of the two arches, by Paul Manshi+p, another American sculptor of ability, but different from Aitken in his devotion to the early Greek When Manshi+p began his work a few years ago he was influenced by Rodin Then he went to Rome and became charether He deliberately conventionalizes And yet his work is not at all conventional He roups, the 'Dancing Girls' and 'Music,' would have delighted the sculptors of the classic period”
Under the Arch of the Rising Sun two delicate race, their lovely coloring, by the richness of their fancy and by the extraordinary fineness of their work difference of opinion about those canvases as ard to their artistic merit They are unquestionably ood deal to do with putting theht place But a good many others think they are almost lost in all this heavy architecture You see, Simmons didn't take Guerin's advice as to a subject Each of his two s, but no central theures into a distinct unity So, fro People look up there and wonder what those figures are doing But to the artist they find their justificationwhat they are, beautiful in outline and in posture and coloring
You don't often get such atmosphere in ”
Both murals unmistakably showed the same hand ”There's not another roup in the center of the mural to the north could be cut out and made into a picture just as it stands It doesn't help ure, with the upraised arht and Truth at her left They ht express almost any syroups at either end sees besides true hope and false hope and abundance standing beside the fa the bubble blown out by false hope h perhaps only one out of a million would see the point if it weren't explained”
The opposite mural we found a little more definite in its syures consisted of the iure frohter; the Spanish adventurer, suggesting Colu explorer, Sir Walter Raleigh; the priest who followed in the wake of the discoverer, the bearer of the cross to the new land; the artist, spreading civilization, and the laborer,here as standing for the industrial enterprise of today
”Thosechance our decorators have in the themes that come out of our industrial life They've only made a start
As ht to produce inative ith the big spiritual and economic conceptions that are associated with our new ideals of industry”
One feature of this court reen vases under the arches ”They're so good they're likely to be overlooked They blend perfectly in the general sche could not have been better chosen and their design is particularly happy”
VI
On the Marina
Along one of the corridors we passed, enjoying the richness of the coloring and the beauty of the great la row, then out into the wide entrance of the court to the Coluress
”I wonder if that column would be there now,” said the architect, ”if Trajan had not built his coluo