Part 6 (2/2)
The Christianizing of the colu St Peter on top instead of Trajan, is sy debt to the pagans, e”
When I expressed enthusiasm over the column the architect ran his eye past the frieze to the top ”In the first place, that doht at once to express the character of the column But it doesn't You have to look twice and you have to look hard One figure would have beensoure at the head of a coluroup had to be used it could have been n MacNeil celebrated the Adventurous Archer in a way that was distinctly old-fashi+oned Hehis way forward by force, and by the donificant he ures The relation of those three people ianization MacNeil had a chance here to express the new spirit of today, the spirit that honors the common man and that makes an ideal of social co-operation on terures celebrating labor ”Konti is aand syures are, they're notaht well inspire the sculpture of today, one of the greatest of all huress the Marina drew us over to the seawall ”The builders ise to leave this space open and to keep it sientlemen, we have done our best But here's Mother Nature She can do better' ”
To our right stood Alcatraz, shaped like a battleshi+p, with the Berkeley hills in the distant background To the left rose Tamalpais in a ht to be more boats out there on the bay, a whole fleet, and sohtness, the architect shook his head
”The scene is typically Californian It suggests great stretches of vacant country here in this State, waiting for the people to come from the overcrowded East and Middle West and thrive on the land”
Our point of view on the Esplanade enabled us to take in the sweep of the northern wall, with its straight horizontal lines, broken by the entrances to the courts and by the splendidly ornate doors in duplicate
Of the design above the doorway the architect said: ”It's a perfect exaenerally called 'plateresque,' adapted to the Exposition Allen Newure of the Conquistador is full of spirit, and the bow-legged pirate is a triu the deck, with the rope in his hand? It isn't so enerations since he used to infest the Pacific By the way, that rope, which the sculptor has made so realistic and picturesque at the saood many people are bothered because the bow up here, on the Colu The artistic folk, of course, think that the string ought to be left to the iination”
In the distance, to the west, we co, an idealized type of Mission architecture, a little too severe, perhaps, lacking in variety and warnity The old friars, for all their asceticis
As ere about to start back to the Court of the Universe the architect renificent towers, dedicated to Balboa and Columbus, that had been planned for the approach to the Court of Four Seasons and the Court of Ages from the bay side, but had been oiven the Marina a far greater splendor; but they would have detracted from its present simplicity
VII
Toward the Court of Four Seasons
”There are critics,” I remarked, as alked back to the Court of the Universe, on the way to the Court of Four Seasons, ”who say that the entrance courts ought to have been placed on the other side that the Exposition ought to have been turned round”
”They don't understand the conditions that the architects had to meet
That plan was considered; but when it was pointed out that the strongest winds here blow from the south and southwest, it was seen that it would not be feasible Besides, the present arrange the people directly to one of the most beautiful bays in the world The only bays at all like it that I know anything about are the Bay of Palermo and the Bay of Naples The view of the Exposition fros out the chars considered, the architects did an unco the courts run fro the sculptured flowers' surrounding the head of the sacred bull, birds were nestling We wondered if those birds were really fooled by those flowers or whether, in these niches, they merely found a comfortable place to rest ”There's an intimate relation, by the way, between birds and architecture It's said that the first architectural work done in the world consisted in theof a bird's nest So of a bird's nest Have you ever watched birds at work on their nests? If you have, you o about the job like artists In our profession we like to insist, you know, that there's a big difference between architecture andwith a fine es, the noblest of the fine arts and the finest of the useful arts I know, of course,” the architect went on, ”that there's another tradition not quite so flattering It h, with the artistic finish left to the sculptors But the outline is nevertheless the architect's, the structure, which is the basis of beauty Even now a good hed out in this way, and finished by the sculptors and the decorators”
Under the western arch, leading to the inner court that united the Court of the Universe with the Court of the Four Seasons, we found the two panels by Frank Vincent Du Mond Their sih, the departure of the pioneers from the Atlantic border for the Far West on the Pacific In the panel to the rightthe older generation saying farewell to the younger, and on the other sidethe travelers arriving in California and finding a royal welcome from the Westerners in a scene of typical abundance, even the California bear showing hiood deal He wasn't used to painting bears It isn't nearly as life-like as those huures”
What I liked best about the gestiveness and vigor of characterization Perhaps there was a little too est animation But why, I asked, had Du Mond made most of the faces so distinctively Jewish?
My question was received with an excla Jewish types of features were certainly repeated again and again
Perhaps Du Mond happened to use Jewish models It hardly seemed possible that the effect could have been intentional
When I pointed to one of the figures, a youth holding out a long bare arth, ht out an unsuspected principle of art ”The Cubists would say that you were altogether too literal They are ht to do is to express not ethat arets an effect that he wants, he's justified in refusing to be bound by the mathematical facts of nature Art is not a matter of strict calculation, that is, art at its best and its purest It's a matter of spiritual perception All the resources of the artist ought to be bent toward expressing a spiritual idea and h outline and color”
”But how about the ory and realism that we see in these murals and in so ?”
”Not at all There's no reason in the world why the allegorical and the real should not go together, provided, of course, they don't grossly conflict and beco for is the effect of beauty If a picture is beautiful, no nition as a work of art In these murals Du Mond has tried to reach as closely as he could to nature without being too literal and without sacrificing artistic effect He has even introduced aures soown of the scholar, and Willia”
In that inner court we noticed how cleverly Faville had subordinated the architecture so that it shouldit glowing on either side with the most brilliant California flowers The ornareat s of sin were all har