Part 7 (1/2)

The serenity and intimate seclusion of the Court are due perhaps more than to any other single feature, to the quiet, circular pool in its center, shut in by banks of shrubbery and bare of sculptured ornament.

Court of the Four Seasons One of the Colonnade Murals

The Court is octagonal in shape, by reason of the fountains, screened by stately rows of columns, which fill its cornet recesses. These corner fountains are distinctly Roman in inspiration, the detail being suggested by the baths of Caracalla. Between the double rows of ma.s.sive Ionic columns runs the colonnade. The capitals of the columns are enriched by pendant ears of corn, surmounted by a single open flower.

Above the severely treated doorways, in each recess, are two mural paintings by Milton Bancroft, picturing alternately the seasonal pleasures and pastimes and their activities or industries. The murals, with the two in the half-dome, also by Milton Bancroft, are all conventionally cla.s.sic, in keeping with the spirit and atmosphere of the Court.

Within the sheltered niches are the fountains of the four seasons, where the water, rose-tinted by day and a luminous green by night, slips softly and musically over three broadening semicircular terraces to the cool, green pool beneath. The sculptured groups, surmounting the terraced fountains, are by Furio Piccirilli of New York. The enclosing walls are soft pink, the line where they join the blue vault of the sky charmingly broken by the living green of luxuriant, trailing vines.

Court of the Four Seasons The Ionic Columns

Through the columns is a glimpse of the Eastern Gateway where, carved in three panels over the entrance, is the following inscription:

So forth issew'd the seasons of the yeare, First l.u.s.ty spring all dight in leaves and flowres.

Then came the jolly sommer being dight In a thin ca.s.sock coloured greene, Then came the autumne all in yellow clad, Lastly came winter, cloathed all in frize, Chattering his teeth, for cold that did him chill.

--Spenser.

The triple panel in the attic of the Western Gateway reads:

For lasting happiness we turn our eyes to one alone, And she surrounds you now.

Great nature, refuge of the weary heart, and only balm to b.r.e.a.s.t.s that have been bruised.

She hath cool hands for every fevered brow And gentlest silence for the troubled soul.

--Sterling.

Court of the Four Seasons The Colonnade and Lawn

The harmonious impression of the Court of the Four Seasons is due largely to the faithfulness with which cla.s.sic influences have controlled every detail, both in architecture and in ornament. The bulls' heads between festoons of flowers which decorate the base of the entrances into the north court, the eagles at the corners of the pylons above, and the vases repeated on the bal.u.s.trade about the Court are all Roman in design. Thoroughly cla.s.sic also are the wreaths of fruits and grains on the panel of the cornice and the lions' heads above. While ”The Feast of Sacrifice,” the superb groups by Albert Jaegers, crowning the pylons at either side of the entrance to the north court, recall the ancient custom of celebrating the close of harvest by the sacrifice of flower-garlanded bulls.

The planting of the court is quiet and stately, and notably carries out its spirit, with the gray-green of foliage plants and eucalyptus trees and the gnarled stems of gray old olive trees. In its vistas from any angle or point of view, the Court is peculiarly satisfying and beautiful.

Court of the Four Seasons The North Colonnade by Night

To stand in the midst of this curving octagonal court and hear, above the whisper of the trees, the murmur of the four hidden fountains that gush unseen from the base of allegorical groups of statuary, glimpsed through colonnades, is to stand in Hadrian's villa of old, where we hear

”Fitly the fountains of silver leap, Whose sound is as soft as the listless flow Of streams that forever linger and go Down delicate, dream-far valleys of sleep.”