Part 6 (1/2)

The Court of Flowers typically Italian--Its delightful garden and fountain, ”Beauty and the Beast,” by Edgar Walter--Borgluroup, ”The Pioneer”--The Court of Pal--”The End of the Trail,” by Fraser, a chapter in American history--Murals in the doorways--Arthur Mathews' ”Triumph of Culture”

Recessed in the south front of the palace group, and leading back to the Court of the Seasons and the Court of the Ages, are two perfect s up to its name--the Court of Flowers and the Court of Pale W Kelha southward between two graceful towers One is bright with level fields of flowers, the other cool with greensward and palarden Both are calm, peaceful spots to rest and dream in the sun Both are of the South Here suest tarries

Though at first sight these courts areand effect The Court of Flowers is Italian, the Court of Palh Grecian with an exuberance scarcely Athenian Perhaps there is so Sicilian in the warht and war; less so on duller days

But the Court of Flowers is Italian in all ht be in Verona or Mantua It is a graceful court, formal, yet curiously informal Its paired Corinthian coluirls around the balcony, its laardens The garden here is itself for, and yet so siarden is one of the best things in the truly wonderful floral show at the Exposition The flowers arethem in the fields,--a dream never quite so well realized before The areas of the court in the Exposition's opening weeks were solid fields of daffodils, thick as groheat, with here and there a blood-red poppy, set to accent the yellow gold of the mass Other flowers have now replaced these in an equal blaze of color Here, too, are free, wild clu outposts arain fields in California valleys

It is a su to ht to have crickets and cicadas in it, to rasp away as the war, and tree hylas to ht

The statuary goes ith the court There is a pretty, suned by Calder for the niches above the colonnade, and in the figures of Edgar Walter's central fountain Here on the fountain are Beauty and the Beast, Beauty clad in a suliness (p 100) Never mind the story This is Beauty, and Beauty needs no story Four airy pipers, suggestive at least of the song of the cicada on long, hot afternoons, support the fountain figure Around the basin of the pool is carved in low relief a cylindrical frieze of tiger, lion and bear, and, wonder of wonders, Hanu the bear with one hand and prodding the lion with the other

Before the court The Pioneer sits his horse, a thin, sinewy, nervous figure; old, too,--as old as that frontier which has at last moved round the world (See p 87) The statue, which is by Solon Borglum, is immensely expressive of that hard, efficient type of frontiersmen who, scarcely civilized, yet found civilization always dogging their footsteps as they h the wilderness and crossed the deserts

He is, indeed, the forerunner of civilization, sent forward to break ground for new states This group is offset against that other fine historical sculpture, The End of the Trail, placed before the Court of Pal and the conquered race, the twoof the Court of Pale part froabled arches

Properly, this court is in the Italian Renaissance, but it is less Italian than the Court of Flowers Like that court, it is warladness It has the saarden is bordered with a conventional balustrade and grass slopes, withpool in the sunken area, and a separate raised basin at the inner end with gently splashi+ng jets, giving out a cool and peaceful sound Fat decorated urns, instead of lions, guard the entrances to the buildings Italian cypresses border the court, with formal clipped acacias in boxes between the pillars of the colonnade

The Fountain of Beauty and the Beast, which stands in the Court of Flowers, was designed to be set here, while Mrs Harry Payne Whitney's Fountain of the Arabian Nights was to have found a place in the Court of Flowers These two courts were planned as the homes of the fairy tales, one of Oriental, the other of Occidental lore Many beautiful things were designed for them The attic of the Court of Flowers, which was intended as the place of Oriental Fairy Tales, was to have carried sculptured stories fros was done Mrs Whitney's fountain was ures are char

The only sculpture in the Court of Palms, aside from the ”End of the Trail,” which stands before it, is in the decoration of the entablature and the arches Horned and winged fearlanded panels All the three arches under the gables are enriched with figures of woroups, but graceful

”The End of the Trail,” by Jareat chapter in A Indian, astride his exhausted cayuse, expresses the hopelessness of the Red Man's battle against civilization (p 86) There is nificance and less convention, perhaps, in this than in any other piece of Exposition sculpture It has the universal touch It makes an irresistible appeal

To make up for the lack of statuary in this court there areinto the Palaces of Education and Liberal Arts on either hand, and into the Court of the Seasons Of these three lunettes two add little to the beauty of the court except for the vivid touch of color which they give it One, over the door of the Palace of Education, is entitled ”Fruits and Flowers,” by Childe Hassaht line applied to the female form Over the door of the Palace of Liberal Arts is ”The Pursuit of Pleasure,”

ascribed to Charles Holloway The figures are gracefully drawn, the coloring flowery There is better quality in Arthur F Mathews' ”Triumph of Culture,” over the entrance to the Court of Seasons In color and force this cowyn than anything else in the Exposition's mural decoration Perhaps that is too faint praise, for this is a real picture In it a victorious golden spirit, crowding aside brute force, allows the Huuardians of Youth The figures are huth and ease in the

X

The Fountains

A characteristic and fitting feature of the Exposition--Fountain of Energy--The Mermaids--Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's ”El Dorado” and Mrs Burroughs' ”Youth”--Rising and Setting Sun--Piccirilli's ”Seasons”--Aitken's masterpiece, the Fountain of Earth--”Beauty and the Beast”

The fountain, the spring, the well, is a characteristic note in the life and art of all lands in the Sun The Arabians, the Moors, the Spaniards, the Italians and the Greeks loved fountains It is less so in the North, in the regions ofis so welcome in a thirsty land as a fountain Hence there is appropriateness in the many fountains of this Exposition, which reflects in its plan the walled cities of the Orient of the Mediterranean, where fountains play in the courts of palaces, in public squares and niches in the walls; and pools lie by the ardens

Here are eforth many powerful streams in the sun to terraced basins where waterin sunified and adorned by sculpture there are fourteen, sole, some in pairs, with one quartet in the Court of Seasons Their sequence froate of the Exposition follows in a way the synificance of all the sculpture

The Fountain of Energy, by A Stirling Calder, in the center of the South Gardens before the Tower of Jewels, as a figure of aquatic triumph, celebrates the co on a pedestal in the center of the pool, and supported by a circle of figures representing the dance of the oceans, is the Earth, sur the canal Fales froy, horsed, rides through the waters on either hand

The band around the Earth, decorated with sea horses and fanciful aquatic figures, represents the seaway now colobe