An Art-Lovers Guide to the Exposition: Explanations of the Architecture, Sculpture and Mural Paintings, With a Guide for Study in the Art GalleryCheney, Sheldon
History
An Art-Lovers Guide to the Exposition: Explanations of the Architecture, Sculpture and Mural Paintings, With a Guide for Study in the Art Gallery
Cheney, Sheldon
Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915 : San Francisco, Calif.)
"The Arrival on the Pacific Coast" is the title of the painting on the
opposite wall, which represents the immigrants being welcomed as they
reach California. Here again there are four groups of figures. The first
shows two Spanish-American soldiers and their captain, following a
priest, typical of the days of Spanish rule in California and of the
Mission period. Second, there is a symbolic figure, "The Spirit of
Enlightenment." The third and main group shows types of immigrants. The
men here are: 1. the scientist; 2. the architect; 3. the writer; 4. the
sculptor; 5. the painter; 6. the agriculturist; and 7. the miner (or
other manual worker). A woman and several children complete the group,
and at the back is a prairie schooner, from which a girl waves a flag.
The fourth group represents California welcoming the immigrants, the
state being symbolized by tokens of the wealth it has to offer settlers:
the orange tree, sheaves of grain, and fruits-the figures including
the miner, the farmer, fruit pickers, and the California bear. This last
group is the most colorful, and in many ways the most appealing, of all
those in the two panels under the west arch. It is interesting to
compare the golden warmth here and indeed throughout the California
panel-with the cold atmosphere of the New England one.
Those who are familiar with the historical characters of the West will
be able to recognize in the California panel idealized portraits of
William Keith as the painter, Bret Harte as the writer, and Junipero
Serra as the priest. In the New England panel may be found William
Taylor, famous street preacher of the early days in California, as the
preacher, and "Grizzly" Adams as the pioneer.
Both murals under the Arch of the Setting Sun are by Frank Vincent
Dumond.
The Side Courts
The two small connecting courts, or aisles, at the east and west of the
Court of the Universe are known as the Florentine Court and the Venetian
Court respectively. Both are in Italian Renaissance architecture, and
both are remarkably rich in color. The patterns on the shafts of the
columns, while doubtless adding to the feeling of richness, are a little
too pronounced, tending to destroy that restfulness which is felt in the
other Italian courts, the Court of Flowers and the Court of Palms. In
both the Florentine Court and the Venetian Court the planting schemes
harmonize unusually well with the architecture.
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Size of the Court of the Universe
For the sake of those who find added interest in knowing on what scale a
work of art is built, the following facts are added:
The area of the Court of the Universe is about seven acres. On its east
and west axis, from arch to arch, it is six hundred and fifty feet; on
its north and south axis, from the Tower of Jewels to the Column of
Progress, it is nearly twelve hundred feet.
The Arches of the Rising Sun and the Setting Sun have a total height, to
the top of the surmounting sculpture, of two hundred and three feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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