An Art-Lovers Guide to the Exposition: Explanations of the Architecture, Sculpture and Mural Paintings, With a Guide for Study in the Art Gallery — John Shaqi
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 mural paintings in this court are disappointing. Two are
surprisingly poor, considering the high reputation of the artists, and
the third is badly placed. The tympanum in the portal at the east side
of the court is filled by Charles W. Holloway's panel, The Pursuit of
Pleasure. This is a conventional treatment of the subject, in which a
number of youths and maidens turn lackadaisically to a winged figure of
Pleasure. There is a pleasing lightness of touch, and the bright reds
and blues are in keeping with the spirit of the court-but the thing
is, somehow, insipid. This panel is more pleasing under illumination. In
the opposite portal is Childe Hassam's painting, Fruits and Flowers.
This again is a conventional treatment, showing very obviously vegetable
and human fruits and flowers. The arrangement is tediously symmetric,
the coloring is rather weak, and there is a wooden stiffness about the
figures. The panel makes a pleasant spot of color, but is by no means up
to the standard of the canvases in Hassam's room in the Palace of Fine
Arts.
The panel over the main doorway, at the north end of the court, is by
Arthur F. Mathews, and is far superior to the other two, though
unfortunately placed in a dark spot. It is called by the artist A
Victorious Spirit. The central figure, gorgeously suggesting the Spirit
of Enlightment, protects Youth from the discordant elements of life from
materialism and brute force, as represented by the rearing horse and
militant rider. Youth is attended by the peace-bringing elements of
life, by Religion, Philosophy or Education, and the Arts. The symbolism
here is sound, the composition and drawing unusually good, and the
coloring quite wonderful-especially in the orange-yellow robe of the
Spirit. The full deep colors are in sharp contrast with those of most of
the Exposition murals.
No one should leave this court without first pausing to enjoy the vista
through the north doorway, showing Albert Jaeger's spirited Sacrificial
Bulls on the Agriculture and Food Products Palaces, the long colonnade
of the Court of the Four Seasons, and the bit of bay and hills beyond.
The Court of Flowers
The Court of Flowers is opposite to Festival Hall, between the Mines and
Varied Industries Palaces. The first impression, as one comes to it, is
that here is a replica of the colorful Court of Palms. But many
differences become evident after a few moments' study.
The architecture is Italian Renaissance, but of a more richly decorative
sort than in the Court of Palms. There is more overlaid ornament, and on
the whole, less simplicity and quietness and more varied interest. The
columns here are Corinthian, arranged in pairs. The gallery above the
colonnade adds to the suggestion of the sunny South. The Italian Towers,
while similar in feeling to those of the other court, are different in
the arrangement of elements, though equally successful. The color
decoration is again notable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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