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
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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 Adventurous Bowman is the title of the surmounting statue. The
heroic Bowman, facing the skies and the seas, and launching his arrow
into the unknown, is the symbol of the impulse that leads men to dare
all to achieve victory. At the left of the central figure is a man of
smaller stature, leaning against the Bowman to give him support. On the
other side a woman crouches, looking up as the arrow speeds on its way.
The ring-like object in the woman's hand, which is so hard to identify
when one views the group from the ground, is a wreath.
There is about the Bowman a remarkable sense of movement, of energy, of
pressing forward, no matter what the view point of the spectator. The
monument should be seen from as far north as possible, near the corner
of the California building, perhaps. From here, from the Esplanade as
one approaches from either east or west, and from the Court of the
Universe at the rear, the group has the same inspirational quality, the
same sense of joyous effort, of courageous striving toward achievement.
The placing of the monument where it closes three important vistas is
commended for study to those who have in charge the artistic destinies
of our cities.
Palace of Agriculture
The north facade of the Palace of Agriculture is bare except for the
central portal, which again duplicates that of the Palace of Mines.
Palace of Food Products
The north facade of this palace duplicates that of the Palace of
Agriculture. But when one turns the west corner into Administration
Avenue, one finds an entirely different atmosphere, where the Spanish
architecture has given way to Italian. The dominating feature of the
building's west facade is an immense half-dome, officially called "The
Half-dome of Physical Vigor." This is an exact replica of the "Half-dome
of Philosophy" on the Education Palace.
Sculpture. Before the half-dome here, on columns, are replicas of Ralph
Stackpole's statue of the physically vigorous man in thought. Inside the
half-dome is a repeated figure of a man with a wreath, by Earl Cummings.
In the niches along the walls are two alternating compositions,
"Abundance" and "The Triumph of the Field," by Charles R. Harley.
Abundance is typified by a seated woman, with the conventional
overflowing cornucopias beside her, as well as a conglomeration of
details suggestive of the riches of land and sea. This group certainly
belongs to the Food Products building, but it really ought to be inside,
with the flowers made of butter and the tower of raisins. The Triumph of
the Field shows a man seated, and around him a museum of ancient symbols
of agriculture, and of agricultural triumph, such as were once carried
in the annual harvest festivals. These two groups are among the most
amusing things at the Exposition; but artistically they can hardly be
said to count at all.
The Palace of Machinery
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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