=Mr. Pratt’s Spandrel Figures.=--The beautiful spandrel figures
of the Entrance Porch modelled by Mr. Bela L. Pratt are six in
number.[4] All are about life-size, and are shown leaning gracefully
against the curve of the arches. After what has been said of the
intractability of granite as a medium for any but the bolder
sorts of sculpture, it is not out of place to call attention to
the exceptional delicacy and refinement with which these figures
have been chiselled. They represent, as has been said, _Literature_
(the left hand arch), _Science_ (in the centre), and _Art_ (to
the right). In the background of each spandrel the sculptor has
introduced a branch of walnut, oak, laurel, or maple leaves. Of the
figures themselves, the two to the left stand respectively for the
contemplative and the productive sides of Literature--reflection and
composition. The one is writing upon a tablet, although for a moment
she turns aside as if in search of the fitting phrase; while the
other, at the right, with a hood over her head and a book held idly
in her hand, gazes out dreamily into the distance. Of the figures of
Science, the first holds the torch of knowledge, and the second, with
the celestial globe encircled by the signs of the zodiac in her arm,
looks upward, as if to observe the courses of the stars. Here, also,
it will be seen that something of the same distinction as in the
first arch is drawn between the abstract and the practical. In the
third group, the figure to the left represents Sculpture, and that to
the right, Painting. The latter busies herself with the palette and
brush. Sculpture, with a mallet in her hand, is studying a block of
marble in which she has already blocked out the head and features of
a bust--that of the poet Dante.
THE MAIN ENTRANCE.
The three deep arches of the Entrance Porch terminate with three
massive bronze doors, covered with a design of rich sculptural
ornament in relief. Each is fourteen feet high to the top of the
arch, with an extreme width, including the framing, of seven and
a half feet, and a total weight of about three and a half tons.
The subject of the decoration is, in the central door, _The Art of
Printing_, modelled by Mr. Frederick Macmonnies; in the door to the
left, _Tradition_, by the late Olin L. Warner; and to the right,
_Writing_, begun by Mr. Warner, but left unfinished at his death (in
August, 1896), and completed by Mr. Herbert Adams. The three thus
indicate in a regular series--the sequence of which, of course, is
Tradition, Writing, and Printing--the successive and gradually more
perfect ways in which mankind has preserved its religion, history,
literature, and science. Each of the doors is double, with a tympanum
at the top closing the arch. The various portions of the design are
comprised in a high and rather narrow panel in each leaf, with small
panels above and below, and finally the large semicircular panel
occupying the tympanum above.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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