Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915 : San Francisco, Calif.)
"The fourth stratum, the second group in the altar tower, symbolizes
human struggle for emancipation from ignorance and superstition, in
which Religion and War are dominating factors. The kneeling figures on
the side altar are similarly expressive. The torches above these
mediaeval groups symbolize the Dawn of Understanding. The chanticleers
on the finials surrounding the court symbolize the Christian Era. The
topmost figure of the altar symbolizes Intelligence, 'Peace on Earth,
Good Will Towards All,' the symbols of Learning and Industry at her
feet. The topmost figure surmounting the side altar symbolizes Thought.
The arched opening forming the enclosure of the altar contains
alternating masks expressing Intelligence and Ignorance in equal
measure, symbolizing the Peoples of the World. A gradual development to
the higher forms of plant life is expressed upward in the altar tower,
the conventionalized lily petal being the highest form."
This, then, is the lesson, the deepest and most spiritual attempted in
any of the Exposition structures, and surely entitling the court to be
called, as its creator wished, the Court of the Ages.
Brangwyn's Murals.--The mural paintings by Frank Brangwyn in the four
corners of the arcades are rich, glorious in color, freighted with the
opulence of the harvest, but they symbolize the four primeval elements--
Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Their themes have nothing to do with
Abundance. It is unfortunate that these pictures, far and away the best
in the decoration of the Exposition, have been hidden in the corners of
a court. The canvases are bold, free, vast as the elements they picture.
They need space. When they were unpacked and hung on the walls of
Machinery Hall, they were far more effective. Here they are cramped by
their close quarters, and easily overlooked. People are not going in to
see them as they should, and so are missing one of the chief joys of the
Exposition,--the masterpieces of one of the world's greatest living
painters.
These representations of the four elements glow and burn with the vivid
hues of nature. All of the pictures have a setting of autumn,, that
season of the year when nature puts on her dying hues, and floods the
earth with color. Their rich reds, purples, yellows, browns, greens and
indigoes are the hues of autumn skies, the falling leaves of hardwoods,
the dense foliage of pines, colors of the harvest, of fruit and grapes,
of flowers, and of deep waters. The men and women in them are primeval,
too, of Mediterranean type, and garbed in the barbaric colors in which
Southern folk express the warmth of their natures.
Free and vivid as is their color, the breadth of primeval liberty is not
less seen in the splendid spaces of Brangwyn's pictures. The forest
vistas are illimitable; the air has the freedom of the Golden Age; the
skies stretch out and up to heaven.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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