Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915 : San Francisco, Calif.)
"El Dorado" and "Youth."--Within the colonnaded wings of the Tower of
Jewels are two fountains which carry' out the symbolism of the days of
the Spanish explorers in their themes, the Aztec myth of El Dorado, and
the fabled Fountain of Youth, sought by Ponce de Leon. In their way,
these are the loveliest fountains on the Exposition grounds, though they
differ so from all the rest that comparison is not easy. The naive
conception of the Fountain of Youth and the realistic strength of that
of El Dorado lead visitors back to them again and again. They are hidden
fountains, as their prototypes were hidden. Each terminates one of the
two open colonnades with a central niche composition flanked on either
hand by a sculptured frieze. Each is the work of a woman sculptor, and
both, though very different, are far from the conventional or the
commonplace.
The Fountain of El Dorado, by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, tells the
story of an Aztec myth of a god whose brilliance is so dazzling that the
sun is his veil, and who lives in a darkened temple lest his light
destroy humanity. (p. 54.) At the center of the recessed wall are doors
of the deity's shaded abode, a guardian on either side. In the friezes
naked humanity moves ever onward, striving to reach the home of the god.
The figures, in full relief, are splendid in their grace and vigor. Here
are men and women whom nothing can hold back; here are those who must be
pushed along, some who linger for love, others for worldly goods; but
all, the strong and the faint, the eager and the tardy, move forward
irresistibly to their destiny.
In Wait's "The Stories of El Dorado," the following account is given of
this aboriginal myth of an expected Indian Messiah, El Hombre Dorado,
the Gilded Man, as the Spaniards interpreted the native words,--which
played a fateful part in the history of the primitive races of Spanish
America:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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