Books: Palaces and Courts of the Exposition
J >>
Juliet James >> Palaces and Courts of the Exposition
-
Just above, you notice that civilization has now reached the mediaeval
stage and you see the Crusader with cross on breast and sword in hand.
He has reached this lofty position thru faith (represented by the
priest) and war (suggested by the rude warrior). The spiritual has now
been added to the physical.
At the side of the tower, holding the same position on the tower as does
the Crusader, are suggestions of the crusader's tomb such as one sees in
many of the English churches. The Crusader passes on and his place is
taken by more advanced types.
-
On either side of the Crusader appears the paschal candlestick (which at
night is illuminated).
You are approaching the altar.
Above is the Priestess of Religion, with the nimbus surrounding her
head. At her feet are children holding, one a book, indicating faith,
and the other the wheel, meaning progress.
-
Around the court, on the highest pinnacles, are cocks, signifying the
dawn of Christianity (in reference to Peter's denying Christ).
-
Come back to the tower and you will notice a man and a woman on either
side of the altar. They are rising from the primitive man and the
primitive woman at their feet. They represent the man and the woman of
today. In the case of the man, you will notice how primitive man holds
on to him and how the man of today endeavors to shake him off. (The man
of today, by the power of thought, is trying to shake the rude brutish
nature off.)
(These figures are by Albert Weinert.)
-
Primitive Man and Primitive Woman, by Albert Weinert, are seen as
finials around the court. He is a simple hunter, or a man whose pastime
consists in such amusement as feeding fish to the pelican. She is a
woman whose chief work is to rear children.
Leo Lentelli's Aquatic Maids are grouped at the bases of the columns in
front of the tower. It was at first planned to have the fountains play
to the tops of the columns on which sit the aquatic maids shooting their
arrows into the waters, but a change in the plans left the aquatic maids
high and dry, hence your wonderment at why they sit aloft.
(Leo Lentelli was born in Bologna, Italy, but now lives in New York).
The Italian cypresses, tall and slender, stand like sentinels in front
of the arches.
Orange trees, ten feet in height, heavy with fruit, stand in opulence
before the cypresses.
Balled acacias, with repeated regularity of shape, produce in this
charming cloister a delightful formalism.
Solid beds of pink hyacinths add a glowing touch of color in this
beauteous garden.
The creeping juniper is the border used.
The cistus is the border used around the other beds. Under the trees are
planted calceolarias, gebara, Shasta daisies, potentilla, columbine, and
many other showy flowers.
The conventional standards at the south end of the cloister are aids in
the illumination.
This court is most beautiful at night.
The tower, in white light, has the glowing candlesticks in striking
evidence.
Great clouds of seeming incense rise constantly from the altars ranged
around the court. Fiery serpents belch fire into the basins below.
Beneath the world and around it rises the steam, which is marvelously
illuminated.
-
The North Court of the Ages
Eucalypti, acacias, English laurel and veronicas are banked close
together in this court. Great beds of orange eschscholtzia, the
California poppy, make this court a veritable Field of the Cloth of
Gold.
The creeping juniper is the border used.
Sherry Fry's "Listening to the Sound of the Ages" stands in this court
with her shell to her ear. She listens to the stories that the sea has
told the shell, and wonderful, very wonderful, is what she hears.
-
Since the first issue of this book I have received in written form Mr.
Mullgardt's own wonderful interpretation, which I hereby append with his
kind permission. I shall not correct my work, for it will be interesting
to compare the work of a layman with that of the initiated:
San Francisco, April 19, 1915.
The Court of the Ages
A Sermon in Stone
"The Court of the Ages" is 340 feet square. The surrounding walls are 75
feet high. The Tower is 200 feet high. The floor of the Court declines
to the central Basin, affording the observer a full view of the
surroundings. The arcaded and vaulted Ambulatory extends continuously
around the four sides. The floor of this Ambulatory is elevated above
the upper floor level of the Court for the convenience of observers. Its
architecture has not been accredited to any established style.
The Court is an historical expression of the successive Ages of the
World's growth. The Central Fountain symbolizes the nebulous world with
its innate human passions. Out of a chaotic condition came Water (the
Basin) and Land (the Fountain) and Light (the Sun supported by Helios,
and the Electroliers). The Braziers and Cauldrons symbolize Fire. The
floor of the Court is covered with verdure, trees, flowers and fruits.
The two Sentinel Columns to the right and left of the Tower symbolize
Earth and Air. The eight paintings in the four corners of the Ambulatory
symbolize the elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water. The Central Figure
in the North Avenue symbolizes "Modern Time Listening to the Story of
the Ages."
The decorative motifs employed on the surrounding Arcade are sea plant
life and its animal evolution. The conventionalized backbone, the symbol
for the vertebrates, is seen between the arches. The piers, arches,
reeds and columns bear legendary decorative motifs of the transitional
plant to animal life in the forms of tortoise and other shell motifs -
kelp and its analogy to prehistoric lobster, skate, crab and sea urchin.
The water-bubble motif is carried through all vertical members which
symbolize the Crustacean Period, which is the second stratum of the
Court.
The third stratum, the Prehistoric Figures, surmounting the piers of the
Arcade, also the first group over the Tower Entrance, show earliest
forms of human, animal, reptile and bird life, symbolizing the Stone
Age.
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 inclosure 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.
L. C. Mullgardt.
Court of the Four Seasons
It will be noticed that this court is planted mainly with grey-green
foliage, the banner poles being of the same color.
Flora
Olive trees.
Choisya ternata.
High-grade acacias.
Coprosma (from Chili - a shiny-leafed shrub on north front).
Eucalypti.
Cotoneaster bufolia (border).
English yews in couples of three groups.
Cypresses.
English laurel.
-
Architect - Henry Bacon of New York.
Architecture - Italian Renaissance.
There is a strong feeling of the architectural influence of Hadrian's
Villa, near Rome, when the eye rests on the half dome and also on the
treatment of the columns in front of the fountains of the seasons.
This is one of the chief beauty spots of the Exposition. A quiet,
reposeful, happy place where birds have built their nests and where they
sing their carols of spring.
As you pass into this court from the bay, or north side, your attention
is drawn almost immediately to the bucrania, or bulls' heads, between
festoons of flowers.
This is only a Renaissance motive, but the mind wanders back to the
harvest festivals of olden days, when, after the great harvest
procession was over, the bulls were sacrificed to the gods as a reward
for the abundant harvest. The same idea is worked out in "The Feast of
the Sacrifice," the magnificent bull groups atop the pylons (by Albert
Jaegers), where youths and maidens lead the bulls in the harvest
procession. Great garlands suggest the festivity.
The whole court is an expression of the abundance of the harvests -
especially those of California.
-
Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, with her wreath of cereals and her
corn sceptre, has just poised on the top of the lovely fountain (by Mrs.
Evelyn Longman), the die of which tells you by its cameo figures that
this is the fountain of young, fresh, joyous nature. The graceful, happy
creatures with garlands and fruits glide past you in song, shaking the
tambourine or softly piping their roundelays.
Jolly satyrs, the happy creatures of the woodland, spout water into the
basin below.
-
The Food Products Palace is on one side, the Agricultural Palace on the
other, and the suggestions worked out in the corn of the Ionic capital,
the cereal wreaths on the frieze, the sheaves of wheat, are most happy
decorations for just this court.
-
Pass to the Pool beyond and stop to read the quotation. (from Spenser's
"Faerie Queene") on the western gateway.
"So forth issew'd the seasons of the yeare
First lusty spring all dight in leaves and flowres
Then came the jolly sommer being dight in a thin silken cassock coloured
greene
Then came the autumne all in yellow clad
Lastly came winter, clothed all in frize
Chattering his teeth, for cold that did him chill."
-
Facing the half dome, walk first to the second niche to the right of the
colonnade to examine Furio Piccirilli's Seasons.
Spring - A pyramidal group with Spring with her flowers in the center of
the group. To the right is modest, timid, fresh young Flora, bringing
her wealth of flowers.
To the left, one sees man adoring, bringing to mind Tennyson's lines
from Locksley Hall.
"In the spring a young man's fancies
Lightly turn to thoughts of love."
Here is that fine feeling that one has in beautiful springtime - the
adoration for all fresh young life. Look above now at Milton Bancroft's
murals to left and right. He has painted all of the murals in this
court.
"Spring" is here in floral dress and the shepherd pipes sweet notes.
"Seed-time" - This is the time when the seed bag stands open so that the
crops for the coming year may be sown.
-
Marble group of Summer - Go to the left, along the corridor beyond the
gateway, to the second niche - this group expresses fruition.
The mother brings to her husband the babe, the fruit of their love.
The laborer at the right brings in the first harvest.
-
Murals
Summer - This is the period of the year when man amuses himself, when
the games are in progress. One sees the disc thrower at the left resting
after the game. Summer is crowning the victor of the canoe race.
Fruition - Fruits, vegetables, flowers fulfill the meaning of the
subject.
-
Now pass out into the open to the niche at the left of the gateway of
the east.
In the niche is Autumn, a mature figure indicative of the maturity of
the year. (Mr. Piccirilli calls her Providence.) It is the time of the
harvests. The apples, the grapes, and even the human family are being
harvested. The wine is being made and the great vine-decked jars are
filled with the ruby fluid.
-
Murals
Autumn - The colors speak of autumn. Here is seen the amphora of wine,
the tambourine, the rhyton, the Greek drinking horn, and the raised
Greek cup - all suggesting the time of festivity after the harvests.
Harvest, and one sees the garnered wheat and vegetables.
-
Standing between the two central columns and looking toward the half
dome, the eye wanders to the summit, and there, seated on her great
cornucopia, the symbol of abundance, is Harvest with her plenteous
supply of luscious fruits.
The dates from the south are being borne in on one side, while the great
sheaves of wheat are seen on the left.
-
Standing on the pedestal at the right of the half dome is Rain (by
Albert Jaegers) catching the drops in her shell.
Sunshine (by Albert Jaegers) shielding her eyes with the long palm
branch - the rain and the sunshine so necessary for the harvests.
Walk over to see the detail of the capitals and bases of the columns.
On the capitals of these pedestals, on which Rain and Sunshine stand,
are the small figures of harvesters - a most charming, original
treatment.
At the bases one sees harvest scenes.
The agriculturists pass along to their labors. The women and children
accompany the laborers, expecting to help in the many duties of the
harvest field. The dog, wagging his tail, follows after the children,
and all is activity.
-
You will now find it convenient to examine the murals on either side the
great half dome.
Facing the Dome.
On the right is Man Receiving Instruction in Nature's Laws. The work is
perfectly plain. You could not go astray if you simply read the
inscriptions.
An interesting thing to notice is that "Mother Earth" is a man bearing
fruits and that "Father Neptune" is a woman with a trident.
Nature's laws are applied to:
Earth, Water, Fire.
Love, Life (protecting the flame of life) and Death.
On the left is:
Art Crowned by Time.
The queen of art with her sceptre and palette (with the suggestion of
architecture in the temple in the background) is crowned by Father Time,
holding his hour-glass. His scythe is seen in the background. Time is
bestowing the laurel wreath. At the sides stand the arts of -
Jewelry making,
Weaving,
Glass making,
Painting,
Smithery,
Pottery.
The emerald pool is before you wreathed with the cotoneaster bufolia
with its wealth of red berries.
-
Pass now to the last season of the year in the niche to the left of the
half dome, Winter.
-
Before you is naked winter. Back of her is the leafless tree, with
splitting bark.
At the left one feels that man rests after the activities of the harvest
season, but there is an added idea in Mr. Piccirilli's words, "In
winter, the central figure is Nature resting, or rather in a state of
conception. To the right an old man is resting after having prepared the
soil for the seed; at the right a strong man is sowing."
Murals
Winter with the snow on the ground.
The fire is necessary; faggots have been gathered; the animals are
brought in for the winter food.
The time for spinning has arrived during the long winter evenings
(considering the life of today this idea is almost obsolete).
Festivity - Winter strikes the strings of the harp and gaiety is about
to glide forth.
-
The seasons are again suggested by names of the signs of the zodiac on
the gateways,
Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius,
Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces.
-
Look thru the entrance into the Court of Palms at the Horticultural
Palace across the way - a fine green and white picture.
Turn back into the Court of the Four Seasons and below the half dome
will be seen Albert Jaeger's
Nature (there is a great probability that this will not be placed).
Mother Earth, the great mother, sits in the center.
On the left, carrying the shell, is the Sea.
On the right, upholding the globe, is the Heavens.
-
Read the quotation from George Sterling's "The Triumph of Bohemia" to
make the connection with your Nature group:
"For lasting happiness we turn our eyes to one alone
And she surrounds you now
Great Nature, refuge of the weary heart, and only balm to breasts that
have been bruised
She hath cool hands for every fevered brow
And gentlest silence for the troubled soul."
Near by are August Jaeger's figures of Abundance, four times repeated on
each gateway; also his spandrel figures, still adding harvest thoughts.
Walk along the colonnade to the right -
As you pass the fountains, you will notice how the water slips its
silvery pink reflection from the wall down the terraces into the pool
below, producing almost a sunrise or a sunset effect.
The long hanging vine on the wall above is muhlenbeckia, the so-called
maidenhair vine.
The shorter vine is lotus bertolletti, showing later its red claw-like
flowers.
Court of Palms
As a balance to the Court of Flowers at the east end of the block of
palaces is the Court of Palms at the west end.
The general effect in color of decoration is pink and blue.
The columns are coupled Ionic of smoked ivory, producing a most lovely
effect against the pastel pink walls back of them.
The caryatids lining off the pink and blue marble panels show a soft
flush of pink. (These are by A. Stirling Calder and John Bateman.)
The festoons of fruits at the side of the panels are accented in deeper
blues and soft reds.
Notice the delicate figures on either side the cartouche over the
portals. The pinks and blues are so delightfully combined.
Between the columns, against the wall, are balled acacias.
The Pool in the center of the Court might be called The Pool of
Reflections.
In front of this Court is "The End of the Trail," by James Earle Fraser.
Before you is the end of the Indian race. The poor Indian, following his
long trail, has at last come to the end. The worn horse and its rider
tell a long, pathetic story.
By the entrances are great vases on which in low relief are Bacchanalian
scenes. Satyrs form part of the handles.
-
Over the doorways are beautifully colored murals.
On the west -
Fruits and Flowers, by Childe Hassam, a fine area of superb color.
On the east -
The Pursuit of Pleasure, by Chas. Holloway, gracefully carrying out the
idea of this court.
On the north -
"Victorious Spirit," by Arthur F. Matthews.
This wonderful golden note represents the Victorious Spirit, the Angel
of Light, with widespread wings of protection. She is the means by her
gentle influence of keeping materialism (represented by the horse driven
by brute force) from riding over the higher expressions of life.
Muhlenbeckia borders the pool, producing a most fernlike effect.
At the side, in front of the flanking Italian Towers, are erica and
epacris, in lavenders and pinks, accented by deep lavender pansies.
The tiny border to the beds is myrtus ugni. The wallflowers,
interspersed with Spanish and English iris, are massed thruout this
court, with rhododendrons in the corners. Against the foundations is
pink-and-cream lantana.
The Palm is the strong feature of the court. On either side the portal
Italian cypresses have been used.
The lanterns in the corridors have been modeled from Roman lamps, and
are particularly beautiful in perspective.
The Court of Flowers
Dedicated to the Oriental Fairy Tales.
This exquisite court is by Geo. Kelham of San Francisco, who came from
New York just after the San Francisco fire to help in the reconstruction
of the city.
He is a man of pronounced ability and has just won in the competition
for plans for the new San Francisco Public Library.
The court is made one of great beauty by the collaborated work of Mr.
Geo. Kelham, the architect; Mr. Jules Guerin, the colorist, and Mr. John
McLaren of San Francisco, the chief of landscape gardening.
A loggia runs around the second story of the court, interrupted along
the face by niches which hold "The Oriental Flower Girl," designed by
Mr. A. Stirling Calder of New York, but worked out in the studio of the
Exposition.
Coupled columns, suggesting glacial ice, form a colonnade around three
sides of the court, the fourth side opening into the Avenue of Palms.
As you walk down the main path of this court you are held spell-bound by
the fairy-like appearance of the albizzia lophantha, trimmed four feet
in height, the top of which branches out into a head five feet across.
One has the feeling of meeting fairies with their skirts out ready for
the dance - a veritable fairy ballet. Nothing could be more lovely than
this remarkably treated tree. The rich yellow fluff that will soon
appear, lasting for some four to six weeks, will be one note of the
yellow chord to be struck in this court-pansy, daffodil, albizzia, the
orange and the yellow background of niches. (This floral music for March
and April.)
A symphony in yellows.
The groups of trees at the north are the eugenia myrtifolia.
Every one appreciates the blessing of the trees and flowers, without
which the Exposition would have lost much of its beauty.
The flowers used at the opening of the Exposition can alone be given,
but these will serve to show the plan of arrangement.
The six lions are by Albert Laessle, who has many fine examples of his
animal life in the Fine Arts Palace.
The fountain of Beauty and the Beast, which should have been placed in
the Court of Palms, the Court of Occidental Fairy Tales, is by a young
San Franciscan, Edgar Walters, whose fine bears can be seen in the Fine
Arts Palace.
The base of the fountain shows a procession of beasts - the bear, the
cynocephalus ape, the lion.
Upholding Beauty and the Beast are fauns and satyrs, playing on their
pipes.
-
Walk down the colonnades and take note of the coupled smoked ivory
pilasters on the pink ground.
A fawn-colored ceiling has suspended from it Italian bronze lanterns -
the bronze suggestive of the color of the blue eucalyptus. At night
these lanterns glow with color.
In front of the Court of Flowers is "The American Pioneer," a fine
meaningful equestrian figure, by Solon Borglum of Ogden, Utah.
I am taking the liberty of quoting Secretary Lane's inspiring words
given at the opening of the Exposition - a fine retrospect that we must
not lose sight of when we look upon the determined woodsman of the early
American life:
As I went through these grounds yesterday, I looked for some symbol that
would tell me the true significance of this moment, I saw that the
sculptor had carved prophets, priests and kings; he had carved the
conquerors of the earth, the birds in the air and the fish in the sea.
He had gone into legend and history for his symbols, but in none of
these did I find the suggestion that I sought.
I found, however, in the court that lies before us, the simple, modest
figure hidden behind some soldiers - a gaunt, slim, plodding figure, and
I said to myself, there is the figure that represents this day, for
without the American pioneer we would not be here this day, no banners
would be flying, no bands playing.
He has-lived for centuries and centuries. He took sail with Ulysses and
he was turned back. He took sail with Columbus, and when he heard that
sailor shout, "Sail on and on," his heart was glad; but Columbus found
his way barred, and then this pioneer landed at Plymouth Rock, and with
that band of oxen he has trudged his way across the continent, he has
gone through the sodden forests, where Nature for a thousand years has
conspired to make his pathway impossible.
He has gone through the icy streams, climbed the mountains, tracked his
way over the plains, over the land where there is no horizon, gone
through the gorges where the Titans have been, and at last he has got
it, beside the Golden Gate, beside the sunset sea, and founded himself
this city, this beautiful city of dreams that have come true. And he has
done more than that, he has gathered around himself his sons, and now
they set themselves down here to tell each other tales of their progress
through the centuries.
The sons of the pioneers - theirs be the glory today, for they have
slashed the continent in two, they have cut the land that God made as
with a knife, they have made the seas themselves to lift the ships
across the barriers and mountains, and this accomplishment we celebrate.
They have brought the waters of the far Sierras and turned these waters
into living light that put new stars in the heavens at night. They have
hung their sky-line with a garden of flowers; they have worked a magic.
They have gathered here in all these temples to tell their victory - the
pioneers - what they have done and in what manner. This city has been
finished in blue and gold, in scarlet and purples and the greens of the
sea, and burnt brown, and the scene shown the pioneer has made the
architecture of the centuries to march before their eyes in columns and
colonnades.
The long journey of this light figure of the pioneer is at an end, the
waste places of the earth have been found and filled, but adventure is
not at an end; the greatest adventure is before us, the gigantic
adventures of an advancing democracy - strong, virile and kindly - and
in that advance we shall be true to the indestructible spirit of the
American pioneer.
The Italian Towers
Architect - Geo. Kelham of San Francisco.
Architecture - Italian Renaissance with Byzantine touches. (See picture
facing page 22.)
These very beautiful towers are seen in pairs on either side The Court
of Flowers and The Court of Palms, and assist in the fine balance
preserved thruout the block of palaces.