The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition Part 3

The prairie schooner that forms the axis of the Nations of the West is crowned by an animated, imaginative group so perfectly co-ordinated with the realistic main composition that it causes no sense of discord. This group of "Enterprise" and the "Hopes of the Future" by A. Stirling Calder, forms the apex of the pyramidal construction. It gives the required height and balances the howdah on the elephant in the companion group, the Nations of the East, on the opposite archway. The spirit of Enterprise, a kneeling figure whose encircling wings carry the rewards of the world, calls aloud to summon initiative, encouragement and perseverance to the brave and adventurous who advance our progress. This Enterprise is the pioneer spirit that discovered and developed America.

At the feet of Enterprise sit the Hopes of the Future; two boys, one white, the other, negro. These sound the note of deep humanity that underlies the poetry of the conception. This group of the Western nations has an appropriate sub-t.i.tle, "The Pioneers."

Dance Bal.u.s.trade, Court of the Universe

At the top of the longitudinal stairways in the Court of the Universe are Paul Mans.h.i.+p's "Music" and "Dance." These are typical examples of that sculptor's power to combine cla.s.sic restraint, sculptural dignity and grace of line with complete freedom and untrammeled ease of method.

They express a musical mood, supplying the honor of musical art to the otherwise incomplete celebration of man's achievements. In "Dance," here reproduced, the beautiful movement of the figures and the garlands, full in volume but light in weight, are superlatively well presented. A glimpse of the companion group, "Music," can be had in the plate devoted to the Nations of the East. In this are two cla.s.sic male figures, the Composer and the Musician. One holds an open scroll from which the other reads as he pauses in touching the strings of a lyre. A number of distinguished exhibits by Mr. Mans.h.i.+p, showing all phases of his art, appear in the Palace of Fine Arts where he has been awarded the honor of a gold medal.

The Rising Sun Fountain, Court of the Universe

"The Rising" and "The Setting Sun," by Adolph A. Weinman, stand high against the heavens on tall shafts that rise from fountain bowls. They are inspired with a sort of rapturous imagery and they so inspire the beholder. "The Rising Sun," a youth with outstretched wings, a figure suggestive of gladness, hope and the dawn of high adventure, is a fitting symbol of the sunrise. He seems "a-tiptoe for a flight" on the summit of his column; his profile against the sky is superb. On the opposite column "The Setting Sun," a young woman with pensive face, shaded by her hair and drooping wings, sinks to rest. These figures stand on translucent shafts that are pillars of light in the evening.

They bear garlanded capitals and rise from double fountain bowls bound together by rising and falling jets and sheets of water. The column bases are finished with beautiful friezes, one symbolic of the Sun of Truth, the other of the Peace of Night. Winged mermen support the upper basin; sea-creatures gambol in the lower.

Column of Progress In the Forecourt of the Stars

One of the most serious and thoughtful works of the Exposition sculpture is the Column of Progress which faces the bay at the end of the Forecourt of Stars. This column represents with direct imagery the upward progress of man. The shaft itself is sculptured with conventionalized waves in a gradually ascending spiral, upon which a repeated vessel, the s.h.i.+p of Life, sails upward, indicating the slow upward rise of our life. The lower panels, significant of man's endeavors, are described on the following page. The crowning group, "The Adventurous Bowman," n.o.ble in intent and in sculptural power, is from the hand of Hermon A. MacNeil. At the highest point of man's achievement, stands this Adventurous Bowman, the super-hero, the leader, the man with insight into the future, who shoots his arrow into the Sun of Truth. Behind him the next man supports and is protected, by him.

Beside him kneels the woman with his reward in her hands. The frieze beneath the group shows the Burden-Bearers on whose shoulders the hero stands - an arresting thought; reminder of the true values in modern life.

Frieze Base, Column of Progress

The four panels at the base of the Column of Progress sympathetically express its exalted idealism. They are by Isadore Konti, in richly wrought high relief. The play of color values, the planes of light and shade, are handled with mastery. These four panels indicate that the thought, the dream, the aspiration, the dutiful devotion underlying all the labors of the common day are the source of their progress. One panel shows the higher toils of the mind, as in the arts and statesmans.h.i.+p. In the center of this stands the inventor or leader of thought with the eagle of aspiration above him. Another shows the motives of love and pain and prayer and the central power of labor as movers of the world.

Still another, which is shown here, expresses the humbler toils of mankind; even they, it says, progress upward through the thinker who pauses in their midst to dream. The other panel here pictured represents the triumph of man's endeavors, and the successes that spur to greater achievements.

Primitive Ages Altar Tower, Court of Ages

The Tower of Ages, in the Court of Ages, represents Evolution. The lower group, here ill.u.s.trated, presents "The Early Ages." This shows the development of man from his physical beginnings among the creatures of the ooze up through the cave man and the Stone Age to the growth of the family ideal out of which sprang a higher civilization. The second group shows "The Middle Ages." Its three figures are the Monk, the Armored Bowman, and, at the apex, the Crusader, the highest expression of idealism, of that period. "The Present Age" crowns the whole, upon an altar sits the Woman Enthroned and Enshrined. Her children, the future, are at her feet. Their finger-tips touch a symbol, the Cosmos. One bears a book, the other the wheel of a machine. Figures of Mutation flank the central composition. The sculpture on the Tower of Ages is by Chester A.

Beach, whose emanc.i.p.ated and vigorous manner is exactly suited to the presentment of these strong ideas.

Primitive Man Arcade Finial, Court of Ages

In accord with the basic idea of the beginning, change and upward growth of the human race and its emotional life that are emphasized in this eastern court, rough, plastic figures of "Primitive Man" and "Primitive Woman" surmount the elaborate arcade. They harmonize with the conception and treatment of the, group on the Tower of Ages. They are the work of Albert Weinert, the sculptor who made the much-admired "Miner" in the portal niches of the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy, and "Philosophy" on Administration Avenue. He presents these parents of civilization at the transition stage when they are still savage but have become physically upright and begun to develop the elementary glimmering of intellectual and emotional consciousness. They stand as finials on the continued columns that pierce the arcade wall and emphasize the arches. Dividing the s.p.a.ces above them, on a higher level, are repeated finials of a pert chanticleer, emblem of the east, the dawn and immortality.

Fountain of Earth Central Group, Court of Ages

Here is one of the most majestic and imposing enrichments of contemporary art developed by the Exposition. The Fountain of Earth by Robert I. Aitken has compelled the attention of the world of art and won the gold medal for sculpture of the year offered by the Architectural League. In this fountain the idea of man's evolution takes a subtler and more profound significance. In general, it shows the development and growth of love from its lower to higher forms and the upward effect of that spiritualization upon the life of the earth. In the secondary group, a prelude and epilogue to the main composition, on the prow of the s.h.i.+p of Earth are grouped the loves, greeds, pa.s.sions, griefs and spiritual cravings of man and woman, who come and go from the Unknown to the Unknowable. The great arms of Destiny, pus.h.i.+ng and pointing, giving and taking, guide the way. Between the four panels of Life on the Earth, stand the Hermes, milestones of ancient Rome, here used as milestones upon the road of Time. Sea-creatures indicate our origin in the waters.

The description of the panels follows on succeeding pages.

Survival of the Fittest A Panel, Fountain of Earth

The central fountain shows the globe of Earth revolving in the Infinite.

Streams of water by day, clouds of luminous steam by night, give it the effect of swimming out of chaos. The powerful panels of Earth are boldly modeled in pierced relief, giving statuesque realism as well as the picturesqueness demanded of a panel. They follow in a natural sequence as regards their deep and arresting symbolism. The order is, first, the Southern, then the Western, Northern and Eastern panels as the fountain lies. The panel here ill.u.s.trated is third in the sequence. In the first panel are shown the motive Elemental Emotions - Vanity, s.e.xual Love and mere Physical Parenthood without enlightenment. After the next milestone is the second panel called "Natural Selection." This presents the approach of the Strong Man; little wings beside his head indicate the dawn of Intellect. Women turn to him attracted by his qualities. Of the men whom they have deserted, one resigns in sorrow; the other prepares to contend the the issue. In the next phase, here ill.u.s.trated, "The Survival of the Fittest," the struggle has begun. The following pages resume the story.

Lesson of Life A Panel, Fountain of Earth

In the panel of "The Survival of the Fittest" the battle of life is at its height. The men are in a furious struggle of strength and prowess.

The interplay of human pa.s.sions, the contests of wills and capacities, has developed. The women, too, are taking a conscious part in life, one weeping and shrinking from the fray, the other extending a restraining hand. In the last and n.o.blest panel, called "The Lesson of Life," we see the spiritualized and intellect-guided emotions. A helmeted man and pure-browed woman gaze tenderly in each other's eyes. Youth, full of impulse and fire, stays to listen to the voice of Reason. The lover keeps in touch with the guiding memory of the Mother. And the cycle is completed from animal to mental toward the higher foundation of life upon the earth. Seldom has more exaltation of thought or intensity of feeling been infused, without mawkishness or exaggeration, into a work of art. The Fountain of Earth, is deeply interpretive of the trend of modern thought.

Helios Separate Group, Fountain of Earth

On the wall of the basin of the Fountain of Earth, is a subsidiary group called "Helios, the Sun." It is a decorative point of finish and is also symbolic. The Sun is taken as the symbol of the Cosmos, the enduring, the Day, the source of life. Man is pictured as clinging to it, in the hope of being freed from the encircling coils of his baser self and the old earthy entanglements that hold him down, and destroy him. This group and the main fountain, as well as the sides of the beautiful court, are mirrored in the long still pool in which the fountain stands - a pool properly free from splashes or springs as befits the setting of this intricate and ma.s.sive work. The rapid and stable growth of Robert I.

Aitken, sculptor of the Fountain of Earth, is of particular interest to San Francisco, the city of his birth, and the site of several of his earlier efforts.

Water Sprites Base of Column, Court of Ages

The "Water Sprite Columns" in the Court of Ages bring the somber symbolism of this court back to the gay spirit of festival. The sprites are the work of Leo Lentelli; they have a quaint elfin quality that is very engaging. The amusing and lovely group seated about the base of the column have a certain chic habit of pointing elbows, wrists and ankles that lends an unworldly attraction. Their sister sprite at the top of the slender decorated shaft is mischievously aiming an arrow downwards.

These Sprite Columns express the gay, frolicsome mood of the waters.