Palaces and Courts of the Exposition Part 5

The aisle between the Educational Palace and the Palace of Food Products is called The Aisle of Spring, tho the name will probably not be applied very often, as the aisle is not important.

The flora seen here is eucalyptus, acacia, laurestinus with its white bloom, and veronica decussata with its purple flowers.

The border is cistus.

The Aisle of the Setting Sun is between the Court of the Universe and the Court of the Four Seasons.

The Aisle of the Rising Sun is between the Court of the Universe and the Court of the Ages.

These two aisles are very much alike, the great difference being in the flora used.

The style is Italian Renaissance and should not be called Venetian, as many have named it.

The walls are covered with a diaper design of ochre, pink and travertine.

Blue rondels are used with telling effect. They give a delightful touch of color and have a fine Italian feeling. These rondels have no special meaning, being purely decorative.

The coupled columns with different decorations have their prototypes in the columns of the churches of southern Italy.

The arched windows have interesting grotesque keystones.

Notice that the spirals of the great Siena marble columns turn in opposite directions. Think how they would appear if they all turned the same way!

Notice also the beautiful manipulation of color on the Triumphal Arches.

The latticed windows are strongly suggestive of Mohammedan work and are a beautiful turquoise green. They are among the many Oriental touches at this splendid Exposition. The area of deep pink and the burnt orange medallions must be seen to realize their beauty.

No wonder Pegasus is seen in the spandrels! Who would not mount Pegasus at such a glorious Exposition?

In these aisles are many remarkable conifers. Yews from many different countries, junipers of various kinds, pines, firs, spruces, cypresses of countless varieties, many thuyas, beside euonymus, holly, datura, India rubber, aralias, the beautiful nandina domestica, a most lovely foliage ma.s.sed in the corners of the west side of the Aisle of the Rising Sun.

In March and April these courts receive glorious rich coloring from beds of California poppies and anemones, bordered with creeping juniper.

The gay spring flowers will be followed by summer annuals, and later by our autumn blossoms,

The Court of the Universe

This court, which strongly resembles the great area in front of St.

Peter's, Rome, with its sweep of colonnade to right and left, was designed by the New York firm of McKim, Meade and White.

The architecture is Italian Renaissance and gives you the beautiful spirit of the old-time work. It is a wonderful court in architecture, ornamentation, color, arrangement, and above all in meaning.

In order to get the full joy of it you must pursue a regular plan and you cannot hurry. Don't try to do it all in one day. First walk thru the court to the Triumphal Arch on the right. Pa.s.s thru it and read the quotation on the right at the top of the arch.

The Cosmical Side of the Court of the Universe

"The universe - an infinite sphere. Its center everywhere, its circ.u.mference, nowhere." This comes from Pascal, from his Pensees.

This splendid quotation gives you the infinite side of your subject.

Now pa.s.s back to the Court of the Universe and you will see ninety times repeated against the sky, A. Stirling Calder's very decorative "Jeweled Star." This will suggest the myriad of suns in our great universe (since stars are suns).

The nearest star to us, our sun ("The Rising Sun," by A. A. Weinmann of New York) then attracts the attention.

He is seen just before daybreak.

This fresh, strong young sun is just bout to start on his journey. Dawn is soon to break upon the world and with muscles stretched, the heavenly joy of the first move expressed upon his face, the wind blowing thru his hair, the vigor of young life pulsating thru his body, he will start the chest forward and move those outstretched wings.

Walk toward him and you will see him begin his journey thru s.p.a.ce.

Now read the quotation an the Triumphal Arch of the Rising Sun:

"The moon sinks yonder in the west While in the east the glorious sun Behind the herald dawn appears Thus rise and set in constant change those s.h.i.+ning orbs And regulate the very life of this our world."

- By Kalidasa (the Shakespeare of India).

The sun at setting is represented by a beautiful woman. The day is just about to close and with muscles relaxed (knees bent, head drooping, arms falling, wings folding) she is soon to sink to slumber, to pa.s.s from view. This is what is suggested by calling the figure the Setting Sun.

In the Fine Arts Palace, Mr. A. A. Weinmann has called the same figure "Descending Night," and that t.i.tle is much more consistent and satisfactory, for how are you going to account for the youthful sun's appearing at the end of the day as a woman?

Then again the reliefs refer to "Descending Night," for they are called "The Mysteries of Dusk."

Now raise your eyes to those beautiful cameo figures on the burnt orange ground at the entrance to the colonnades, and you will be carried in thought to the Zodiac, that great imaginary belt thru which the sun and planets travel.

There you see the zodiacal figures, two and two, with their symbols, gliding thru s.p.a.ce.

The clouds or nebulous matter is suggested by the female figures with swirling drapery, toward the end of the frieze.

In the center stands Atlas, mythologically the first astronomer. Your fancy has carried you on the wings of the wind at this very suggestion.

These fourteen maids are Atlas' fourteen daughters.

Go close to the die of the fountain of the Rising Sun and look at the reliefs.

The subject is Day Triumphant. The genius of Time with hour-gla.s.s is followed by the genius of Light with flaming torch, and Energy sounds on his trumpet the announcement of the break of day.

Truth follows with mirror and sword emerging triumphant from the sinister powers of Darkness. Falsehood shrinks from its own image reflected in the mirror of Truth. Vice cowers and struggles in the coils of a serpent.