Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission Part 39

ITALY.

_Members of Italian commission_.--His Excellency Baron E. Mayor des Planches, honorary commissioner-general; Mr. Giovanni Branchi, commissioner-general; Mr. Adolfo Appoloni, commissioner of fine arts; Chev. Vittorio Zeggio; Mr. Guido Pantaleoni; Mr. Alberto Alfani, Mr.

Tullio Giordana, Mr. Cesare Della Chiesa, Mr. Jerome Zeggio, secretaries; Mr. Giuseppe Sommarauga, architect of the pavilion.

The Italian pavilion was one of the most artistic and beautiful, if not one of the smallest, foreign buildings on the World's Fair grounds. It was a construction of Roman travertine stone, ornamented with bronze and marble sculptures. It was an architectonic fancy, Graeco-Roman, on the style of the ancient villas of the emperors of the Caesarian age, with garden and fountains.

The front colonnade ended in two stout lateral "pillars," crowned by two "victories" of gilded bronze (a work by Bialetti, of Milan), one of which bore the Italian laurel and the others the olive branch, as a token of peace and welfare.

After ascending the first stairs, about 90 feet wide, and pa.s.sing through all the colonnade of ionic style, was the garden where the ancient Romans used to grow their laurel, an image of glory.

The building was erected on a strong base more than 15 feet high, with another flight of stairs more than 45 feet wide.

The front was formed by a central body of the Corinthian style of the best epoch, flanked by two lower parts ornamented by marble and bronze works. The caryatides of the three latticed windows were authentic copies of the ancient caryatides of Greek origin now in the Castle of Abano, near Rome.

In the hall, together with cases and various ancient works, there was a faithful copy of the famous Etruscan vase called "Of Francois,"

belonging to the gallery of Florence, and a good copy in marble of the Roman group of wrestlers. Also in the same halls, in the cavities at the end under the frieze, with the inscription in Roman characters, "Italia lux alma preevit," were two great oil paintings of their Royal Majesties the King and Queen of Italy.

This monument of art was the work of Giuseppe Sommarauga, architect, of Milan, who had also the task of originating and directing all the princ.i.p.al decorations made and s.h.i.+pped from Italy.

The partic.i.p.ation of Italy at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was authorized by a law of the Italian Parliament dated December 27, 1903.

The partic.i.p.ation was prepared by the department of agriculture, industry, and commerce, under the direct supervision of the minister, Hon. Luigi Rava. A special committee was appointed for that purpose by the King, and the Hon. Angelo Pavis, a prominent member of the Italian Parliament, was elected chairman of the committee. The Italian amba.s.sador to the United States, the Baron Edmondo Mayor des Planches, who advised the Italian Government to let Italy appear officially at the exposition, was appointed honorary commissioner-general, and Hon.

Giovanni Branchi, the Italian consul-general in New York, was appointed commissioner-general. Adolfo Appoloni, one of the members of the royal commission in Rome, was appointed special commissioner for fine arts, and Mr. Branchi chose as members of the commission Guido Pantaleoni, electrical engineer, of St. Louis, and Chev. Vittorio Zeggio, who was special delegate from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, to promote the partic.i.p.ation of Italy to the World's Fair. Besides these members of the commission four secretaries and several a.s.sistants helped the commission in the work of arranging and distributing the different exhibits.

The appropriation of the Italian Government for the exposition was 650,000 lire ($130,000), but this appropriation was raised in progress to 800,000 lire ($170,000). A small fee of $4 per square meter was a.s.sessed to the exhibitors, but the artists and the schools had nothing to pay. No private contributions were accepted by the Government. The Government paid the cost of transporting and maintenance of exhibits, which amounted to about $30,000. The number of exhibitors was about 1,100. Many more firms would have sent their products to this exposition had they had time to arrange a fitting display. For this reason the Italian display was not a full demonstration of what Italy produces.

The largest Italian displays were in the Fine Arts, the Manufactures, and the Agriculture buildings. The paintings and the sculptures exhibited were sufficient to give an idea of the modern art in Italy.

They were all quite recent, with the exception of some pictures exhibited as loan, which were painted before the Chicago Exposition. The largest and most important art societies of Italy took a great interest in the exposition, but lack of time prevented the artists from preparing special works to be exhibited. The spirit of modern Italian art was individual, all working for the development of a national art. Among the sculptures were Monteverde, Fontana, Origo, and Romanelli. Among the painters, Previati, Rizzi, Mancini, Gioli, Morbelli, Dall'Oca Bianca Laurenti, Ciardi, Fattori de Karolis, Nomellini, Gelli, etc.

In the Manufactures Building the exhibits of carved wood furniture was displayed, together with ceramics, pottery, marble, bronzes, silks, textiles, laces, embroideries, paving bricks, and many other exhibits of great importance. Among the show cases was a large and artistic one, in which was exhibited the silk factories' display.

In the Agriculture Building Italy had a large display of samples of the many kinds of wines and olive oils it produces, and there was a large display of seeds sent by the department of agriculture.

In the Mines Building a beautiful collection of marbles and sulphur showed the wealth of the under-soil resources of Italy.

The photographs, the plans, and the maps of the electrical power houses and diverting works for the production of electricity in the Electricity Building attracted many visitors.

In the Transportation Building the Rete Mediterranes, one of the railroads that operates in Italy, exhibited the electrical system used on some of its lines.

One of the best and most important Italian exhibits was in the Educational and Social Economy Building. In both these lines Italy stood among the most progressive nations in the world. The results of the schools, the people's banks and savings banks, and the mutual help societies were an excellent demonstration.

In the Liberal Arts were to be seen musical instruments, books, and products of the paper factories.

Corals, cameos, and mosaics were exhibited in the Varied Industries Building, and some of them were remarkable works of art.

j.a.pAN.

On July 10, 1903, an imperial ordinance for the organization of the imperial j.a.panese commission to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was issued by the Mikado to the effect that the imperial commission to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition should be under the supervision of the minister of state for agriculture and commerce, and should deal with all the matters relating to the partic.i.p.ation of the j.a.panese Empire in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition; that the imperial commission should consist of the following:

Nonresident: Baron Keigo Kiyoura, president; Baron Masanao Matsudaira, vice-president. Resident: Mr. Seiichi Tegima, commissioner-general; Mr.

Hiromichi Shugio; Mr. Us.h.i.+taro Beppu; Mr. Naozo Kanzaki. Nonresident commissioners: Mr. Hajime Ota, Mr. Haruke Yamawaki, Mr. Masanao Hanihara, Mr. M. Isobe, Mr. J. Koyama, Mr. M. Oka, Mr. Okamoto.

Resident: Mr. Keisuke Niwa, director of works; Mr. Yukio Itchikawa, landscape architect; Mr. Saizo Tajima; Prof. Yos.h.i.+taro Wantanabe; Mr.

Mosuke Matsumura, secretary education department; Mr. Kannosuke Miyas.h.i.+ma, expert home department. Secretaries (resident): Mr. Harukazu Miyabe, Mr. Michio Hattori, Mr. Toyozo Kobayas.h.i.+. Attaches (resident): Mr. Shun Suzuki, Mr. Kiro Harada, Mr. Teiichiro Gejyo, Mr. Risaburo Ota.

Beginning with the international exposition held at Vienna in 1873, and including the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, j.a.pan has partic.i.p.ated in twenty-seven world's fairs. Her partic.i.p.ation in the exposition at St.

Louis was more memorable in many respects than at any preceding exposition. In the first place, the exhibits never before occupied such an extensive area. It was three times as large as that occupied by j.a.pan at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the Paris Exposition of 1900, respectively. In each department where j.a.pan took any part at the fair her location was excellent. The enthusiasm of j.a.panese manufacturers and traders in their desire to partic.i.p.ate in the exposition was so intense that despite the effort of the Government to discriminate between numerous applicants the quant.i.ty of exhibits was swelled to such an extent that it was a matter of no small difficulty to find places for all the articles sent in for exhibition. Notwithstanding the fact that there was only a short period of nine months between j.a.pan's decision to partic.i.p.ate and the opening of the fair, and that in the course of that comparatively short period the rupture of friendly relations between Russia and j.a.pan greatly handicapped the latter's endeavors concerning the exposition, the officials and exhibitors pursued their preconceived plan without an interruption. In view of such disadvantages, the promptness and accuracy with which articles were brought into their destination, arranged, and displayed seasonably in proper form may well be regarded as remarkable. By the time the gates of the fair were thrown open to the public the display had been well-nigh completed, to the gratification of the Exposition Company and the j.a.panese exhibitors.

When j.a.pan was first invited to take part in the exposition she was busily engaged in preparing for the Fifth National Exhibition held in the city of Osaka. For that reason she declined reluctantly to accept the invitation; but as the inauguration of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was consequently postponed until the 1st day of May, 1904, j.a.pan was later enabled to accept the invitation.

Early in the year 1904 the imperial Government sent a corps of officials to St. Louis to select a suitable location for the Government buildings, and to apply for s.p.a.ce in the various departments of the exposition. Due to the prompt attention of the j.a.panese Government and the courtesy of the managers of the exposition, the desired arrangements were accomplished without the slightest difficulty. A bill appropriating $400,000 to be expended for the exposition was pa.s.sed by both houses of the legislature, and in July, 1903, the Government formally notified the Exposition Company at St. Louis that j.a.pan would be represented at the fair.

The j.a.panese commission for the exposition took great care not to accept for exhibition any articles which had mere virtue of novelty, without practical value, or any articles not produced in large volume. The idea of the Government in employing such discrimination was to so plan the exhibition that it would leave some lasting effects after the exposition upon the world's trade and commerce. The exhibition of matters relating to education was executed under the direct supervision of the department of education, and was so planned as to make it represent a complete system of the education now in vogue in j.a.pan. In regard to the exhibitions of mines, fish, forestry, agriculture, and horticulture, the department of agriculture and commerce exercised the authority of deciding what articles should be displayed. The arrangement of articles exhibited in various departments of the exposition was made so that those independent of the j.a.pan Exhibits a.s.sociation were arranged by individual exhibitors under the supervision of the j.a.panese commission, while others were set out in proper order by the a.s.sociation.

There was no department or palace in which j.a.pan did not exhibit.

Displays on an especially elaborate scale, however, could be found in the following eleven palaces, namely: Palaces of Education and Social Economy, Fine Arts, Liberal Arts, Manufactures, Varied Industries, Transportation, Mines, Forestry, Fish, and Game, Electricity, and Agriculture. The total area of s.p.a.ce of the j.a.panese sections in these departments was distributed among different sections as follows:

Square feet.

Palace of Education ............................... 6,299 Palace of Fine Arts ............................... 6,825 Palace of Liberal Arts ............................ 400 Palace of Industry ................................ 27,384 Palace of Manufactures ............................ 54,737 Palace of Transportation .......................... 14,160 Palace of Electricity ............................. 1,100 Palace of Mines ................................... 6,903 Palace of Forestry, Fish, and Game ................ 2,982 Palace of Agriculture ............................. 8,667 ------- Total ...................................... 129,457

Besides the above areas in the various departments, a garden of a genuine j.a.panese style covered an extensive s.p.a.ce of ground, in which stood the Government building. Attached to it was a reception hall and several artistic mansions. Displays of j.a.panese garden and floricultural arts were exhibited in the garden. In the reception hall were exhibited various data showing the growth and present status of the Red Cross Society of j.a.pan. Altogether, the dimension of s.p.a.ce taken by j.a.pan for the garden aggregated approximately 148,361 square feet. Artistically distributed within the precincts of the garden were the reception hall, the office building, the Formosa tea house, the Kinkaku tea house, and several cottages and a bazaar. Hills and waterfalls, ponds and bridges were presented in miniature scale. In the verdant lawns flowers of different colors were all harmonized into an artistic unit in unique landscape gardening. Beautifully trained dwarf trees, centuries old, were brought from j.a.pan for the special purpose of ornamenting the garden. There were also the drooping wisteria and gay peony, the scented lily and blus.h.i.+ng maple.

The building materials for the reception hall, the office building, and resting cottages were brought from j.a.pan. The reception hall was built entirely by native carpenters, after the style of a daimyo's goten (palace of feudal lord) of some six hundred years ago. The architectural style of the building was what is termed Heike, a style prevailing at the time when a military family called Heike held a paramount power. The artistically curved roofs, projecting one upon another, were a modest representation of architectural accomplishment already attained in j.a.pan several centuries ago. Hanging on the inner wall of the hall was the portrait of Her Majesty the Empress of j.a.pan, and occupying a section of the room were the exhibits of the Red Cross Society of j.a.pan, in which the Empress takes a keen interest. The resting cottage was modeled after a cottage in a shogun's (military magistrate) garden, two or three centuries ago. Close to the south bank of the lake was a small reproduction of Kinkaku Temple. Close to the right of the front gate of the garden stood the Formosa mansion, a fair representation of characteristic native dwellings. The Kinkaku Temple was built under the auspices of the j.a.pan Tea Traders' a.s.sociation, and the Formosa mansion by the initiative of the Formosa government.

MEXICO.

_Members of Mexico commission_.--Engineer Albino R. Nuncio, commissioner-general; Mr. Benito Navarro, a.s.sistant to the commissioner-general; Mr. Juan Renteria, a.s.sistant to the commissioners general; Engineer Lauro Viadas, chief department of agriculture; Mr.

Daniel R. De la Vega, a.s.sistant to the chief; Mr. Isidoro Aldasoro, chief department of art and ethnology; Mr. Leopoldo Tell and Mr. Octavio Andrade, a.s.sistants to the chief; Mr. Maximiliano M. Chabert, chief department of liberal arts; Mr. Alberto Ocampo, a.s.sistant to the chief; Mr. Julio Poulat, chief department of education; Mr. Manuel Costa, a.s.sistant to the chief; Mr. Enrique Garibay, chief department of forestry, fish, and game; Mr. Jorge Salazar, a.s.sistant to the chief; Mr. J. Alberto MacDowell, chief department of horticulture; Mr. J.M.

Nuncio, chief department of manufactures; Mr. Antonio Sierra Cruz, a.s.sistant to the chief; Engineer Eduardo Mantinez Baca, chief department of mines and metallurgy; Mr. Miguel Peinado, a.s.sistant to the chief; Maj. S. Garcia Cuellar, chief department of transportation; Lieut.

Manuel Garcia Lugo and Lieut. Jose Ortiz Monasterio, a.s.sistants to the chief; Mrs. Laura M. De Cuenca, Dr. Plutarco Ornelas, Prof Teofilo Frezieres, Mr. E.H. Talbot, Mr. Jose M. Trigo De Claver, Mr. Roberto Garcia, Mr. Jose A. Bonilla.

The amounts voted by the Mexican Congress, according to dates since the organization of the work, for the partic.i.p.ation of Mexico at the Universal Exposition of St. Louis, were as follows:

October 22, 1901 ............................... $50,000 July 1, 1902 ................................... 70,000 November 23, 1902 .............................. 15,000 July 1, 1903 ................................... 90,000 December 3, 1903 ............................... 250,000 July 1, 1904 ................................... 100,000 November, 1904 ................................. 300,000 -------- Total ....................................... 875,000

The Mexican exhibit in the department of education, as a whole, demonstrated the remarkable development of public instruction from primary to scientific, and at the same time the progress made by adopting new plans and systems. The exhibit as a whole could also be studied in detail by looking over the regulations, plans of study, statistics, texts, etc., which were displayed there.

The Gallery No. 94 of the west pavilion of the Fine Arts Building was the one a.s.signed by the Exposition Company to the exhibition of fine arts from the Republic of Mexico. This small gallery contained 38 oil paintings, 2 pen drawings, and 2 sculptures. The paintings belonged to 11 exhibitors.

The importance of the exhibition as relates to the art cultivated in Mexico was represented by the famous works of the Artist Fabres, which attracted a great deal of attention.

In the Palace of Liberal Arts Mexico exhibited technical works and diversified industrial products. Among the most important were those of official character, such as geographical maps, the system used for the illumination of the seash.o.r.es, the construction of buildings for special works, etc. Also plans and constructions of architectural character from' prominent architects of Mexico.

Displayed here were exhibits from the manufactures of drugs and chemical products, perfumes, paper, printing and binding companies, and many others comprised in the extensive official cla.s.sification. One most important exhibit was that of chemical products and pharmacy.

Another very important branch of liberal arts, and very well developed, was that of photography. Very remarkable works of the most expert photographers of the country were exhibited.