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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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