Around the corner, "The Bisons," by Proctor.
Follow along by the Pool and you meet "The Scout," by Cyrus Dallin.
No words can describe the great poetic beauty of this Fine Arts Palace.
It seems to be the pivotal part of the Exposition, the goal of all
pilgrimages, the altar on which you place your ideals. It has so many
moods that one must see it in all seasons, during all times of the day,
and especially under the illuminations.
The figure of "Aspiration," by Leo Lentelli, is suspended - as is all
aspiration - over the main entrance of the Fine Arts Palace.
Walk over to Administration Avenue so that you can look across the Pool
at the panels.
They are by Bruno Zimm of New York.
They represent the Arts and a long procession of devotees.
In the center of one panel, called "The Unattainable in Art," one sees
Art represented. On either side is the battle between the idealists, the
materialists and the artists.
Many idealists have fallen, but the centaurs, the materialists, seem to
be held back by the artists who are striving to reach Art herself.
We are all striving to reach the so-called unattainable, but it means
the battle with materialism before we can do it. Yonder stand beauty,
health, truth - the flowers of the spirit - but we must pass the centaur
to make that figure of Truth attainable.
Then comes the Apollo Panel, and Apollo, the leader of the arts, in his
chariot, seems to be in a long procession preceded and followed by
devotees of the fine arts.
Next comes the Pegasus Panel, indicating inspiration in the arts. Ahead,
marches Music with his lyre, who, like a sort of Orpheus, is stilling
even the beasts.
The figures between the panels represent those who stand ready to do
battle for the arts.
Ulric H. Ellerhusen has done the flower boxes, with women at the
corners. Vines were to have fallen over the figures from the boxes,
allowing only a shoulder, a head, or a long line of the drapery to
appear, but the plans had to be changed, hence the figure now in full
evidence. The women are looking into the flower-laden boxes.
As you stand by the Pool, notice the shrubs and flowers near by.
Near the columns are Monterey cypresses.
Grey-green artemisia is between the columns.
Ten thousand periwinkles are on the banks.
Five thousand Spanish iris.
Many Japanese iris.
California incense shrub.
Yellow primroses.
One thousand white callas.
One thousand yellow callas.
One thousand California violets.
The shiny-leaved coprosma from Chili.
Blue-flowered buddleia.
Groups of pittosporum.
Pampas grass from Brazil.
Hundreds of daffodils (in March).
The weeping willows.
A great group on the north of erica, epacris, and cryptomeria.
Across from the erica is the red-berried cotoneaster horizontalis.
Near the columns on the north side by the Pool grows the purple
agapanthus.
The Catalina cherry is massed against the building on the north.
The pink-flowered escallonia is found under the columns near the Pool.
The orange-berried pyracantha cretaegus is seen in all its glory on the
north.
Heliotrope makes the air one of sweet perfume. Polygala, with pea-like
blossom, is seen near the base of the columns.
In the Pool have been put five hundred papyrus plants and five hundred
Japanese water lilies.
These are a few of the many wonderful blooms seen here.
The vistas and reflections are ever new and beautiful from every turn of
the Pool.