Through the arch we passed into the neck of the Court of the Universe,
which charmed us by the warmth of its coloring, by McLaren's treatment
of the sunken garden, by its shape, by the use of the dark pointed
cypress trees against the walls, and by the sweep of view across the
great court to the Marina, broken, however, by the picturesque and
inharmonious Arabic bandstand. We glanced at the inscriptions at the
base of the tower carrying on the history of the Canal to its
completion. Then we stopped before those graceful little elephants
bearing Guerin's tall poles with their streamers. "That little fellow is
a gem in his way. He comes from Rome. But the heavy pole on his back is
almost too much for him. He's used pretty often on the grounds, but not
too often. After the Exposition is over we ought to keep these figures
for the Civic Center. They would be very ornamental in the heart of the
city."
As we walked toward the main court, the architect called my attention to
the view between the columns on the other side of the Tower of Jewels,
with the houses of the city running down the hills. "San Francisco
architecture may not be beautiful when you study individual houses. But
in mass it is fine. And, of a late afternoon, it is particularly good in
coloring. It seems to be enveloped in a rich purple haze. That color
might have given the mural decorators a hint. It would have been
effective in the midst of all this high-keyed architecture. It's easy
here to imagine that you're in one of those ancient Hindu towns where
the gates are closed at night. You almost expect to see camels and
elephants."
What was most striking in the Court was its immensity. "Though it comes
from Bernini's entrance court to St. Peter's in Rome, it is much bigger.
There are those who think it's too big. But it justifies itself by its
splendor. The use of the double row of columns is particularly happy.
The double columns were greatly favored by the Romans. In St. Peter's
Bernini used four in a row. And what could be finer than those two
triumphal arches on either side, the Arch of the Rising Sun and the Arch
of the Setting Sun, with their double use of symbolism, in suggesting
the close relation between California and the Orient, as well as their
geographical meaning? They are, of course, importations from Rome, the
Arch of Constantine and the Arch of Titus all over again, with a rather
daring use of windows with colored lattices to give them lightness and
with colossal groups of almost startling proportions used in place of
the Roman chariot or quadriga."
Originally, the intention had been to use here the name of the Court of
Sun and Stars. Then it was changed to the Court of Honor, and finally to
its present name, to suggest the international character of the
Exposition.
Those two groups represented by far the most ambitious work done by the
sculpture department. From designs by Calder, they were made by three
sculptors, Calder, Roth and Lentelli. They presented problems that must
have been both difficult and interesting to work out. First, they had to
balance each other. What figure in the Pioneer group could balance the
elephant that typified the Orient? Calder had the idea of using the
prairie schooner, associated with the coming of the pioneers to
California, drawn by great oxen.
The Oriental group doubtless shaped itself in picturesque outlines much
more quickly than the sturdy, but more homely Americans of the earlier
period. The Orientals displayed an Indian prince on the ornamented seat,
and the Spirit of the East in the howdah, of his elephant, an Arab shiek
on his Arabian horse, a negro slave bearing fruit on his head, an
Egyptian on a camel carrying a Mohammedan standard, an Arab falconer
with a bird, a Buddhist priest, or Lama, from Thibet, bearing his symbol
of authority, a Mohammedan with his crescent, a second negro slave and a
Mongolian on horseback.
The Nations of the West were grouped around that prairie wagon, drawn by
two oxen. In the center stood the Mother of Tomorrow a typical American
girl, roughly dressed, but with character as well as beauty in her face
and figure. On top of the wagon knelt the symbolic figure of
"Enterprise," with a white boy on one side and a colored boy on the
other, "Heroes of Tomorrow." On the other side of the wagon stood
typical figures, the French-Canadian trapper, the Alaska woman, bearing
totem poles on her back, the American of Latin descent on his horse,
bearing a standard, a German, an Italian, an American of English
descent, a squaw with a papoose, and an Indian chief on his pony. The
wagon was modelled on top of the arch. It was too large and bulky to be
easily raised to that great height.
The architect was impressed by the boldness of the designs and to the
spirit that had been put into them. "It's very seldom in the history of
art that sculptors have had a chance to do decorative work on so big a
scale. It must have been a hard job, getting the figures up there in
pieces and putting them together. Some of the workers came near being
blown off. Some of them lost their nerve and quit. I wonder, by the way,
if that angel on top of the prairie wagon would be there if Saint
Gaudens hadn't put an angel in his Sherman statue, and if he hadn't made
an angel float over the negro soldiers in his Robert Gould Shaw monument
in Boston. He liked that kind of symbolism. He must have got it from the
mediaeval sculptors who worked under the inspiration of the Catholic
Church."
Varying notes we found around the American group. Cleopatra's needle,
used for ornamentation, suggested Egypt and the Nile. That crenellated
parapet once belonged to military architecture: between those pieces
that stood up, the merlons, in the embrasure, the Greek and Roman
archers shot their arrows at the enemy and darted back behind the
merlons for protection. In spite of its being purely ornamental it told
its story just the same, and it expressed the spirit that still
persisted in mankind. Nowadays it was even used on churches. But
religion and war had always been associated. Besides, in an
International Exposition it was to be expected that the art should be
international. How many people, when they looked at Cleopatra's needle,
knew how closely it was related to the newspapers and historical records
of today? The Egyptians used to write on these monuments news and
opinions of public affairs. The Romans had a similar custom in
connection with their columns. On the column of Trajan they not only
wrote of their victories, but they pictured victorious scenes in stone.
The little sprite that ran along the upper edge of the court in a row,
the star-figure, impressed me as making an unfortunate contrast with the
stern angel, repeated in front of each of the two arches. My criticism
brought out the reply that it was beautiful in itself and had its place
up there. "These accidental effects of association are sometimes good
and sometimes they're not. Here I can't see that they make a jarring
effect. In the first place, a Court of the Universe ought to express
something of the incongruity in our life. Ideally, of course, it isn't
good in art to represent a figure in a position that it's hard to
maintain without discomfort. But here the outlines are purely decorative
and don't suggest strain. In my judgment that figure is one of the
greatest ornaments in the court. It gives just the right note."
The two fountains in the center of the sunken garden were gaily throwing
their spray into the air. The boldness of the Tritons at the base
represented a very different kind of handling from the delicacy of the
figure at the top of each, the Evening Sun and the Rising Sun, both
executed with poetic feeling. In the Rising Sun, Weinmann had succeeded
in putting into the figure of the youth life, motion and joy. Looking at
that figure, just ready to spread its wings, one felt as if it were
really about to sweep into the air. Though the Evening Sun might be less
dramatic, it was just as fine. "It isn't often that you see sculpture of
such imaginative quality," said the architect.
Those great symbolic figures by Robert Aitken, at once giving a reminder
of Michael Angelo, impressed me as being perfectly adapted to the Court,
and to their subjects, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. But my companion
thought they were too big. He agreed, however, that they were both
original and strong. There was cleverness in making the salamander, with
his fiery breath and his sting, ready to attack a Greek warrior,
symbolize fire. Under the winged girl representing air there was a
humorous reference to man's early efforts to fly in the use of the
quaint little figure of Icarus. Water and earth were more conventional,
but worked out with splendid vigor, the two figures under earth
suggesting the competitive struggle of men. "I remember Aitken in his
beginning here in San Francisco. Though he often did poor stuff,
everything of his showed artistic courage and initiative. Even then
anyone could see there was something in him. Now it's coming out in the
work he has contributed to this Exposition. The qualities in these four
statues we shall see again when we reach the fountain that Aitken made
for the Court of Abundance. They are individual without being eccentric.
Compare these four figures with the groups in front of the two arches,
by Paul Manship, another American sculptor of ability, but different
from Aitken in his devotion to the early Greek. When Manship began his
work a few years ago he was influenced by Rodin. Then he went to Rome
and became charmed with the antique. Now he follows the antique method
altogether. He deliberately conventionalizes. And yet his work is not at
all conventional. He manages to put distinct life into it. These two
groups, the 'Dancing Girls' and 'Music,' would have delighted the
sculptors of the classic period."
Under the Arch of the Rising Sun two delicate murals by Edward Simmons
charmed us by their grace, their lovely coloring, by the richness of
their fancy and by the extraordinary fineness of their workmanship.
"There's a big difference of opinion about those canvases as murals. But
there's no difference of opinion in regard to their artistic merit. They
are unquestionably masterpieces. Kelham and Guerin, who had a good deal
to do with putting them up there, believe they are in exactly the right
place. But a good many others think they are almost lost in all this
heavy architecture. You see, Simmons didn't take Guerin's advice as to a
subject. Each of his two murals has a meaning, or rather a good many
meanings, but no central theme, no story that binds the figures into a
distinct unity. So, from the point of view of the public, they are
somewhat puzzling. People look up there and wonder what those figures
are doing. But to the artist they find their justification merely in
being what they are, beautiful in outline and in posture and coloring.
You don't often get such atmosphere in mural work, or such subtlety and
richness of feeling."
Both murals unmistakably showed the same hand. "There's not another man
in the country who could do work of just that kind. That group in the
center of the mural to the north could be cut out and made into a
picture just as it stands. It doesn't help much to know that the middle
figure, with the upraised arm, is Inspiration with Commerce at her right
and Truth at her left. They might express almost any symbols that were
related to beauty. And the symbolism of the groups at either end seems
rather gratuitous. They might be many other things besides true hope and
false hope and abundance standing beside the family. But the girl
chasing the bubble blown out by false hope makes a quaint conceit to
express adventure, though perhaps only one out of a million would see
the point if it weren't explained."
The opposite mural we found a little more definite in its symbolism, if
not so pictorial or charming. The figures consisted of the imaginary
type of the figure from the lost Atlantis; the Roman fighter; the
Spanish adventurer, suggesting Columbus; the English type of sea-faring
explorer, Sir Walter Raleigh; the priest who followed in the wake of the
discoverer, the bearer of the cross to the new land; the artist,
spreading civilization, and the laborer, modern in type, universal in
significance, interesting here as standing for the industrial enterprise
of today.
"Those murals suggest what a big chance our decorators have in the
themes that come out of our industrial life. They've only made a start.
As mural decoration advances in this country, we ought to produce men
able to deal in a vigorous and imaginative way with the big spiritual
and economic conceptions that are associated with our new ideals of
industry."
One feature of this court made a special appeal to the architect, the
use of the large green vases under the arches. "They're so good they're
likely to be overlooked. They blend perfectly in the general scheme.
Their coloring could not have been better chosen and their design is
particularly happy."