The three deep arches of the Entrance Porch terminate with three
massive bronze doors, covered with a design of rich sculptural
ornament in relief. Each is fourteen feet high to the top of the
arch, with an extreme width, including the framing, of seven and
a half feet, and a total weight of about three and a half tons.
The subject of the decoration is, in the central door, _The Art of
Printing_, modelled by Mr. Frederick Macmonnies; in the door to the
left, _Tradition_, by the late Olin L. Warner; and to the right,
_Writing_, begun by Mr. Warner, but left unfinished at his death (in
August, 1896), and completed by Mr. Herbert Adams. The three thus
indicate in a regular series--the sequence of which, of course, is
Tradition, Writing, and Printing--the successive and gradually more
perfect ways in which mankind has preserved its religion, history,
literature, and science. Each of the doors is double, with a tympanum
at the top closing the arch. The various portions of the design are
comprised in a high and rather narrow panel in each leaf, with small
panels above and below, and finally the large semicircular panel
occupying the tympanum above.
=Mr. Warner’s Bronze Doors.=--Mr. Warner’s first door, _Tradition_,
illustrates the method by which all knowledge was originally handed
down from generation to generation. The background of the panel in
the larger tympanum is a mountainous and cloudy landscape, conveying
admirably, says one critic[5], “a sense of prehistoric vastness and
solitude.” In the centre is a woman, the embodiment of the subject,
seated on a throne. Against her knee leans a little boy, whom she is
instructing in the deeds and worship of his fathers. The visitor will
not fail to notice the unusual expressiveness of the group--the boy
with eager, attentive face, and the woman holding his hand in one of
hers, and raising the other in a gesture of quiet but noble emphasis.
Seated on the ground, two on either side, and listening intently
to her words, are an American Indian, holding a couple of arrows
in his hand; a Norseman, with his winged steel cap; a prehistoric
man, with a stone axe lying by his side; and a shepherd with his
crook, standing for the nomadic, pastoral races. The four are typical
representatives of the primitive peoples whose entire lore was kept
alive by oral tradition. The face of the Indian is understood to be a
portrait of Chief Joseph, of the Nez Percés tribe, from a sketch made
from life by Mr. Warner in 1889.
Of the panels below, that to the left contains the figure of a
woman holding a lyre, and the other the figure of a warrior’s widow
clasping the helmet and sword of her dead husband to her breast. The
first represents _Imagination_, and the second _Memory_, the former
being the chief quality which distinguishes the nobler sorts of
traditional literature, as exemplified in the true epics, springing
from the folk-tales of the people, and the latter standing for that
heroic past with which it so constantly deals.
[Illustration: BRONZE DOOR, MAIN ENTRANCE. BY OLIN L. WARNER.]
The same general arrangement of figures is followed in the second
door--the one representing _Writing_--as in the first. In the
tympanum of the door, a female figure is seated in the centre,
holding a pen in her hand and with a scroll spread open in her lap.
Beside her stand two little children, whom she is teaching to read
or write. To the right and left are four figures representing the
peoples who have had the most influence on the world through their
written memorials and literature--the Egyptian and the Jew to the
right, and the Christian and Greek to the left. The Jew and the
Christian are represented as kneeling, in allusion to the religious
influence which they have exerted. The former holds a staff in his
hand, and may be taken as one of the ancient Jewish patriarchs; the
latter bears a cross. The Greek has a lyre, for Poetry, and the
Egyptian holds a stylus in his hand.
The standing figures in the door proper are of women, and represent
Truth (on the right) and Research (on the left). Research holds the
torch of knowledge or learning, and Truth a mirror and a serpent, the
two signifying that in all literature, wisdom (of which the serpent
is the emblem) and careful observation (typified by the mirror, with
its accurate reflection of external objects) must be joined in order
to produce a consistent and truthful impression upon the reader. The
smaller panels below contain a design of conventional ornament with
cherubs or geniuses supporting a cartouche, on which the mirror or
serpent of the larger panels is repeated.
=Mr. Macmonnies’s Bronze Door.=--In Mr. Macmonnies’s design the
tympanum is occupied by a composition which he has entitled, _Minerva
Diffusing the Products of Typographical Art_. The Goddess of Learning
and Wisdom--a fit guardian to preside at the main portal of a great
library--is seated in the centre upon a low bench. On either side is
a winged genius, the messengers of the goddess, each carrying a load
of ponderous folios which she is dispatching as her gift to mankind.
To the right is her owl, perched solemnly on the bench on which she
is sitting. She wears the conventional helmet and breastplate--the
latter the Ægis, with its Medusa’s Head--of ancient art, but in
her wide, full skirt, with its leaf-figure pattern, the artist has
adopted a more modern motive. The Latin title of Mr. Macmonnies’s
subject, _Ars Typographica_, and various symbolical ornaments are
introduced in the background. To the left and right, enclosed in
a laurel wreath, are a Pegasus and a stork. The former stands, of
course, for the poetic inspiration which gives value to literature.
The stork, commonly symbolizing filial piety, may be taken here,
if one chooses, as typifying the faithful care of the inventors of
printing and their disciples in multiplying the product of that
inspiration. To the left, also, are an hour-glass, an inking-ball,
and a printer’s stick; and on the other side of the panel, an ancient
printing-press.
[Illustration: TRADITION--TYMPANUM OF BRONZE DOOR.--BY OLIN L.
WARNER.]
Each of the small panels in the upper portion of the doors below
is in the shape of a tympanum, and is occupied by a conventionally
decorative design composed of a wreath with floating ribbons,
enclosing a cartouche on which are inscribed the words “Honor to
Gutenberg”--the Inventor of Printing. Each of the upright panels
contains the figure of a young and beautiful woman, clad in a robe
of the same design as that worn by Minerva, and carrying two tall
flaming torches. The figure in the left-hand leaf represents _The
Humanities_, the soft contours of her face expressing the gentle
and generous liberalities of learning. Her companion stands for
_Intellect_, and the lines of her face are of a bolder and severer
character.
[Illustration: (decorative archway)]