The chief decorations of the gallery into which one goes from the
South Corridor of the Entrance Hall are two large tympanums by Mr.
Kenyon Cox, one at each end of the room over the triple doors by
which one enters or leaves. For the rest, the room is lighted, like
the other galleries, on both sides, so that one may look out toward
the Capitol, or, on the east, into one of the interior courts.
The ceiling is an elliptical barrel vault, rising to a height of
twenty-nine feet. It is set with square coffers in blue and gold,
and divided by double ribs which spring from the paired pilasters.
Between the pilasters a bright-colored arabesque is introduced, in
which blue is the prevailing color. It is continued in the ceiling by
an arabesque in relief, the most conspicuous features of which are
seated cherubs, and medallions with the letters “C. L.”--standing
for “Congressional Library.” The floor is Vermont, Italian, and
Georgia marble, laid in square panels, so as to reflect, in a way,
the pattern of the coffers in the ceiling above.
=Mr. Cox’s Paintings.=--Mr. Cox’s tympanums are thirty-four feet
long and nine and a half feet high. At the south end of the room
the subject of the decoration is _The Sciences_, and at the north
end, _The Arts_. The panels are similar in composition, occupying
as they do exactly corresponding positions. On each the design is
drawn together by a low marble balustrade, at the centre of which
is a semicircular recess enclosing a kind of throne or high marble
seat. At either end of the recess, so as to come directly over a
pilaster occurring between the doors, is a post bearing a tripod on
which incense is burning. The effect is to carry the lines of the
architecture below up into the painting.
[Illustration: THE ARTS.--BY KENYON COX.]
In the panel of _The Arts_, the central throne is occupied by
the figure of Poetry, represented as a young and beautiful woman
crowned with laurel and bearing an antique lyre. She is seated in an
attitude of immediate inspiration, the fold of her garment blowing
in the wind, her left hand raised from the chord which she has just
struck upon the lyre, and her lips parted in a burst of song. On
the steps of her throne are two little geniuses, one writing down
her words on a tablet, and the other raising his arms in sympathy
as he joins in the rhythmical swing of her song. The first may be
taken as personifying the more strictly literary and reflective
side of poetry, and the other as standing for its feeling for
harmony and music, or, in general, the lyrical element in poetry.
In the left-hand portion of the decoration are Architecture and
Music, and to the right, Sculpture and Painting--all typified by
female figures bearing some appropriate object identifying the art
which they represent. Architecture is conceived as the sternest
and most dignified of the arts, as shown by her expression of
proud abstraction and the severe lines of her drapery. She holds
a miniature marble column, and her head is crowned with a circlet
of battlements. Music is playing upon a violin, and looking the
while upon the pages of a great music-book which a kneeling genius
holds open before her. Beside her is a violoncello. Sculpture holds
a statuette of a nude female figure, and talks with Painting, who
has a palette and brushes. The latter, as representing the gentler
and more luxurious art, is shown partly nude, and leaning her head
affectionately upon the shoulder of her companion. In the corner of
the picture are a vase and two large plates in different styles of
decorated pottery--standing for the minor decorative arts.
[Illustration: SPRING.--BY BELA L. PRATT.]
In the tympanum of _The Sciences_ the central figure is Astronomy.
She holds a pair of compasses, and leans forward on her throne to
make measurements upon the celestial globe which a genius holds up
before her. Another genius to the right looks through a telescope.
To the left of the panel are Physics and Mathematics. Physics holds
an instrument designed to show the law of the balance of different
weights at different distances from the point of support. Mathematics
has an abacus, or counting-frame, with which she is instructing a
little genius in the elements of figures. The beads of the abacus are
so placed that they give the date, “1896”--the year the picture was
painted. Beside her, in the extreme left-hand corner, are various
figures illustrating plane and solid geometry. The former kind are
so arranged, as the visitor will see by looking carefully, that they
form all the letters of the artist’s name--KENYON COX. On the other
side of the throne are Botany, bearing a young oak tree, and wearing
a green and white figured gown; and Zoölogy, a nude figure holding
out her hand to caress a magnificent peacock perched on the coping
of the balustrade. In the corner are a shell and various kinds of
minerals, for Conchology, Mineralogy, Geology, and so forth.
On tablets over the doors and windows are the names of men
distinguished in Science and Art. Those representing Art are Wagner,
Mozart, Homer, Milton, Raphael, Rubens, Vitruvius, Mansard, Phidias,
and Michael Angelo. The Scientists are Leibnitz, Galileo, Aristotle,
Ptolemy, Dalton, Hipparchus, Herschel, Kepler, La Marck, and
Helmholtz.