The entablature and paired pilasters which decorate the walls of the
two pavilions to the south, are resumed in the Northwest Pavilion, or
Pavilion of Art and Science, if one choose to name it, as the three
corresponding rooms on this floor were named, from the subject of the
paintings which it contains.
=Mr. W. de L. Dodge’s Paintings.=--These paintings, both in the
tympanums and in the ceiling disc, are the work of Mr. William de
Leftwich Dodge. The subjects are as follows: in the west tympanum,
_Literature_; north tympanum, _Music_; east tympanum, _Science_;
south tympanum, _Art_; and in the ceiling disc, _Ambition_,
considered as the incentive of all human effort, whether in art,
science, or affairs. Comparing them with the other decorations in the
Library, the visitor will be struck with the unusually large number
of figures which Mr. Dodge has introduced into his canvases, all, of
course, helping to illustrate some phase of the subject under which
they are grouped. Throughout, however, the meaning is unusually
clear, the special significance of every figure being indicated
either by some expressive attitude or action, or by the introduction
of some appropriate and typical object.
_Literature_ shows a varied group of male and female figures sitting
or standing. The scene is along the steps of an old Greek temple.
The God of Letters--or Apollo, if one wishes--sits in the foreground
holding an open book. Behind him is a company of maidens reading in
an ancient scroll, which they unroll from hand to hand. To the right,
a woman is instructing two children in the rudiments of learning.
Comedy, a nude and easy figure, is looking at the ludicrous features
of a comic mask, and Tragedy stands in an attitude of recitation,
lifting her arms in an emphasizing gesture. In the corner is a little
boy working over an ancient hand-press. To the left a poet sits with
his head bowed in thought, perhaps in despair that his verses have
not received their due meed of applause; but Fame stands behind him
holding out the wreath of laurel with which, after many years, she
means to crown him. Further on is another poet, who, as he reclines
half dreaming on the ground, is suddenly inspired with the rapture of
the Muse. In the corner is a bust of Homer, with a pile of books for
pedestal.
In _Music_, Apollo, as the God of Song and Harmony, is seated in the
centre of a long marble bench playing upon a lyre. Other figures,
variously disposed throughout the panel, play upon a number of
different musical instruments, illustrating at once the development
and present scope of the art. One plays a violin, two others
are blowing trumpets, a fourth has the double pipes, another a
mandolin--and so on.
The central figure of _Science_--the background of which is again
the columns and marble steps of a temple--is a winged female figure
descending through the air to crown the inventor of the phonograph,
who kneels on the steps before her with a simple electrical
instrument beside him. More broadly considered, the group typifies
the triumphs of modern electrical science, summed up indeed, in the
invention of the phonograph, but including as well the electric
telegraph and the telephone. To the right is a man holding the
model of a propeller steamship, and further on a husbandman with
his team of horses, gathering the fruits of Agriculture. To the
left is a table, on which are set two alembics for Physics, and
around which is gathered a group of scientists, one holding a human
skull, which forms the subject of their discussion. The group may
be taken to represent the various medical and surgical sciences,
such as Physiology, Anatomy, and so forth. Further to the left is a
figure looking at a kite lying on the ground--a reminder of Benjamin
Franklin’s famous electrical experiment with the kite and the key.
In the background is a little camp-fire over which a tea-kettle is
suspended, for Watt’s celebrated discovery of the power of steam.
_Art_ shows a student sketching a nude model. Behind him is his
instructor criticizing his work. Sculpture is symbolized to the left,
and, to the right, a young woman is painting a design upon a great
Greek vase. Behind her are the capitals of a number of the more
familiar orders of Architecture, as the Egyptian and the Doric.
In the painting of _Ambition_ in the ceiling, the scene is supposed
to be the top of a high mountain, but only the marble terrace
which marks the summit is actually visible in the painting. Here
is gathered a group which has toiled along a weary path up the
mountain side to comparative success; but none is satisfied. Above
them, the Unattainable Ideal, a figure holding aloft in mockery the
palm branch of complete achievement, rides through the air on a
great winged horse. In front is Fame, grasping the horse’s bridle
with one hand, and turning to those below to sound a derisive note
on her trumpet. The figures on the mountain top are involved in
a scene of mad confusion; some for the moment are distracted by
crime or lust, or cynical contempt, but most reach out their arms
in ineffectual eagerness to attain the glorious vision above them.
They have leapt to the top of the terrace in their fierce desire to
gain the slightest advantage. To the left, a murderer shrinks back
in horror from the body of the miser whom he has just slain; as he
starts away, aghast at his crime, he topples over a flaming tripod
which had been set on a post of the terrace. Conspicuous figures in
the mad struggle for success are a warrior, with sword, greaves, and
helmet, and a sculptor, bearing a statuette of the Venus of Milo. In
front of them is the seated figure of a poet, with a bandage over his
eyes to indicate the abstraction and ideality of his thought. Further
on, a man flings out both arms in a mad appeal, and on the moment is
grasped in the arms of a woman, who drags him back to the level of
her own baseness. A jester, one of Shakespeare’s fools, in his cap
and parti-colored coat, stands near by, holding a bauble surmounted
by a skull in one hand, and a statuette of Victory in the other. That
fame comes only after death, and that the promptings of personal
ambition are but a hollow mockery, is the moral that he preaches.