The style of architecture has been guessed at as everything from
Romanesque and Gothic to Flamboyant Renaissance and Moorish. The truth
is that the court is a thoroughly original conception; and the architect
has clothed his pre-conceived design in forms that he has borrowed from
all these styles as they happened to suit his artistic purpose. The
spirit of the court is clearly Gothic, due to the accentuation of the
vertical lines-and one will note how the slender cypresses help the
architecture to convey this impression. The rounded arches, modified in
feeling by the decorative pendent lanterns, hint of the awakening of the
Renaissance period in Spain, during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Centuries, when the vertical lines, and decorative leaf and other
symbolic ornaments of the severer Gothic, were so charmingly combined
with classic motives.
The architecture here is inspiring as a symbol of the American
"melting-pot." It is a distinct and original evolution, recalling the
great arts of Europe, and yet eluding classification. The court shows
that the designer was master of the styles of the past, but refused to
be a slave to them; at the same time he had an original conception but
did not let it run into the blatant and bizarre. It is from such fusions
of individual genius with the traditions of the past that a distinctive
American architecture is most likely to flower.
The tower is a magnificent bit of architectural design. It is massive
and yet delicate. It dominates the court, and yet it fits perfectly into
the cloister. The rich sculpture is so much a part of the decorative
scheme that there is no impression of the structure having been
"ornamented." One must search long in the histories of architecture to
find a tower more satisfying.
The architect who designed the Court of Abundance is Louis Christian
Mullgardt, one of the two most original geniuses among California's
architects.
It is well to enjoy this court at first for its beauty alone, without
regard to its rich symbolism. One who has thus considered it, merely as
a delight to the eye, usually is surprised to find that it has a deeper
underlying meaning than any of the other courts. The present name,
"Court of Abundance," is not the original one. The architect conceived
it as "The Court of The Ages." It is said that the Exposition directors,
for the rather foolish reason that a Court of the Ages would not fit
into the scheme of a strictly contemporaneous exposition, re-christened
it "The Court of Abundance." But it is the former name that sums up the
thought behind the decorative features.
The underlying idea is that of evolution. The tower sculptures, which
will be more fully explained in following paragraphs, represent
successive ages in the development of man-the Stone Age, the Mediaeval
Age, and the Present Age. The decoration of the cloisters may be taken
as symbolizing the evolution of primitive man from the lower forms of
life. Thus the ornamental garlands that run up the sides of the arches
are of seaweed, while other parts of the decoration show crabs, lobsters
and other of the lower forms of sea life. Higher up the ornament
includes conventionalized lilies suggestive of higher plant life. And
surmounting the colonnade, one over each pier, are the repeated figures
of primitive man and primitive woman. It is at this height that the
tower sculptures begin, carrying on the story of man up to the present
age. At a level between the Stone Age group and the Mediaeval Age is a
row of cocks, symbols of the rise of Christianity. Perhaps the whole
aspiring feeling of the court is meant to further suggest the upward
rise of man-but after all, the purely sensuous beauty of the
architecture is sufficient to warrant its being, without any straining
after symbolism.