Part 2

A. Stirling Calder.

Illustrations and Descriptive Notes of the Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition

Fountain of Energy Central Group, South Gardens

The Fountain of Energy in the place of honor within the main entrance gives the keynote of the Exposition - a mood of triumphant rejoicing. The proud bearing of the equestrian group, the wide sweep of water when the fountain is in play, the sportive movement of the figures in the basin, all express the joy of achievement. In the conception of the sculptor, A. Stirling Calder, this was fitting tribute to the completion of the Panama Canal which the Exposition celebrates.

The fountain has a double significance. In the first aspect it records the conquest by Energy of the labors of the Canal. In the second it proclaims the approach of the Super-Energy of the future. Both interpretations are detailed upon the following pages. On the globe supporting the horseman are indicated the sun's course North and South and the evolution of mankind from lower to higher forms of life. That of the strenuous Western hemisphere is connoted by a bullman; the quiet East by a cat-human. Great oceans and lesser waters revel in the fountain-bowl. A garland of merfolk join globe to base with great sculptural beauty.

Equestrian Group Detail, Fountain of Energy

In the more obvious phase of the fountain's meaning, Energy, the Lord of the Isthmian Way, rides grandly upon the earth, triumphing because of the Canal so well achieved. His outstretched arms have severed the lands and let the waters pass. Upon his mighty shoulders stand Fame and Glory, heralding the coming of a conqueror. The second and more subtle intention is nobly prophetic. Energy, the Power of the Future, the Superman, approaches. Twin inspirations - of two sexes to denote the dual nature of man - urge him onward. His hands point upward, contacting human energy with Divine. It is interesting to note the steadiness of the central figure, the sense of firmness, security, in spite of the feeling of motion in the whole. This is largely due to the hold of the feet upon the stirrups and the weight of the body in the saddle.

North Sea - Atlantic Ocean Details, Fountain of Energy

The basin of the Fountain of Energy is devoted to the revel of the waters. The genii of the four great oceans dominate the scene. They are mounted upon cavorting marine monsters and surrounded by the smaller waters, fearlessly playing, head-downwards, upon dolphins about to dive. The Atlantic Ocean faces East; the Pacific, West; the North and South Seas their appropriate quarters. The symbolic figures are designed to interpret the spirit of the oceans they represent - the Atlantic, fine and bright, upon her armored sword-fish; the Pacific, a beautiful, graceful, happily brooding Oriental; the North Sea, finned and glistening, strange and eerie; the South Sea, savage and tempestuous, blowing a fitful blast. The lesser waters have a lighter quality. The hair of the sea-spirits suggests seaweed and coral. From the mouths of of the sea-chargers jets of water rise to meet the nimbus and rainbows of the semi-spherical downpour of the main fountain.

Mermaid Fountain Festival Hall, South Gardens

Long, quiet mirror pools flank the great Fountain of Energy, giving balance and calm to the entrance plaza, or South Gardens. They are oblong in shape with the farther ends curving into a graceful convex. The pools are surrounded by formal flowerbeds planted to correspond to the beds surrounding the central fountain, thus giving continuity to the whole. These beds are enclosed by a decorative fence which follows the outline of the pools; the entering paths, emphasized at the outer ends by flower urns, at the inner by sculptural light standards.

The curved ends of the pools are marked by Arthur Putnam's beautiful Mermaid Fountain, in duplicate. The crowning figure is by no means the conventional mermaid. She is free, full of grace, charmingly poised. The bifurcated tail is original and gives sculptural distinction as well as greater human appeal. The figure is instinct with a spirit of play but is not boisterous. Arthur Putnam is a Californian who has greatly influenced the development of art in the West.

Torch Bearer Finial Figure, Festival Hall

As Festival Hall is the seat of the Exposition's musical life, all the sculpture on and about the building expresses a lyrical mood. The sculptor has contrived to give this feeling great variety; but, on the whole, the large reclining figures - the beautiful, relaxed Reclining Nymph and the Listening God over the great pylons - seem to be meditatively listening, the seated figures have a fanciful, lighter suggestion and those standing give a gentle effect of rhythm. The great arches are marked by a cartouche emphasizing this intention.

"The Torch Bearer" here pictured is lightly yet firmly poised above the minor domes. Exquisitely silhouetted against the sky, she has a spiral beauty, and the grace of one posed in the midst of a dance. The work of Sherry Edmundsen Fry, who made all the sculpture on Festival Hall, is, generally characterized by a classic correctness combined with a modern robustness. It lends itself well to this French Renaissance building - a type that depends upon its sculptured embellishments.

The Muse and Pan Pylon Group, Festival Hall

At the base of the great pylons that flank the columnar entrance court of Festival Hall, are low pyramidal masses of foliage and flowering shrubs. An interesting group by Sherry E. Fry is set in the midst of each. The more evident figure, mounted upon a decorative pedestal, is identical in both groups - a classic, flower-bearing Muse, who seems to step softly forward. But though the Muse is repeated, the groups vary in the smaller seated figures at the base of the pedestals. This variation is not felt architecturally, for the figures balance perfectly and are nestled in a mass of leafage. At the feet of the Muse before the northern pylon a Boy Pan sits among the flowers, balanced in the southern group by a Young Nymph or Dryad.

The gentle dignity of the standing Muse and the reality and softness of her draperies recall the same sculptor's figure, Peace, exhibited in the department of Fine Arts and awarded a medal by the jury. The architectural beauty of these groups, in relation to the arched panels of the pylons forming their background, is worthy of study. It will be seen that the group, in spite of its statuesque quality, is actually part of the wall surface. The beauty of the ensemble is greatly enhanced by the sympathetic planting.

Boy Pan Detail, Pylon Group, Festival Hall

Without doubt the most popular, if not the most admired, of the statues that adorn Festival Hall is the "Boy Pan," nestled in the foliage at the base of the pedestal in the group just described. This roguish little god of woodland music has, besides his traditional attributes, a certain urchin quality that is very appealing. He has just taken his pipe from his lips, momentarily diverted by the presence of an alert lizard his melody has attracted. The lizard is here hidden in the leafage. The arch amusement of the whole figure, the mischievous, boyish smile upon his face, have allurement, just lifted from the normal by the quaint suggestion of small horns still in velvet. Here in his youth is the wholesome, simple, poetic Pan of the earlier myths, he who grew into the "Great God Pan," rather than the hero of the more subtle and diversified later legends. His pertness is contrasted with the shy modesty of the Young Nymph, the companion figure at the foot of the opposite pylon.

Detail, Spire Base Palace of Horticulture

The Palace of Horticulture, a combination of French Renaissance with the Byzantine, is consistently flowery in decoration. It has been given a carnival expression. The general sculptured adornments are heavy garlands and overflowing baskets, and profuse ornamentations of flowers. Large flower-decked jars stand in niches; the cartouches bear the flower motif. Suggestions of lattices and arbors appear in the low domes on the porches surrounding the great greenhouses, reminiscent of French garden architecture of the Great Age.

The superb central glass dome that gives the building distinction is crowned by a huge flower basket and draped at its base by a long garland. At the foot of the sharply ascending spires - the slender shafts of which are carved with conventionalized vines and bear tapering flower urns as finials - stand graceful garlands of girls. These pleasing spire bases, the attendants of Flora, are by Ernest Louis Boutier, a Parisian. They carry small baskets of flowers on their heads, a chain of flowers binds them. The same feeling is continued in the caryatids on this building, by John Bateman. These, also flower-capped, are repeated on the Press and Y. W. C. A. buildings, smaller structures in the South Gardens adjoining the Horticultural Palace, thus unifying the buildings in the plaza.

Cortez In Front of Tower of Jewels

Equestrian statues of Cortez and Pizzaro stand in the Avenue of Palms at the base of the Tower of Jewels to suggest the early history of the South and West of this hemisphere as a background to the present achievements at Panama and, indeed, at San Francisco. This spirited and romantic presentation of the fearless conquistador, Hernando Cortez, shows him at the very height of his proud successes. Charles Niehaus, whose work is always direct and convincing, has made us feel the Spanish conqueror's own sense of victory. We know that now Mexico, the Tlascalans and the Emperor Montezuma have been vanquished, that the victor's ruthless ambition is already dreaming of the conquest of New Spain and the navigation of the Pacific. There are infused into the work a brilliancy and dash that fill the imagination with the glamor of that picturesque period of history. The perfect horsemanship, the restrained but vigorous motion, the whole bearing, have a stirring beauty. There is also intended and expressed in the countenance a sense of vision, as if Cortez had here a prophetic moment in which he saw the future of the continent he claimed.

Pizarro In Front of Tower of Jewels

Pizzaro, the companion equestrian to Cortez, is the work of Charles Cary Rumsey. The grim, stern and epic history of the bold, arrogant adventurer who was merciless in success and dauntless in failure is ruggedly suggested by this figure, mounted upon a heavily armored charger and advancing with drawn sword. The fact that Pizzaro was a member of Balboa's party when that explorer discovered the Pacific and that he himself was in charge of a Spanish colony at Darien in 1510, makes his appearance at this Exposition appropriate. But it is, after all, the conqueror of the Incas, the indomitable, who spared neither his men nor his enemy until the rich cities of the Southern Empire had been pillaged of their gold and destroyed, who is here portrayed. After achieving wealth and honors Pizzaro was slain by the followers of a rival conquistador. The position of these two equestrians is well chosen; the colonnade of the Tower makes an impressive background.

The Pioneer Avenue of Palms

History of a later period, nearer to the heart of Westerners, is embodied in Solon Borglum's lusty and venerable Pioneer. This impressive equestrian stands on the Avenue of Palms at the entrance to the court of Flowers. It is interesting to note that, in this rugged and commanding figure, fineness, dignity and nobility are emphasized as well as the more customary endurance and hardihood conventionally associated with the character. On the leather trappings of the old Pioneer's horse, the tepee, the canoe and other symbols of Indian life are marked. The sculptor is himself the son of pioneers and has treated this subject with sincerity and affectionate insight. The Pioneer has been greatly appreciated and has received special notice in a number of addresses delivered by distinguished guests of the Exposition. Its veracity is attested by the fact that resemblance to several famous pioneers has been imagined in it by their admirers.

The End of the Trail Avenue of Palms

Still further back into the historical records of American stamina goes The End of the Trail by James Earle Fraser. No single work of art at the Exposition has attracted more popular applause than this. It has a gripping, manly pathos that makes a direct appeal. The physical vigor of the rider, over-tried but sound, saves it from mere sentiment. An Indian brave, utterly exhausted, his strong endurance worn through by the long, hard ride, storm-spent, bowed in the abandon of helpless exhaustion, upon a horse as weary as he, has come to the end of the trail, beyond which there is no clear path. It is easy to apply the message of this statue to the tragedy of the American Indian's decline upon the continent he once possessed. The sculptor acknowledges as his text these words of Marian Manville Pope: The trail is lost, the path is hid and winds that blow from out the ages sweep me on to that chill borderland where Time's spent sands engulf lost peoples and lost trails.

Historic Types Finial Figures, Tower of Jewels

As repeated alternating figures on the top of corner pedestals on the first stage of the Tower of Jewels, stand The Four Agents of Civilization, the historic influences that have developed our American life. These, the Adventurer, the Soldier, the Priest and the Philosopher, have been presented with vivid simplicity by John Flanagan.

He has given us, first, the Adventurous Explorer, romantic, courageous, he who crossed the uncharted seas and found new worlds; then the formidable conquering Soldier, he who founded settlements and held them with his sword or fought with natives for empire or riches for European monarchs; then the Missionary Priest, inspired with a holy zeal to spread the divine message to strange peoples; and, last, the Philosopher, the Thinker, whose great influence is but now beginning. The treatment of these figures is quiet, restful and architectural in feeling, as becomes their position. They supply the serious note to the gala Tower.

Fountain of Youth Colonnade, Tower of Jewels

Within the colonnades of the Tower are two wall-fountains by American women. The Fountain of Youth in the eastern colonnade is the work of Edith Woodman Burroughs. She has given us the eternally desired fountain in a new aspect, not as the legendary restorative that changes age to adolescence, but as the fount of perpetual youth that keeps inspiring and vivifying the race and every stage of our life.

An exquisite nude girl stands in a beautifully balanced archway rising like a flower from a pedestal on which are seen, like roots, vaguely outlined, the faces of her ancestors. She is Youth, the center of life, for which the world, its dreams and its rewards are made. The side panels show the ships of life laden with the aged and manned by infants, off on the sea of time on the endless quests upon which youth and desire for its fulfillment's keep the world launched. However, the enduring charm of the fountain certainly comes from the little-girlhood of the central figure, the gentle, expectant sweetness of waning childhood and the perfect purity of the emotion it produces.

Fountain of El Dorado Colonnade, Tower of Jewels

Within the West colonnade of the Tower of Jewels is the other fountain desired by all the world - the Fountain of El Dorado. Like the Fountain of Youth it is connected by legend with early Spanish exploration in America. Long ago, the story goes, there lived in Mexico or South America a golden king who scattered treasures along his path. El Dorado and his realm have long been symbols of the elusive gold sought by mankind in all ages and every clime.

In this fountain by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, it is not the mere possession of wealth that is so sought, but those joys of which our mistaken imaginings make gold the symbol. In the central composition here pictured, the Gilded One has vanished through the portals. Impersonal, unresponsive attendants in Aztec garb guard the door from suppliant followers. With subtle symbolism they give no sign as to whether or not they will relent and give entrance. But the fact that branches of trees have grown close across the opening seems to imply that hope is slight.

Frieze Details, Fountain of El Dorado

Two long curving panels supplement the main archway of the Fountain of El Dorado. They represent the striving of humankind for Power and Possession. Some by prowess, some by thought; some gaily, some sorrowfully; some urgent, some patient; some rushing, some lingering - all press onward toward the longed-for goal. Here and there one falls fainting; another halts for love or pleasure or indifference. Some stop to lift or help the fallen, others press by unheeding. The certain sad fatality of the concept is relieved of its pang by the light and fluent beauty of treatment. The idea is perhaps a little grim, but the handling is pleasant and the impression agreeable. The beauty of both the colonnade fountains is enhanced by the lines of the water in the cascade stairway. In the Fountain of El Dorado this effect is increased by a line of balanced jets flowing from dolphin heads in the lower panel.

Nations of the East Group, Arch of the Rising Sun

Across the great Court of the Universe, the Court of Honor of the Exposition, the Nations of the East and West face each other from the summits of their triumphal arches. They express the coming brotherhood of man, the nations brought closer by Canal and Exposition, and the fact that civilization has girdled the earth. Inscriptions characteristic of Eastern and Western wisdom are engraved beneath them. These heroic groups are the result of the successful collaboration of A. Stirling Calder, Frederick G. R. Roth, and Leo Lentelli.

In the Eastern group here pictured, about a richly caparisoned elephant stand the camel drivers, Egypt and Assyria; the equestrians, Arabian and Mongolian; two Negro Servitors; the Bedouin Falconer and the Chinese Llama. The pyramidal composition is massive and the Eastern spirit nobly sustained. On pylons before both arches, Leo Lentelli's Guardian Genii - calm, impressive, winged spirits - guard the universe. The unity of men and nature are denoted by the Rising and Setting Sun fountains, the row of Stars, the Zodiac friezes and the Elements. Of these, "Air and Earth" appear in the foreground of the picture. In the distance is "Music," one of the classic groups contacting the Court with the carnival spirit. All these are described on later pages.

Pegasus Spandrels, East and West Arches

These spandrels, by Frederick G. R. Roth, are interesting artistically, not only for the eager sweep and sense of bigness not usual in the narrow scope of a spandrel, but especially for their warm decorative value to the wall surface and the aspiring way in which they follow the rising line of the archway over which they are placed. The spandrels are made in very vigorous low relief. They express the place of poetry in the Universe. For, in this court that celebrates man's achievements in the East and West, and Nature's gifts to all, the poet on his winged horse appears to inspire the one and interpret the other. The spandrels throughout the Exposition are noteworthy. It is significant of the artistic conscientiousness in detail of those who planned the sculpture that these and other smaller pieces are so uniformly beautiful. Notable among them are August Jaegers' spandrels in the Court of the Four Seasons and Albert Weinert's in the Court of Palms.

The Stars A Detail of the Colonnade

A sense of eternal spaces, the feeling of calm and elemental tranquillity, is given to the Court of the Universe by the surrounding Colonnade of Stars. The quiet stars look, down upon the activities of men. The semi-conventionalized Star figure, light and firm, repeated about the Colonnade is a highly important factor in the architectural beauty of the Court. She stands a-tiptoe on the globe that forms her pedestal; the circle of her arms about the starry head-dress implies the endlessness of space. The pointed headdress is hung with jewels of the kind that decorate the tower. These carry the jubilant idea of the tower around the Court. They twinkle brilliantly where the sun strikes them and are illuminated by thin shafts of searchlight at night. This Star figure by A. Stirling Calder has been reproduced in the insignia of the Exposition on a number of its official engravings and is the central design of the gold badges of the Directors and the silver badges of the Chiefs of Departments.

Earth Detail, One of "The Elements"

The Four Elements, heroic pieces by Robert I. Aitken, are placed at the top of the main stairways leading down into the sunken gardens of the Court of the Universe. In spite of their imaginative themes, these massive works have the same gripping reality that characterizes all the later method of this sculptor. He has treated the elements, especially "Earth" and "Air," in their relation to man. As here pictured, "Earth," the quiet mother, sleeps on her rocks, over which little human beings struggle and toil. The rear view of "Air," the group on the opposite side of the same stairway, may be seen in the foreground of the plate illustrating The Nations of the East. "Air" holds a star in her hair; she has great wings and is attended by floating sea-gulls. Behind her, a man has strapped his arms to her mighty pinions, signifying the effort of the present age to ride the winds. "Fire" and "Water," across the gardens, are shown in vivid action; "Fire" roaring with his salamander, and "Water" blowing a stormy gust across the waves.

The Signs of the Zodiac Frieze on the Corner Pavilions

Low relief, the form that is so difficult and so beautiful and satisfying when perfectly achieved, is at its finest in the sculptured mural panels that crown the corner pavilions of the Court of the Universe and the Forecourt of the Stars. These are the panels of "The Signs of the Zodiac," by Hermon A. MacNeil, who is better known to Exposition visitors by his finial group, "The Adventurous Bowman," on the Column of Progress. The idea of the overhanging, serene heavens, expressed by the Star Colonnade, is extended by these panels. About the central figure of Atlas or Time, his heavenly daughters move, bearing the Zodiacal symbols, to indicate the sweep of the constellations and the onward march of time. This impression of the steady, slow passage of our days is increased by the gentle motion of the figures, so slight as to be felt rather than seen. The frieze has a clean-cut effect almost cameo-like in its precision and the harmony and grace of the whole composition have frequently been found suggestive of the decorations on an Attic urn.

Nations of the West Group, Arch of the Setting Sun