Chapter III: Part 3

The central point of the picture is the altar on which is seen the sacred fire. The guardian of this altar holds the torch. She has three attendants, one holding a flask of oil, one pouring oil upon the altar and ready to apply the torch should the flame grow dim, a third one carefully watching the flame. An earthly messenger, holding back his rearing steeds, leans from his chariot to receive the torch of inspiration. A winged attendant checks for an instant the flight of these steeds. In the left corner a woman holds a crystal ball in which the future of art is revealed.

2nd Panel - The Birth of Oriental Art.

The forces of earth try to wrest inspiration from the powers of the air. This is shown in an ancient Ming legend.

We see a Chinese warrior, mounted on a writhing dragon, combating an eagle. Japan is seen under the great umbrella. Two more Oriental figures are seen.

3rd Panel - Ideals in Art.

Greek ideal in the classic nude is seen.

Religion - Madonna and Child.

Heroism - Joan of Arc.

Youth and Material Beauty - Young woman on the left.

Absolute nature without ideal or inspiration - peacock.

Mystic figure in background holds cruse of oil to pour onto the sacred flame.

A winged figure floats above with laurels for the victorious living.

A shadowy figure in foreground holds the palm for the dead.

Panel 4 - Inspiration in All Art -

Music, Painting, Architecture, Poetry, Sculpture.

The torch that kindles the arts is again seen.

The veil of darkness is drawn back, revealing the arts.

There are also four panels showing the four golds of California -

Gold, Wheat, Poppies, Oranges.

"The whole scheme is to show the conception and birth of art, its translation to earth, its progress and acceptance by man."

Below these murals, on the octagonal drum, is The Priestess of Culture, by Herbert Adams, eight times repeated.

This outline has been taken from the official report.

The dome of the Rotunda is burnt orange, with the guilloche below it worked out in turquoise green. Notice the great flower receptacles filled with the reddish cryptomeria of Japan.

In front of the Rotunda is Ralph Stackpole's Kneeling Figure. She is a devotee to art, beauty, truth, and kneels at the altar.

Among the trees along the pergola are many statues in bronze and marble.

Don't fail to see Janet Scudder's bewitching fountain figures as you walk past the Pergola.

At the south, near the Pool, among the trees, sits St. Gauden's fine "Lincoln."

Opposite is J. Q. A. Ward's statute of "Henry Ward Beecher."

Around the corner, "The Bisons," by Proctor.

Follow along by the Pool and you meet "The Scout," by Cyrus Dallin.

No words can describe the great poetic beauty of this Fine Arts Palace. It seems to be the pivotal part of the Exposition, the goal of all pilgrimages, the altar on which you place your ideals. It has so many moods that one must see it in all seasons, during all times of the day, and especially under the illuminations.

The figure of "Aspiration," by Leo Lentelli, is suspended - as is all aspiration - over the main entrance of the Fine Arts Palace.

Walk over to Administration Avenue so that you can look across the Pool at the panels.

They are by Bruno Zimm of New York.

They represent the Arts and a long procession of devotees.

In the center of one panel, called "The Unattainable in Art," one sees Art represented. On either side is the battle between the idealists, the materialists and the artists.

Many idealists have fallen, but the centaurs, the materialists, seem to be held back by the artists who are striving to reach Art herself.

We are all striving to reach the so-called unattainable, but it means the battle with materialism before we can do it. Yonder stand beauty, health, truth - the flowers of the spirit - but we must pass the centaur to make that figure of Truth attainable.

Then comes the Apollo Panel, and Apollo, the leader of the arts, in his chariot, seems to be in a long procession preceded and followed by devotees of the fine arts.

Next comes the Pegasus Panel, indicating inspiration in the arts. Ahead, marches Music with his lyre, who, like a sort of Orpheus, is stilling even the beasts.

The figures between the panels represent those who stand ready to do battle for the arts.

Ulric H. Ellerhusen has done the flower boxes, with women at the corners. Vines were to have fallen over the figures from the boxes, allowing only a shoulder, a head, or a long line of the drapery to appear, but the plans had to be changed, hence the figure now in full evidence. The women are looking into the flower-laden boxes.

As you stand by the Pool, notice the shrubs and flowers near by.

Near the columns are Monterey cypresses. Grey-green artemisia is between the columns. Ten thousand periwinkles are on the banks. Five thousand Spanish iris. Many Japanese iris. California incense shrub. Yellow primroses. One thousand white callas. One thousand yellow callas. One thousand California violets. The shiny-leaved coprosma from Chili. Blue-flowered buddleia. Groups of pittosporum. Pampas grass from Brazil. Hundreds of daffodils (in March). The weeping willows.

A great group on the north of erica, epacris, and cryptomeria.

Across from the erica is the red-berried cotoneaster horizontalis.

Near the columns on the north side by the Pool grows the purple agapanthus.

The Catalina cherry is massed against the building on the north.

The pink-flowered escallonia is found under the columns near the Pool. The orange-berried pyracantha cretaegus is seen in all its glory on the north.

Heliotrope makes the air one of sweet perfume. Polygala, with pea-like blossom, is seen near the base of the columns.

In the Pool have been put five hundred papyrus plants and five hundred Japanese water lilies.

These are a few of the many wonderful blooms seen here.

The vistas and reflections are ever new and beautiful from every turn of the Pool.

Palace of Horticulture

Architects - Bakewell and Brown of San Francisco.

Architecture - Byzantine in the arrangement of the domes (the mosque of Ahmed I of Constantinople being the inspiration) and in the use of tall finials suggesting minarets, but quite French in its ornamentation.

The building is one of great beauty and is considered one of the finest exhibit palaces ever erected at any exposition.

The ornamentation below the dome is by Boutier.

The Caryatids of the Caryatid Porch are by John Bateman of New York.

The great opulence of the harvests of California is brought to mind by the lavish abundance of the ornamentation on this building.

The combination of the smoked-ivory color of the travertine and the lattice green of the decorations produces a more lovely effect.

The basket atop is over thirty-three feet in diameter.

The dome is 152 feet in diameter. St. Peter's dome is 137 feet; the Pantheon dome is 142 feet.

Under the dome will be a constant display of hothouse plants. At the opening of the Exposition were seen cinerarias and cyclamen of glorious hue.

A wonderful display of orchids is seen in another portion of this great building.

Those interested in orange packing will have a chance to see the different stages of the packing as shown from the arrival of the fruit at the packinghouse to the nailing of the cover on the box.

A model olive-oil press is in working order and will afford great interest.

Great steel framework will enable the vast amount of glass of the dome to withstand the wind pressure.

The dome will be illuminated three times a week.

It will at times look like a great pearl or a fiery opal.

Luther Burbank, the wizard of horticulture, and Carl Purdy, of bulb and wild flower fame, will have headquarters at this palace during the entire Exposition, ready to answer and help those who apply to them.

Sixty-five acres of land are to be devoted to horticultural interests.

The Netherlands have fifty-three thousand square feet in a wonderful display of bulbs and other plants.

Horticultural Interests

All the areas on the Exposition site were composed of drifting sands or sands that had been pumped in from the bay, upon which no ornamental plant could grow.

It was necessary to bring down from the Sacramento Valley rich soil (fifty thousand cubic yards), and spread sixteen thousand cubic yards of fertilizer over that, in order to maintain lawns, trees and shrubs.

An immense number of trees, ranging from thirty to sixty feet in height, were moved from Golden Gate Park and the Presidio of San Francisco. It is the largest number of evergreen trees ever moved in connection with any landscape work.

Many plantings will be made thruout the Exposition. It will require the moving of four hundred thousand plants each time a change is made.

Work on the eucalyptus trees was started two years ago, when the plants were six inches high, in flats.

These little trees were transferred into other flats and placed on hot beds. After six weeks of this treatment they were transferred to 12-inch boxes. They remained there for a period of eight months and then were put into 18-inch boxes and made a vigorous growth. They are now 25 feet in height.

In boxing large specimen trees the following method was adopted: The trees were side-boxed, and, after the roots were cut, three inches of space was allowed between the ball and the sides of the box, and this three-inch space was secured with good surface soil so as to start side-root action.

The plants were mulched and watered for a period of from four to six months, when the bottom of the box was put on. This method has been most successful in transplanting palms and trees in general.

(These facts were kindly given by Mr. Donald McLaren of the Department of Landscape Gardening, San Francisco.)

The South Gardens

Throughout the Exposition these garden beds are to show a succession of blooms. At the opening of the Exposition five thousand daffodils were in bloom over two hundred thousand yellow pansies.

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The South Gardens, besides having two great pools, at the end of which are the Mermaid Fountains by Arthur Putnam of San Francisco, have a most decorative fountain called the Fountain of Energy.

In the pool below are seen great sea animals, representing:

1. The Atlantic Ocean, with coral in hair and seahorses in her hand, riding on the back of an helmeted fish, suggestive of armored cruisers, etc.

2. The North Atlantic, an Esquimaux riding the walrus, ready to spear the enemy.

3. The South Atlantic, a negro riding on the back of a sea-elephant playing with an octopus.

4. The Pacific Ocean on the back of a great creature unknown on land or sea.

In the pool, on the dolphins' backs, ride most charming sea maidens.

Around the base of the earth are grouped sea spirits.

The earth shows on one side a great bull representing the Western Hemisphere, a great lioness denoting the Eastern.

One sees the swirling of the waters around the figure of Panama.

Surmounting the globe, standing in his stirrups, rides Energy, the force that has overcome the play of the waters and has put thru the Panama Canal. Energy is strongly suggested by this stalwart male, who rides on, having surmounted all difficulties. This is the great power that is responsible for the completion of the Panama Canal, and Fame and Victory blow bugles long and loud from his shoulders.

The idea of energy is further carried out by the splendid play of the waters from the fountain itself, tremendous force being evident.

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At the west end of South Gardens, opposite the Band Concourse, are most interesting groups of trees, shrubs and flowers. The members of different floral families have taken the opportunity of meeting and establishing themselves in the same neighborhood, and the result is delightful for the lover of flowers. Now is the time to study differences and similarities in the plant world - and our opportunities are appreciated.

Notice the splendid groups of trees and shrubs on either side of Horticultural Palace.

Monterey pines, Monterey cypresses, Lawson cypresses, acacias, laurustinus, veronicas and dahlias are grouped so as to make a most remarkable effect in form and color.

The Dracaena Canariensis or Canary palm, as we are in the habit of calling it, and the Washingtonia robusta, or California fan palm, are seen in alternate arrangement, double rows on either side the Avenue of Palms.

On the south side of the Exposition grounds is a wall, twenty feet high, of living green. It is made of mesembryanthemum spectabilis put in boxes, six feet by two by two and a half inches, filled with earth, over which is put a wire-mesh screen. This is the first time this work has been tried and it has proved to be a thorough success.

Festival Hall

Architect - Robt. Farquhar of Los Angeles, California, widely known for his fine domestic architecture.

On the south side of the Avenue of Palms, opposite the Court of Flowers, stands the building in which the majority of the musical festivals of the Exposition are to be held.

The main hall will hold three thousand people.

There are about five hundred conventions to meet here during the time the Exposition is open.

The organ, of marvelous tone and sweetness, is one of the finest in the world.

Edwin H. Lamare of London will give one hundred performances, each recital beginning at 12 M. He starts his musicals the first of June.

The building is French in style, having been inspired by the Beaux Arts Theatre, Paris.

It has a large dome, the cupola of which is lighted by projectors beneath the floor of the building.

Sherry Fry of Iowa has done the sculpture, all of it being suggestive of festivity.

Bacchus, with his grapes and wine skin, reclines on one side, while "The Reclining Woman" listens from her position.

On the west are two Floras with their festoons of flowers.

Little Pan sits with his panpipes on an Ionic capital over which is thrown a fawn skin. He has just stopped playing to watch the lizard that creeps at his side.

The Torch Bearer, a most graceful figure, is poised on each corner dome.

A border of pinkish-lavender hydrangeas, four feet in diameter, with a fringe of lavender and pink baby primroses, adds much to the beauty of this spot.

Pinkish-lavender erica, or heath, borders the steps leading from Festival Hall to the Avenue of Palms.

Above the western entrance one see the old Greek drinking horn, the rhyton, suggestive of festivity.

The Color Scheme

Jules Guerin, probably the greatest man in his particular line in the world, has had complete charge of the Exposition coloring.

He has used only five colors, but of course these colors are not all the same tone.

All walls are pastel pink or a sunset shade, as seen in the Court of the Ages. All niches are the same shade.

All ceilings and shells are ultramarine blue, with two exceptions. The Court of the Ages is a pastel blue, and that of the Court of Palms is fawn-color.

The domes of the Fine Arts Palace, and the Court of the Universe, are burnt orange, or, as one writer has expressed it, "sea-weed washed with brine."

The other domes are an oriental green, approaching copper-green.

The capitals when colored are burnt orange, with either an ultramarine-blue or an Indian-red ground. Columnettes and a few decorative bands are of turquoise-green.

There is a unity, a balance, a color beauty all unto itself. You see it in the architecture, sculpture, and painting, in the arrangement of the decorations, in the courts. Then over it all hangs the spirit of romance such as surrounds the days of old Castile.

A mediaeval beauty and splendor bring longings for the pageants that would add a world of interest.

There is a Graeco-Roman appeal in the long colonnades, the porticoes, the fountains, the courts.

The Orient is strongly marked by the domes, the minaret suggestions, the elephants, and minor details.

It is an Arabian-Nights-Tale - not a thousand and one nights, but two hundred and eighty-eight.

Siena marble is used mainly at entrances and for pedestals. The travertine is pinkish, grey and cream. Doorways in shadow are of lattice green. Flag-poles are colored Spanish red. Lighting standards are green, ochre, or eucalyptus blue. Banners are ochre and cadmium.

The world has never seen such an Occidental-Oriental harmony as in this Exposition.

The traditions of the olden days are so strongly worked into these palaces and courts that one feels more than he can tell when wandering in this world of beauty; and we the laymen owe a debt of gratitude to the architects, sculptors, painters, horticulturists, financiers, engineers and the workmen who have given us this dream city of 1915.

Index

Abundance Acroterium Adams, Herbert Adventurer Adventurous Bowman Agriculture Air Aitken, Robert American Pioneer Angel of Peace Apollo Panel Aquatic Maids Arch of Rising Sun Arch of Setting Sun Armoured Horseman Art Crowned by Time Arts Aspiration Atlas Autumn Bacchus Bacon, Henry Bakewell and Brown Bancroft, Milton Bateman, John Beach, Chester Beauty and the Beast Beecher, Henry Ward Bisons Borglum, Solon Brangwyn, Frank Bucrania Burden Bearers Burroughs, Edith Woodman Calder, A. Stirling Canephori Caryatids Ceres Cortez Crusader Cummings Dallin, Cyrus Edwin Dawn of Life Day Triumphant Deneville, Paul Descending Night Dodge, Frank de Leftwich Domes Dome of Philosophy Dome of Plenty Du Mond, Frank Vincent Eagles Earth Education Electricity Ellerhusen, Ulric H. Elwell, Frank Edwin Emerald Pool End of the Trail Fairy Farquhar, Robert Faville Feast of the Sacrifice Festivity, Fire Flanagan, John Fountain of El Dorado Fountain of Energy Fountain of Psychology of Life Fountain of Youth Four Golds of California Fraser, James Earle French, Daniel Cheater Fruits and Flowers Fruition Fry, Sherry Genii of Machinery Genius of Creation Gentle Powers of the Night Gerlach, Gustave Gruppe, Karl Guerin, Jules Harley, Charles Harvest Hassam, Childe Hastings, Thomas Helios Hermes Holloway, Chas. Hospice of Santa Cruz, Toledo Humphries, Charles A. Imagination Invention Jaegers, Albert Jaegers, August Joy of Living Kelham, George Kneeling Figure Konti, Isadore Laessle, Albert Lentelli, Leo Lesson of Life Lincoln, Abraham Lions Listening to the Sound of the Ages Longman, Evelyn McKim, Meade and White McLaren, John MacNeil, Hermon A. Man Receiving Instruction in Nature's Law (Mural) Manship, Paul Matthews, Arthur Maybeck, Bernard R. Men from Atlantic Mermaid Fountain Miner Mullgardt, Louis Christian Music Nahl, Perham Nations That Have Crossed the Atlantic (Mural) Nature Natural Selection Newman, Allen Niehaus, Charles Old World Handing Burden to New World Oriental Flower Girl Pan Panama Canal (Murals) Patigian, Haig Pegasus Pegasus Panel Peters Philosopher Piccirilli, Furio Pirate Pizarro Pool of Reflections Power of Industry Priest Priestess of Culture Priestess of Religion Primitive Man Proctor, P. Providence Pursuit of Pleasure Putnam, Arthur Rain Reclining Woman Reid, Robert Richardson, Symmes Rise of Civilization Rising Sun Roth, Frederick Rumsey, Charles Saint Gaudens, Augustus Scout, The Scudder, Janet Seed Time Setting Sun Simmons, Edward Spanish Cavalier Spring Stackpole, Ralph Star, Jeweled Stea, Cesare Steam Power Summer Sunshine Survival of the Fittest Thought Tonetti Torch Bearer Triumph of the Fields Unattainable In Art Varied Industries Victorious Spirit Walters, Edgar Ward, J. Q. A. Ward and Blohme Warrior Water Weinert, Albert Weinmann, A. A. Whitney, Gertrude V. Winter, Workman Young, Mahonri Zimm, Bruno Zodiac, Signs of