DOI Heft:
No. 89 (July, 1904)
DOI Artikel:Caffin, Charles H.: The artistic ensemble of the world's fair
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26962#0115
The Artistic Ensemble of the World's Fair
ONE OF THE JAPANESE BUILDINGS AND PART OF THE GARDENS OF THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT EXHIBIT
more than a few of them will repay more detailed
study. Again the uniformity to which I have alluded
is attuned to the architecture at the back of them.
They have been designed with an appropriate sense
of the architectonic requirements, and, as a result,
the Arcade and its embellishments are one of the
handsomest portions of the whole scheme.
Among the more elaborately decorative sculpture
particular mention should be made of the quadriga
and accompanying groups upon the education Pal-
ace, which are the joint work of Charles Lopez and
F. G. R. Roth. In the central portion they have
attained a very happy poise between vivacity and
repose, and given the whole mass a conspicuous
unity. Another young sculptor who has won dis-
tinction is H. A. McNeil, whose Fountain of Liberty,
whence flows the Central Cascade, presents a
design that is full of imagination and has a truly
decorative sweep of line and luxuriance of mass.
Also, in two attendant groups, he has demonstrated
an unexpected skill in the treatment in one case of
a buffalo and in the other of a bull. The con-
struction, character, and action of the great beasts
is admirably conveyed. Indeed, they are much
better than the figures which accompany them, that
of the woman especially lacking just those qualities
which are conspicuous in the bull which she leads.
The figures by Isidore Konti, which surmount the
two side fountains, have been brilliantly gilded, which
possibly accentuates the unintelligibility of their
contours, when viewed from a little distance. Any-
how, their composition seems to be rather of a
fly-away kind, and for my own part I prefer the
neighboring groups by the same sculptor, which are
charming in their graceful abandon. And as still
another example of particularly successful decora-
tion, we must mention Philip Marting’s group of
Apollo and Mieses, upon Festival Hall, concluding
this summary of the sculpture with an allusion to
some single figures: the Pastoral by Carl Heber,
Sculpture by Daniel C. French, Painting by Louis
Saint-Gaudens, and Charles Grafly’s Truth. Digni-
fied and gracious, Grafly’s conception of Truth is
happily original. As a sculptural mass it is remarka-
bly impressive, while the mystery and aloofness that
brood over the figure are in a high degree inspiring
cccix
ONE OF THE JAPANESE BUILDINGS AND PART OF THE GARDENS OF THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT EXHIBIT
more than a few of them will repay more detailed
study. Again the uniformity to which I have alluded
is attuned to the architecture at the back of them.
They have been designed with an appropriate sense
of the architectonic requirements, and, as a result,
the Arcade and its embellishments are one of the
handsomest portions of the whole scheme.
Among the more elaborately decorative sculpture
particular mention should be made of the quadriga
and accompanying groups upon the education Pal-
ace, which are the joint work of Charles Lopez and
F. G. R. Roth. In the central portion they have
attained a very happy poise between vivacity and
repose, and given the whole mass a conspicuous
unity. Another young sculptor who has won dis-
tinction is H. A. McNeil, whose Fountain of Liberty,
whence flows the Central Cascade, presents a
design that is full of imagination and has a truly
decorative sweep of line and luxuriance of mass.
Also, in two attendant groups, he has demonstrated
an unexpected skill in the treatment in one case of
a buffalo and in the other of a bull. The con-
struction, character, and action of the great beasts
is admirably conveyed. Indeed, they are much
better than the figures which accompany them, that
of the woman especially lacking just those qualities
which are conspicuous in the bull which she leads.
The figures by Isidore Konti, which surmount the
two side fountains, have been brilliantly gilded, which
possibly accentuates the unintelligibility of their
contours, when viewed from a little distance. Any-
how, their composition seems to be rather of a
fly-away kind, and for my own part I prefer the
neighboring groups by the same sculptor, which are
charming in their graceful abandon. And as still
another example of particularly successful decora-
tion, we must mention Philip Marting’s group of
Apollo and Mieses, upon Festival Hall, concluding
this summary of the sculpture with an allusion to
some single figures: the Pastoral by Carl Heber,
Sculpture by Daniel C. French, Painting by Louis
Saint-Gaudens, and Charles Grafly’s Truth. Digni-
fied and gracious, Grafly’s conception of Truth is
happily original. As a sculptural mass it is remarka-
bly impressive, while the mystery and aloofness that
brood over the figure are in a high degree inspiring
cccix