Studio: international art (23.1901)

The Glasgow Exhibition

interest, and that its generally unattractive and
prosaic appearance is not noticeably mitigated by
the successful experiments of what is acknowledged
to be an enlightened and progressive municipal
government. It is, however, far from so impressing
an unprejudiced visitor, who finds it to be a city of
noble outlines and varied prospects ; but even the
most appreciative stranger could hardly anticipate
that the traditionally scholarly, cold, and severe
aspect of the central and west-central districts
would suddenly blossom so magically into a pic-
turesque combination of gilded dome and towers
and pinnacles such as is to be seen in the Exhi-
bition Buildings in Kelvingrove Park. Occupying
the same site as the 1888 Exhibition, Kelvingrove
lends itself admirably to the purposes for which
it is now used. The flatness of some cities needs
the relief of magnificent distances to achieve the
pictorial effect which here Nature alone has
bestowed. It may be said without fear of contra-
diction that in point of picturesqueness of situation
it would not be possible to select a more charming
enclosure for the purpose of displaying the indus-
tries of the nations than Kelvingrove Park.
Surveying the scene from the elevated terrace in
front of the University, the visitor has in front of
him a combination of natural beauty and artistic
embellishment that at once commands admiration.
The first view of the buildings, from almost any
point of view, is striking and effective, and much
credit is due to the architect, Mr. James Miller,
for recognising the possibilities of the temporary
materials in which he had to work, and for so

skilfully adapting them to his purposes. To the entrance to flint's designed by dykes and

r , , , ., , , tea rooms robertson, architects

great majority 01 those who daily throng the courts
and gardens the graceful beauty of the great hall,

with its long white lines of arcaded wall, and expansion of commercial, industrial, and artistic

splendid peristyle ascending by sweeping curves effort upon which the new century will build its

into the crowning dome, will afford nothing but extending empire.

pleasure and a sense of brightness and gaiety, Considered from a more critical standpoint, the

which is the highest compliment the architect various buildings which compose the Exhibition

and his coadjutors could receive. In contrast may be compared not unfavourably with those

to this temporary home of industry and science, of former Exhibitions elsewhere. The architect

the Fine Art Galleries, the fruit of the last has sought his inspiration chiefly in the rich mine

Exhibition and of further civic and private effort, of Spanish Renaissance architecture, which, with

lift their harmonious lines and towers into the its strongly marked traces of Moorish influence,

broad field of the picture. Over all—over the seems to lend itself admirably to architectural

buildings of a day and those meant for centuries— pageantry in stucco.

there rises, on the further slopes of Gilmorehill, the The most important of the buildings, in point of

University, giving a certain pictorial value to the size, is the Industrial Hall, where the attention is

grounds as a whole. Nothing could be happier arrested by the imposing group of features crowned

than this conjunction of the past with the present, by the gilded dome, with its supporting angle

or the contrast of the course of intellectual pro- towers; here the architectural conception is really

gress, of which the University is the type, with the admirable, and the architect has succeeded in

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