Palaces and Courts of the Exposition eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 79 pages of information about Palaces and Courts of the Exposition.

Palaces and Courts of the Exposition eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 79 pages of information about Palaces and Courts of the Exposition.

No wonder Pegasus is seen in the spandrels!  Who would not mount Pegasus at such a glorious Exposition?

In these aisles are many remarkable conifers.  Yews from many different countries, junipers of various kinds, pines, firs, spruces, cypresses of countless varieties, many thuyas, beside euonymus, holly, datura, India rubber, aralias, the beautiful nandina domestica, a most lovely foliage massed in the corners of the west side of the Aisle of the Rising Sun.

In March and April these courts receive glorious rich coloring from beds of California poppies and anemones, bordered with creeping juniper.

The gay spring flowers will be followed by summer annuals, and later by our autumn blossoms,

The Court of the Universe

This court, which strongly resembles the great area in front of St. Peter’s, Rome, with its sweep of colonnade to right and left, was designed by the New York firm of McKim, Meade and White.

The architecture is Italian Renaissance and gives you the beautiful spirit of the old-time work.  It is a wonderful court in architecture, ornamentation, color, arrangement, and above all in meaning.

In order to get the full joy of it you must pursue a regular plan and you cannot hurry.  Don’t try to do it all in one day.  First walk thru the court to the Triumphal Arch on the right.  Pass thru it and read the quotation on the right at the top of the arch.

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The Cosmical Side of the Court of the Universe

“The universe — an infinite sphere.  Its center everywhere, its circumference, nowhere.”  This comes from Pascal, from his Pensées.

This splendid quotation gives you the infinite side of your subject.

Now pass back to the Court of the Universe and you will see ninety times repeated against the sky, A. Stirling Calder’s very decorative “Jeweled Star.”  This will suggest the myriad of suns in our great universe (since stars are suns).

The nearest star to us, our sun ("The Rising Sun,” by A. A. Weinmann of New York) then attracts the attention.

He is seen just before daybreak.

This fresh, strong young sun is just bout to start on his journey.  Dawn is soon to break upon the world and with muscles stretched, the heavenly joy of the first move expressed upon his face, the wind blowing thru his hair, the vigor of young life pulsating thru his body, he will start the chest forward and move those outstretched wings.

Walk toward him and you will see him begin his journey thru space.

Now read the quotation an the Triumphal Arch of the Rising Sun: 

“The moon sinks yonder in the west
While in the east the glorious sun
Behind the herald dawn appears
Thus rise and set in constant change those shining orbs
And regulate the very life of this our world.”

- By Kalidasa (the Shakespeare of India).

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Palaces and Courts of the Exposition from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.