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.