The great dome of the rotunda which crowns so many of the vistas, is stained a velvety burnt orange, with a turquoise blue-green border. Beneath, are eight panels in low relief by Bruno L. Zimm, symbolizing Greek culture and its desire for poetic and artistic expression, conceived in a deeply classic vein and executed with spirit and grace. Below the panels is an attic of pale-green marble.
Flanking each pier of the rotunda are two Corinthian columns in Sienna marble, within the arches are corresponding Corinthian pilasters, and within the dome against each pier is another massive Corinthian column in marble, each one crowned with the serene and noble "Priestess of Culture" by Herbert Adams of New York.
Palace of Fine Arts
The Peristyle Walk by Night
Of all the wonderful night effects of the Exposition grounds none are so full of haunting beauty as the vistas afforded by the Palace of Fine Arts and its surroundings. By the indirect system of illumination, an effect as of strong moonlight is produced and from concealed sources, under cornices or behind columns, a soft reflected radiance pervades peristyle and rotunda. The trees, shrubs and columns cast long, intense shadows. Through the columns may be seen the long line of the Roman wall across the laguna, its great, half-domes suffused with a mellow, golden light and in the everchanging waters between, it gleams again.
From the other side of the laguna, the rotunda and the long crescent of the colonnade are seen reflected as in a mirror, and when flooded with the white radiance of the searchlights, their majestic beauty is indescribable.
Palace of Fine Arts
A Fountain in the Laguna
Beautiful as the Palace of Fine Arts is from any viewpoint, its simplicity and noble strength are at their best when seen with a foreground of trees and water. The landscape, in its simple naturalness, is in feeling an intimate part of the building itself and so perfectly do they blend that they seem to have grown together through quiet, serene centuries.
Between the columns and along the wall of the building are blooming plants and shrubs, groups of Monterey cypress and eucalyptus trees. The shores of the laguna are banked with shrubs, loosely massed, and groups of evergreens and weeping willows bend over the lake. Outlining its irregular border, broken by small promontories and inlets, thousands of blooming plants creep down to the water's edge and venture out into its placid depths—periwinkles, primroses, daffodils, heliotrope, pampas grass, white and yellow callas, Spanish and Japanese iris and myriads of others whose names and gay, nodding blossoms are more or less familiar. Fountains play in the edge of the lake, the charming spirited group here illustrated being "Wind and Spray" by Anna Coleman Ladd.
Palace of Fine Arts
A Picturesque Garden Fountain
The graceful garden fountain shown is the work of Anna Coleman Ladd. It is located toward the north end of the building near the entrance to the peristyle. Of the general effect of the Palace of Fine Arts and of its deeper meaning, the architect, Bernard R. Maybeck, says: