The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition / A Pictorial Survey of the Art of the Panama-Pacific international exposition

by Stella G. S. Perry

Muse Finding the Head of Orpheus
Garden Exhibit, Colonnade

Under the branches of a low tree the poetic group by Edward Berge, "Muse Finding the Head of Orpheus," a white marble group of superior elegance and texture, arrests the passerby. A Muse kneels, drooping in exquisite pathos over the head of Orpheus found in the waves. The sculptor has chosen the tragic side of the Orphean myth. The son of Apollo and the Muse Calliope, whose heaven-taught lyre charmed men and beasts, melted rocks and even opened the gates of Erebus, had failed to win from death his bride, Eurydice, lost to him for the second time. As he wandered disconsolate, the Thracian bacchantes wooed him in vain. Maddened by failure and by their bacchanal revels, they called upon Bacchus to avenge, and hurled a javelin upon him. But the music charmed the weapon, until the wild women drowned it with their cries. Then they dismembered the singer and threw him to the waves; but the very fragments were melodious and reached the Muses, who buried them where the nightingale still sings "Eurydice." So runs the allegory; even drowned by earthly clamors, slain and torn by wanton hands, the song of Poetry continues, the weeping Muses save.

Diana
Garden Exhibit, South Lagoon

In a setting of surpassing appropriateness and beauty, installed high amid the tall shrubbery as if emerging from the edge of one of her own forests, the huntress Diana points the arrow she is about to let fly. This rendering by Haig Patigian, who made the heroic Powers and other decorations on Machinery Hall, is simple, classic, pure, imaginative, poetic in purpose and in effect. He has softened the traditional coldness of the goddess by a warmer humanity without injuring the sense of proud aloofness. The Maiden goddess of the Hunt bears in her hand the crescent bow, its lines here strongly suggestive of those of the young moon, of which it is the symbol and this goddess the deity. Mr. Patigian exhibits in the Colonnade a companion piece, "Apollo, the Sun God," twin brother of Diana. A vivid figure of manly grace, Apollo is presented in the guise of the sun of the morning. He kneels and shoots an arrow upward; the long, pleasing curve of his bow suggests the outline of the sun above the horizon as Apollo releases his first bright shaft of light.

Eurydice
Garden Exhibit, Colonnade

This "Eurydice," by Furio Piccirilli, pictures the nymph as standing against the background of an echoing rock, listening to the distant strains of the magic lyre of her lover, Orpheus. Orpheus had been taught to play by Apollo, his father, and could enchant the animate and inanimate world by his music. So he charmed the nymph, Eurydice; but Hymen, god of marriage, refused to prophesy happiness at their nuptials and soon Eurydice, in escaping from a pursuer, trod upon a snake, was bitten and died. Orpheus' sorrowful music moved all the earth to pity. Even Pluto and the keepers of Erebus relented, allowed the musician to descend into their forbidden realm and lead Eurydice back to life, provided he should not turn backward to gaze upon her until they reached the world of mortals. But the lover could not resist the desire to assure himself of her presence, looked, and lost her forever. Furio Piccirilli, who made this marble, is the sculptor who has graced the Exposition with the four Fountains of the Seasons in the Court of that name. For this "Eurydice" and his other small group, "Mother and Child," he has taken a silver medal.

Wood Nymph
Garden Exhibit, Colonnade

Isadore Konti, from whose hand came also the inspiring, panels at the base of the Column of Progress, described in a preceding page, is the sculptor of this pretty "Hamadryad." The Dryads and Hamadryads lived, according to old legend, within the trunks of trees and perished with their homes. So it was an impious act to destroy a tree without cause. This nymph of the woods has emerged from the tree-trunk home or from some rocky fastness and taken the urn of a naiad, a sister nymph of brook and fountain, to give drink to the gentle, confident fawn that is her charge. The little animal is lapping the stream that flows from the overturned vase. This study in white marble follows tradition and is regarded chiefly for its gentle grace and careful tooling. It is harmoniously composed and has a beautiful surface. Mr. Konti's varying moods are, represented in the Fine Arts collection by a number of works, each revealing a different intention - from the pretty and restful, like this, to the large and stirring.

L'Amour
Garden Exhibit, Colonnade

There are few more complete examples of delicacy of feeling and of refined, caressing perfection of tooling than this exquisite marble group, "L'Amour," by Evelyn Beatrice Longman. The purity of its emotion, the tenderness and fidelity of its poignant pose, are surpassed only by the marvel of surface finish. The surface has been gone over so lovingly, so painstakingly, so repeatedly that the marble has taken on the soft, warm impression of living flesh. And the gentle unstrained modeling has the plastic grace of the human body. Miss Longman, winner, by the way, of a silver medal for exhibits in the Fine Arts, is the maker of the Fountain of Ceres in the Forecourt of Seasons that has been described. She is an earnest and serious artist of abundant talent whose work is treated with ever-increasing respect and admiration. She won the competition for the doors of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, for which there were many distinguished aspirants. She presents Love in the group under discussion as a rarefied and inspiring emotion in which the physical and spiritual commingle and "sense helps soul" as well as "soul helps sense."