The Palace of Fine Arts at Close RangeThe path leading to the northern end of the colonnade attracted us.It brought us to the beautiful little grove of Monterey cypress that McLaren had saved from the old Harbor View restaurant, for so many years one of the most curious and picturesque of the San Francisco resorts, one of the few on the bay-side.Though the architect frankly admired Paul Bartlett's realistic "Wounded Lion," the pieces of sculpture set out on the grass bothered him somewhat.He couldn't find any justification for their being there.He wanted them, as he said, in a setting."I think I can see what the purpose was in putting them here, to provide decoration that would be unobtrusive.But some of these pieces, like Bartlett's, stand out conspicuously and deserve to be treated with more consideration.Besides, there's always danger of weakening a glorious conception like Maybeck's by putting too many things into it, creating an artistic confusion."We began to see how the colonnade in Gerome's painting had worked its influence.It was easy to imagine two chariots tearing along here, between the columns, after the ancient fashion.And those bushes, to the right, rising on the lower wall, between the vases, surely had the character of over-growth.They carried out Maybeck's idea of an abandoned ruin.
The architect pointed to the top of the wall: "The little roof-garden on the edge of the upper wall gives the Egyptian note in the architecture that many people have felt and it is emphasized by the deep red that Guerin has applied, the shade that's often found in Egyptian ruins."Above the main entrance of the palace we saw Lentelli's "Aspiration,"that had been the cause of so much criticism and humorous comment during the first few weeks of the Exposition."Lentelli had a hard time with that figure.It drove him almost to distraction.Perhaps a genius might have solved the problem of making the figure seem to float; but I doubt if it could have been solved by anyone.The foot-rest they finally decided to put under it didn't help the situation much."Directly in front of "Aspiration," on its high pedestal, stood Charles Grafly's monumental statue of "The Pioneer Mother." "I suppose the obvious in sculpture has its place," the architect remarked, "and this group will appeal to popular sentiment.Its chief value lies in its celebrating a type of woman that deserves much more recognition than she has received in the past.Most of the glory of the pioneer days has gone to the men.The women, however, in the background, had to share in the hardships and often did a large part of the work.It's a question in my mind whether this woman quite represents the vigorous type that came over the plains in the prairie schooner.However, just as she is, she is fine, and she has a strong hand that looks as if it had been made for spanking.I wonder why the sculptor gave her that kind of head-covering.
