The architect was impressed by the boldness of the designs and to the spirit that had been put into them."It's very seldom in the history of art that sculptors have had a chance to do decorative work on so big a scale.It must have been a hard job, getting the figures up there in pieces and putting them together.Some of the workers came near being blown off.Some of them lost their nerve and quit.I wonder, by the way, if that angel on top of the prairie wagon would be there if Saint Gaudens hadn't put an angel in his Sherman statue, and if he hadn't made an angel float over the negro soldiers in his Robert Gould Shaw monument in Boston.He liked that kind of symbolism.He must have got it from the mediaeval sculptors who worked under the inspiration of the Catholic Church."Varying notes we found around the American group.Cleopatra's needle, used for ornamentation, suggested Egypt and the Nile.That crenellated parapet once belonged to military architecture: between those pieces that stood up, the merlons, in the embrasure, the Greek and Roman archers shot their arrows at the enemy and darted back behind the merlons for protection.In spite of its being purely ornamental it told its story just the same, and it expressed the spirit that still persisted in mankind.Nowadays it was even used on churches.But religion and war had always been associated.Besides, in an International Exposition it was to be expected that the art should be international.How many people, when they looked at Cleopatra's needle, knew how closely it was related to the newspapers and historical records of today? The Egyptians used to write on these monuments news and opinions of public affairs.The Romans had a similar custom in connection with their columns.On the column of Trajan they not only wrote of their victories, but they pictured victorious scenes in stone.
The little sprite that ran along the upper edge of the court in a row, the star-figure, impressed me as making an unfortunate contrast with the stern angel, repeated in front of each of the two arches.My criticism brought out the reply that it was beautiful in itself and had its place up there."These accidental effects of association are sometimes good and sometimes they're not.Here I can't see that they make a jarring effect.In the first place, a Court of the Universe ought to express something of the incongruity in our life.Ideally, of course, it isn't good in art to represent a figure in a position that it's hard to maintain without discomfort.But here the outlines are purely decorative and don't suggest strain.In my judgment that figure is one of the greatest ornaments in the court.It gives just the right note."The two fountains in the center of the sunken garden were gaily throwing their spray into the air.The boldness of the Tritons at the base represented a very different kind of handling from the delicacy of the figure at the top of each, the Evening Sun and the Rising Sun, both executed with poetic feeling.In the Rising Sun, Weinmann had succeeded in putting into the figure of the youth life, motion and joy.Looking at that figure, just ready to spread its wings, one felt as if it were really about to sweep into the air.Though the Evening Sun might be less dramatic, it was just as fine."It isn't often that you see sculpture of such imaginative quality," said the architect.
