New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-05-10
DEPARTMENT or FINE ARTS.


tire Main Exhibition Building, only few rods 70 the
north. tits planted upon broad terrace. six feet
above Tho general level. tho banks well tnried AMI
bor1eIed with shrubbay, tn which Ire
visitor ascenls by broad and easy steps
in front or by smaller mounts at the sides These
main steps are Ganked at the top by enormous
bronze hQlres OF winged horses held back IA tloit
desire 20 leap the hedge OF The Exhibition Binding
in front of them 10y women IN ample dT3peTJ ZIG
groups being imposing enough, aud giving needed
accent TO TIC very ordinary AM conventional asi'sc'
oi the building Itself. The general design OF tins
building is rifht-angod para'lelogram $50 feet
long aud 90 feet wide relieved by square towers at
each of the Tour corners, and by projecting yoai-
bules and sDs la the ccHterOi each OF tte long sides
The binding IL crowned 10y fouT-Sided dome rising
10 a moe, rate hight at the intersection OF the two
main halls. At tae base Of this d"ne are seated todr
traditional figures OF Arts and Science ard on the
top ia standing figure which may represent any
thing the spectator pleases chat would be likely 10
suit with the purpose of tho building. The Tour
square lowers at the angles OF the structure do no.
rise much above the line OF the walls. and at each
corner they are oTname Ted with eagle, al alike,
making specimens of the national bird, and ali IN
a screaming and defiant attitude
THE ARCHITECTURE
The materials Of which the Memorial Hall is con-
strucod are granite glass, aad iron, and The result
Of the whole is a mouotonous, ineffective building
which, witnout beng actually offensive, is certainly
neither beautiful. interesting, nor original Within
the rooms are well proportional and wei lighted,
and except TIA. the corridor running east aUd west
i too na~rOw, the arrangement of the interior is
mach to be commended. II il not possible to g.
how much body like the American Institute o.
Architects IS to blame for the general want OF taste
in the design of the Exhibition BIidings the plans
are all we'll enough, aud IN the generality OF those
erected by outside parties. Ii may Ice thought that
/ they could have stirred themselves AMI MAZE
an aprea 10 the Commission and to the general pub
/ lie to have had an Architectural COMM 5>Ion az
pointed ny which at any rate fragrant violations ct
| good taste might have been prove tied. But when
one remembers how LITTLE the public cares about the
matter how little the Institute has been able 10 ac-
compIIsh on other occasions, and how little Wisdom
or ri Int professional feeling some of lis prominent
members at least showed lately in the matter of tie
CAPITOL at Albany it is easy to believe that nothing
| cuull reasonably have been hoped for from boNy
| SO divided and little certain of ITSELF
! Our people must suffer from their own ignorance
of the principles OF art and from their Indifference 20
! it, New-York, for example. is spectacle 10 the
world with her State Building, which wonld find a
fitting llace in some mushroom village on Long
Island in Jersey. set Up the show place OF some
Specializing land company, and used until some EEL
low made rich by shoddy or liquor selling should be
found to buy It, for a Summer i!y and musquto haunt
o. a Sunday dance house. No house on the grounds
is so bad as the New-York state House, and we be-
heve VIC have to thank for it A.r. Frank
Leslie aud a Saratoga architect. IL i.
unfortunate too that this building OF
! ours stands next to the three attractive.
well.de,igned wel-built Engl sh houses, put up at
the cost Of the British Government designed bv one
of the best of the i'll architecture, and fur
| nshed throughout. papercd carpetel, curianed, III
! accordance with the style now in vogue in England.
! There is hardly anything which the English have
| done in connection with this Exhibition that does
them more credit or will excite greater interest than
! these houses They will show to vast numbers of
people who long to it, the principles of taste in
building and furnishing that have been much writ
ten about of late, both here and i'll England, put
into practical shape and it will be nothing surpr.S-
/ ing If il make an important revolution III our no.
! tons these subjects.
We have enough clever architects among us To
have got from on" another Of them good design
for the Memorial Hall. There good architects IN
Philadelphia who could have supp. I'd such de-
sign but 10, we must apply to Germans, who, beg
ging the nations pardon, behind all Europe II
their architecture and so mde-bound and dreaTy IN
their devotion to "A stale casSiclsm and socalled
Renaissance that absolutely no hope or hir Is IN
them German architecture to-day is Kaleidoscope,
and sculpture is little better Put na few pilas ers,
cornices frezes pedimentS porticos and domes give
| the tube a turn, and you have new design,
good for any purpose good for purpose in par
ticular The same for statues, little dTapery some
hair in fillets sandal two, and some globes, COM
| passes torches palettes and hammers for embicms,
and YOU can breed and sciences fast they are
| wanted. One turn of the German Kaleidoscope has
! given us the Memorial Hail. and another has made
us the happy parents of the alegorica figures that
surround and surmount the squat four-sided dome.
WITHIN THE WALLS.
The exhibition within the walls of this building
and Of its annex ought to have been the aesthetic
| crown and joy-giver Of the whole display. Here
| after surveying all that industry, ingenuity, and
taste could do for the comfort and well-beng OF man
as an animal, we should have sought the springs of
delight in seeing how the soul reveals herself in
beautiful and solemn ideals clothed in form and
color And this might have been ours to enjoy if
some i'll genius had not whispered delay and hesita-
ton aud doubt into the ear of almost every European
people except the wide-awake English, and so made
them keep their best at home. IL is most disappoint-
ing and unwelcOme to write It, but the truth
must be told, that with the one exception OF
the Englsh the collection Of pictures is the least
satisfactory part of the whole Exhibition And such
as it is so far from thinking it necessary to build an
annex for the accommodation of the supertiuity of
works sent the part of wisdom it seems to would
have been to have weeded and weeded and wecdcd
until enough respectable pictures and statues had
been obtained TO fill the Main Building aud there
to have rested content. As it is, the annex to Me
mortal Hall just represents 50 many more hundreds
of square feet of nediocrty and impotence.
At the last moment Of writing, too, the condition
of the whole Art Departnent-with the exception Of