New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-05-16

semblc A certain lightness, a certain festal ee
gance is altogether the note expressed you
draw near. But when you pass under the Tower
Of Jewels to the Court of the Universe II Is to
feel the pressure of the heroic style, the style of
ancient Rome Strictly speaking, McKim, Mead
White may be said TO have gone TO the Renais-
sance for their cue; it is Berninis colonnade be
fore St. Peters that they have adapted to their
purpose But who, standing within the curve Of
that grandiose procession Of columns, has ever
paused to distinguish between the Rome of the
empire and the Rome of the papacy? 1t is in the
same dateless mood that apprehends this
court.
One is very shrewdly introduced into its ma
jestic atmosphere. The payilions which mark the
wide entrance are linked TO the Tower of Jewels
by simple Renaissance walls, Just in Rome the
Christian era and the classical past are linked to-
gether And these scrupulously plain walls mean
a moment of repose of quetude. Then as they
are left behind one energies upon spendor, upon
Rome at its highest pitch of pride and power
The lofty Cornthsn pillars Of the colonnade
spread out on either side and 90 marching down
TO the bay They form first a circle which is in
terrupted at the centre by triumphal arches and
then they extend in a straight line 20 the outer
wall, where the Column of Progress is uplifted
Ike note of climax in some weighty musical
sequence The rhythmic beauty OF the thing is
thrilling Here, If anywhere In the fair, the
Imagination is touched by sense Of true monu-
mental grandeur. And it is grandeur made curl
ously human and friendly.
CONSUMMATE SCHOLt RSHIP OR ROMANTIC
IMAGINATION?-DESCRIP FALTERs.
A few steps lead down into a great amphithea-
ire. and there, surrounded by ordered fields OF
flowers, rhododendrons at their sumptuous best,
vertically imperial fountains All out the scene.
The basins on the ground so large that there
is plenty Of room In them for heroic sculpture
The upper basins smaller, OF course. but they
are still of a size 70 make adequate bases for the
columns on which Mr.. Weinman's Rising Sun"
and Setting Sun" are poised. Everything is In
scale Everything is exactly right For the
sculptors have elaborated with the architects
as discreetly as has Mr. McLaren, the landscape
gardener and. have pointed out in a previous
letter. Mr.. Guerin has used just enough color in
accentng the creamy trsvertine just enough,
never too much. | do not know which is the
better Characterization to apply 10 this court, to
say that 1t is a work of consummste scholarship
or that il is the glowing product OF romantic
Imagination. Both descriptions fl.
The Court Of the Universe sets the key for
most Of the other courts. These echo its antique
grandeur But as they echo IL they speak more
Of the Renaissance than Of remoter past. Mr.
Bacons Court Of the Four Seasons well illustrates
the point. lie abandons Cornthian luxuriance
for the Ionic order, the capitals of which, must
observe in passing, are very effectively enrehed
with corncob decoration. 1t Is free toucn'
but this is. as mater Of fact, the most purely
classical Of all the courts, and. appropriately the
serenest in its beauty. The pomp which rightly
belongs to the Court of the Universe. the focal
point in the pageant, would be out Of place In