Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-12-13

tContinued From First Page.1
ing of the legislative session in
The murals now ready for public
view are part of Miss Oakley's Capitol
commission, which not only includes
the nine paintings for the Senate
Chamber, but the Supreme Court
Miss Oakley has not yet begun, though
she has roughly planned out her
scheme of treatment and sketched out
the general idea. So far as the Sem
ate Chamber goes, out of the nine
panels needed to decorate the great
green and gold chamber, there are still
four paintings to be carried out, minor
details of the general decorative
scheme, the five which are soon to be
put up being the most important,
since they make up the decoration on
the wall back of the Presidents rost-
rum, where they will make a brave
display, since they are historic and
symbolic pictures of the highest order.
Noble in conception, brilliant in execu-
tion, they are undoubtedly the most
extraordinary mural paintings that
have ever been designed for any pub
lie building in America, not only from
the point of view of their spiritual
intent and meaning. but from that of
the content, the pictorial design and
the working out in colors.
The General Scheme
- In detail the scheme for the Sen
ate Chamber is as follows:
For the entrance wall the artist has
planned two large panels; the first,
No. l, representing The Protest of
the Friends Against Warfare" in the
Colonial period, the famous story of
the lifted latchkey, which gave the
Indians free access to a Quaker home
at night and so oVercame their hos
tility, will figure in this historic
sketch. The second panel, No. 2,
represents THE Protest of the Friends
Against Slavery" in 177S, and will
deal pictorially with the manumission
of slaves in Pennsylvania. Neither of
these panels is yet begun. Facing
them on the rostrum wall are to be
seven superb mural paintings, five of
which are now ready and will make up
the principal decoration of the cham
ber. The unfinished ones are: No. 3,
Washington marching with his troops
through Philadelphia on the way to
ing branches in order to hide their
lack of proper uniforms and bad con-
dition. Number 4, the departure of
the troops from Harrisburg (Camp
Curtin) in 1861, which tells pictorially
of the most famous historical episode
of the war of the Rebellion. Dealing
with war as these do, they, with the
five pictures just finished. are con-
ceived by Miss Oakley as part of a
great scheme of symbolism which is
a true apotheosis of peace or the
unity of the nations through their
common brotherhood and the mutual
relationships as William Penn dream
ed was possible when he sought to
free all Europe from war, or of Sc
curing peace by war;, since he be-
lieved in other ways and methods of
reaching the end he longed for.
Consequently all the paintings in
their decorative scheme lead up to
the great central panel, No. 8, which
spans the arches of the rostrum wall
and is devoted to the idea of the su-
preme manifestation of enlighten-
ment in international unity, the recog-
milton of the unity of the kingdom of
God and the moral and material
world through peace. This panel is
nine feet high and the figure of Unity,
n woman bending over the waters of
life, which are flowing out from the
golden throne, is the one colossal note
in the entire decoration and the point
of reference for the whole scheme.
This symbolic panel is based on this
text. which Eliminates it along the
margin: And He showed me a pure
river of water of life" (Unity) clear
as crystal, proceeding out of the
throne, and on either side of the river
was there the tree of life and the
leaves of the tree were for the heal
ing of all nations" "And