Evening star., 1939-05-14
Mellon Art Gallery
Interior Plans Are
Announced
Simplicity to Aeeentuote
Marble Structures
Grandeur
By JAMES WALDO FAWCETT.

BY JAMES WALDO FAWCETT.
Further details of construction
plans for the new National CMellon)
Gallery of Art, now being built on
Constitution avenue between Fourth
and Seventh streets. were released
by the A. w. Mellon educational
and charitable trust for publication
today,
Simplicity of interior design, it
was explained, has been decided on
to accentuate the grandeur of the
huge marble structure. The princi-
pal feature will be an imposing
rotunda beneath dome supported
by "a ionic columns of brecciated
Verte Imperial marble, giving a
multicolored jeweled effect.
A soft-tinted marble and stone
motif has been adopted for the in
terror walls. There will be expan-
sive marble stairways leading up
from the ground floor on either side
Of the entrance lobby, marble floors,
stone walls and arcades, while in
each end of the two wings of the
main gallery floor a garden court,
with plants and Shrubbery growing
around open pools, will provide
'restful interludes in tours through
the building" Two central corri-
dors will link the courts with the
rotunda the whole length being 600
feet.
Exhibition Rooms.
Opening off the corridors, as
planned, are the exhibition rooms
for paintings and small pieces OF
sculpture. These rooms will con-
tain the masterpieces of art COL
lected by Mr.. Mellon and such &C
QUESTIONS as may come to the gal
lery in the future from other COL
lectors.
The trustees. statement said in
part: THE building, said to be the
largest marble structure in the
world, is being erected on the Mall,
where Pennsylvania avenue and
Constitution avenue intersect. The
Mall, a great parkway designed by
L Enfant, famous French engineer
of Revolutionary War days, as a
feature of the original city plan for
Washington, is on an axis between
the Capitol, the Washington Monu-
ment and the Lincoln Memorial.
Thus the National Gallery of Art
will offer a dominant theme for
the character of buildings which in
time are expected to make it one
of the most beautiful thoroughfares
on earth. The main entrance of
the structure will be on the Mall
side, approached through a garden
with two large stone fountains and
up a fight of steps to the portico
containing 20 rose-colored Tennes-
see marble columns, feet in di-
ameter and 48 feet high.
Door Weighs Several Tons.
Entrance to the main gallery
floor will be from this portico
through an ornamental bronze door
weighing several tons, 80 feet high
and Is feet wide, which can be
opened and closed by remote control
IN case of emergency. Immediately
in the foreground of the main en-
trance will be the central rotunda,
100 feet high, with coffered dome
ceiling and an oculus, through which
light will stream down upon a marble
fountain surmounted by the famous
John Of Bologna bronze figure of
Mercury, acquired by Mr.. Mellon
from the Stroganoff collection in
Rome
Blending with the dark green
columns and the gray-gold caps and
bases of Istrian Nuage marble, the
floors of the rotunda, as we'll as those
of the gallery corridors, will be of
gray-black velvet-toned marble with
a mosaic border. Specifications for
the walls of fsthe rotunda and the
central galleries call for soft toned
Alabama stone"
The East and West galleries, public
corridors of large size, open on
smaller galleries and terminate in
the two garden courts. Each court
Is 76 feet wide and LOG feet long,
and each is fanked by 16 monolithic
Indiana stone columns, 31a feet in
diameter and 26 feet high. The
garden floors will be of Tennessee
and Missouri marble, the walls of
Indiana stone. Over each court
arched skylights will give sunlight
to the growing plants and flowers.
On the north, or Constitution
avenue, side of the building there
will be second main entrance.
Smaller entrances are provided at
the east and west ends. Each will
be equipped with massive orna-
mental bronze doors with remote
control facilities.
Marble Stairways.
The Constitution avenue entrance
Is on ground level. Elevators and
marble stairWays will accommodate
visitors who enter through other
doorways.
Ground-ioor arrangements call
for exhibition spaces, general ad-
miniStrative and executive offices,
board room and library.
The trustees declared: The plans
Tor the exhibition galleries have
taken into consideration the proper
placing of different periods and
schools of painting and sculpture,
thus permitting the arrangement
OF future acquisitions without dis
rupting the works of art as first
installed. This necessitated a de-
sign for the structure in such man.
ner as to eliminate as much as pos
sible the use of supporting columns
thrOuphOut the gallery area Con-