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Cortez
In Front of Tower of Jewels |
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| Equestrian statues of Cortez and Pizzaro stand in the Avenue of Palms at the base of the Tower of Jewels to suggest the early history of the South and West of this hemisphere as a background to the present achievements at Panama and, indeed, at San Francisco. This spirited and romantic presentation of the fearless conquistador, Hernando Cortez, shows him at the very height of his proud successes. Charles Niehaus, whose work is always direct and convincing, has made us feel the Spanish conqueror's own sense of victory. We know that now Mexico, the Tlascalans and the Emperor Montezuma have been vanquished, that the victor's ruthless ambition is already dreaming of the conquest of New Spain and the navigation of the Pacific. There are infused into the work a brilliancy and dash that fill the imagination with the glamor of that picturesque period of history. The perfect horsemanship, the restrained but vigorous motion, the whole bearing, have a stirring beauty. There is also intended and expressed in the countenance a sense of vision, as if Cortez had here a prophetic moment in which he saw the future of the continent he claimed. | |||
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