Home -> Paul Elder - > The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition - Nations of the West | |||
Nations of the West
Group, Arch of the Setting Sun |
|||
|
|||
|
|||
As we look across the Court of the Universe towards the Nations of the West, the vastness of the Court and the commanding effect of these great groups of the nations impress us. The high columns of the Rising and Setting Sun fountains, the monumental groups of the "Elements," the classic "Music" and "Dance" of heroic size, are merged in the splendid sweep of the Court; the dignified circle of sculptured light-standards is dwarfed by the perspective. But these mighty processional masses of the Nations still dominate the whole. This western group, companion to the Nations of the East, centers about the prairie schooner, which balances the elephant in the opposing composition, and the girlish figure of a young pioneer mother, poetically called "The Mother of Tomorrow." Accompanying her are represented the nations that have contributed to our American civilization. The group is by the same sculptors in collaboration who made the group of eastern nations. The four equestrians, the Latin-American, the French-Canadian, the Anglo-American, the Indian and the trudging Squaw are by Leo Lentelli; the pedestrian figures, the bowed Alaskan women, the German and the Italian are by F. G. R. Roth, who made also the oxen and the prairie schooner. The Mother and the crowning symbolic group of "Enterprise" and the "Hopes of the Future" are by A. Stirling Calder, who is responsible for the general composition. | |||