| Home -> Paul Elder - > The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition - From Generation to Generation | |||
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From Generation to Generation
Palace of Varied Industries |
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| In the portals on the south side of the group of palaces, facing the Avenue of Palms, we have again the beauteous old Spanish doorways in plateresque design, with niches filled with modern sculpture. The portal of the Palace of Varied Industries, copied from a famous prototype in the old hospice of Santa Cruz, in Toledo, Spain, was assigned to Ralph Stackpole. He is a sculptor who delights to honor the laborer and the craftsman and has supplied the figures for niches and keystone space and the tympanum and secondary groups in the portal of Varied Industries with evident affection. He treats the subject of labor with dignity, according it respect and not sentimentality. In this secondary or crowning group, a strong young man is taking the burden of labor from the shoulders of the last generation - an old workman, bowed but still hale and vigorous. There is a sense of responsibility and earnestness in the group, but complete confidence and power. It might well have been feared that these rugged types of American life might ill accord with the ancient ornate doorway. But the decorative proprieties have been thoroughly sustained. | |||
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