| Home -> Paul Elder - > The Sculpture and Mural Decorations of the Exposition - Discovery - The Purchase | |||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Discovery - The Purchase
Tower of Jewels |
|||
 |
|||
|
|
|||
| The murals in the great tower are properly dedicated to the Panama Canal. In them William de Leftwich Dodge admirably interprets its history, labors and triumphant achievement. Each of the long decorative bands is divided into three panels. The central panels, 96 feet long, are, on the west wall, "The Atlantic and the Pacific," celebrating the united nations face to face across the united waters, and on the east, "The Gateway of All Nations," an allegorical pageant of triumph. The "Gateway of All nations" is flanked by "Achievement" and "Labor Crowned," noble and timely tributes to the Workers who made the canal. Those here reproduced, opposing them on the western wall, are historic. "Discovery" shows Balboa, "on a peak in Darien," in awe at his great moment of discovering the Pacific. The Spirit of Adventurous Fortune attends him. Watching him, sits the Indian guarding his treasures, a tragic prophecy in face and figure. "The Purchase" commemorates the part of France in this achievement. Columbia is purchasing the title from her sister republic. American workmen, led by Enterprise, take up the tools that French laborers have relinquished. | |||
|
|
|
|