The Palace of Fine Arts - Revision history

Ccarlsson at 05:36, 30 April 2021

2021-04-30T05:36:33Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:36, 29 April 2021
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	[[Image:Palace-of-fine-arts-bw-1915.jpg]]		[[Image:Palace-of-fine-arts-bw-1915.jpg]]

	'''The Palace of Fine Arts, 1915, soon after its construction.'''		'''The Palace of Fine Arts, 1915, soon after its construction. [[Rebuilding the Palace of Fine Arts 1966\|Rebuilt in 1966]]'''

	''Photo: Shaping San Francisco''		''Photo: Shaping San Francisco''

Lisaruth at 00:42, 13 July 2016

2016-07-13T00:42:09Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:42, 12 July 2016
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	'''Marina Boulevard looking west towards Palace of Fine Arts, March 6, 1925.'''		'''Marina Boulevard looking west towards Palace of Fine Arts, March 6, 1925.'''

	''Photo: SFDPW, courtesy ~~Charles Ruiz~~ collection''		''Photo: SFDPW, courtesy C. R. collection''

	[[Image:Palace-of-Fine-Arts 9000.jpg]]		[[Image:Palace-of-Fine-Arts 9000.jpg]]

Ccarlsson: added new photos

2014-10-14T00:46:40Z

added new photos

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:46, 13 October 2014
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	Rivaled only by Mullgardt's Court of the Ages, the Palace of Fine Arts was the most beloved building at the [[SAILING TO BYZANTIUM: 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition \|fair]], its superbly evocative beauty saving it from ultimate demolition. While the rest of the fair may have seemed an artifice of eternity, Maybeck's Palace drew much of its success from a melancholic celebration of the transitory. Frank Morton Todd wrote that "it represented the beauty and grandeur of the past. A cloister enclosing nothing, a colonnade without a roof, stairs that ended nowhere, a fane with a lonely votary kneeling at a dying flame, fluted shafts that rose, half hid in vines, from the lush growth of an old swamp. . . . "(27) The elegiacal theme was, Todd also noted, inspired by Arnold Bocklin's moody painting "The Isle of the Dead," while the vocabulary of ruin is clearly taken from the visionary etchings of Piranesi. The melancholic theme-emphasized by the dark and irregular reflecting lagoon, the weeping maidens guarding caskets on the peristyle (meant to hold trees), and the intentional overgrowth that once sprang from monumental planter boxes--is meant to express the sadness that both the artist and the viewer feel for the inability of even the greatest art to reach perfection.(28)		Rivaled only by Mullgardt's Court of the Ages, the Palace of Fine Arts was the most beloved building at the [[SAILING TO BYZANTIUM: 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition \|fair]], its superbly evocative beauty saving it from ultimate demolition. While the rest of the fair may have seemed an artifice of eternity, Maybeck's Palace drew much of its success from a melancholic celebration of the transitory. Frank Morton Todd wrote that "it represented the beauty and grandeur of the past. A cloister enclosing nothing, a colonnade without a roof, stairs that ended nowhere, a fane with a lonely votary kneeling at a dying flame, fluted shafts that rose, half hid in vines, from the lush growth of an old swamp. . . . "(27) The elegiacal theme was, Todd also noted, inspired by Arnold Bocklin's moody painting "The Isle of the Dead," while the vocabulary of ruin is clearly taken from the visionary etchings of Piranesi. The melancholic theme-emphasized by the dark and irregular reflecting lagoon, the weeping maidens guarding caskets on the peristyle (meant to hold trees), and the intentional overgrowth that once sprang from monumental planter boxes--is meant to express the sadness that both the artist and the viewer feel for the inability of even the greatest art to reach perfection.(28)

	~~[[Image:marina$pal-fine-arts-columns.jpg\|left\|thumb\|'''Columns at The Palace of Fine Arts;''' ''Photo: Chris Carlsson'']]~~ The Palace was universally admired, despite the shocking liberties it took with the classical orders. Professor van Noppen of Columbia remarked that "the Palace of Fine Arts is so sublime, so majestic, and is the product of such imagination that it would have graced the age of Pericles,"(29) while Thomas Edison exclaimed, The architect of that building is a genius. There is not the equal anywhere on earth."(30) In succeeding years, the Palace became exactly what its creator had intended, a vast and decadent ruin whose garish colors bleached to sunset tones of russet and ochre. Asked in old age what he felt should be done about the collapsing Palace, Maybeck characteristically responded:		The Palace was universally admired, despite the shocking liberties it took with the classical orders. Professor van Noppen of Columbia remarked that "the Palace of Fine Arts is so sublime, so majestic, and is the product of such imagination that it would have graced the age of Pericles,"(29) while Thomas Edison exclaimed, The architect of that building is a genius. There is not the equal anywhere on earth."(30) In succeeding years, the Palace became exactly what its creator had intended, a vast and decadent ruin whose garish colors bleached to sunset tones of russet and ochre. Asked in old age what he felt should be done about the collapsing Palace, Maybeck characteristically responded:

	''I think the main building should be torn down and redwoods planted around--completely around--the rotunda.... As they grow, the columns would slowly crumble at approximately the same speed. Then I would like to design an altar, with the figure of a maiden praying, to install in that grove of redwoods.... I should like my palace to die behind those great trees of its own accord, and become its own cemetery''.(31)		<blockquote>''I think the main building should be torn down and redwoods planted around--completely around--the rotunda.... As they grow, the columns would slowly crumble at approximately the same speed. Then I would like to design an altar, with the figure of a maiden praying, to install in that grove of redwoods.... I should like my palace to die behind those great trees of its own accord, and become its own cemetery''.(31) </blockquote>

	It appears that the Palace of Fine Arts was meant to complement another domed building to the south. Charcoal drawings in the Maybeck papers at Berkeley correspond to a "Peace Palace" that appears on the earliest block plans of the Panama Pacific International Exposition and for which Maybeck prepared advanced schematics. Drawings include elevations, perspectives, and plans of a central-plan Palladian villa on a high arcaded podium connected to the Fine Arts lagoon by an axial pool in a sunken garden. The earliest plans for the Palace of Fine Arts, in fact, show a rectilinear, rather than naturalistic, lagoon extending south toward the projected Peace Palace. The sunken garden itself, it appears, would have been enclosed by John McLaren's living walls (flats of South African iceplant stacked vertically) to create a curious combination of Baroque formality and ruinous overgrowth. The building, probably meant to echo the Peace Palace then being built with Andrew Carnegie's funds in The Hague, was apparently scrapped at an early date for reasons of economy and replaced by a huge revenue-producing hotel, the Inside Inn.		It appears that the Palace of Fine Arts was meant to complement another domed building to the south. Charcoal drawings in the Maybeck papers at Berkeley correspond to a "Peace Palace" that appears on the earliest block plans of the Panama Pacific International Exposition and for which Maybeck prepared advanced schematics. Drawings include elevations, perspectives, and plans of a central-plan Palladian villa on a high arcaded podium connected to the Fine Arts lagoon by an axial pool in a sunken garden. The earliest plans for the Palace of Fine Arts, in fact, show a rectilinear, rather than naturalistic, lagoon extending south toward the projected Peace Palace. The sunken garden itself, it appears, would have been enclosed by John McLaren's living walls (flats of South African iceplant stacked vertically) to create a curious combination of Baroque formality and ruinous overgrowth. The building, probably meant to echo the Peace Palace then being built with Andrew Carnegie's funds in The Hague, was apparently scrapped at an early date for reasons of economy and replaced by a huge revenue-producing hotel, the Inside Inn.
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	''Photo: SFDPW, courtesy Charles Ruiz collection''		''Photo: SFDPW, courtesy Charles Ruiz collection''

			[[Image:Palace-of-Fine-Arts 9000.jpg]]

			'''Palace of Fine Arts'''

			''Photo: Chris Carlsson''

			[[Image:Palace-of-Fine-Arts-w-sun-hitting-Pyramid-in-background 8050.jpg]]

			'''Palace of Fine Arts sitting between a sun-emblazoned Pyramid downtown and the bucolic, restored [[Crissy Field Tidal Marsh\|Crissy Field and marsh]] in the foreground, 2009.'''

			''Photo: Chris Carlsson''

			[[Image:Palace-of-Fine-Arts-and-Alcatraz 5000.jpg]]

			'''Palace of Fine Arts roof punctuates view from Inspiration Point northeasterly towards [[The Unselling of Alcatraz\|Alcatraz]] and beyond.'''

			''Photo: Chris Carlsson''

Ccarlsson: added Charles Ruiz photo

2014-09-15T23:11:56Z

added Charles Ruiz photo

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:11, 15 September 2014
Line 21:		Line 21:
	Rivaled only by Mullgardt's Court of the Ages, the Palace of Fine Arts was the most beloved building at the [[SAILING TO BYZANTIUM: 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition \|fair]], its superbly evocative beauty saving it from ultimate demolition. While the rest of the fair may have seemed an artifice of eternity, Maybeck's Palace drew much of its success from a melancholic celebration of the transitory. Frank Morton Todd wrote that "it represented the beauty and grandeur of the past. A cloister enclosing nothing, a colonnade without a roof, stairs that ended nowhere, a fane with a lonely votary kneeling at a dying flame, fluted shafts that rose, half hid in vines, from the lush growth of an old swamp. . . . "(27) The elegiacal theme was, Todd also noted, inspired by Arnold Bocklin's moody painting "The Isle of the Dead," while the vocabulary of ruin is clearly taken from the visionary etchings of Piranesi. The melancholic theme-emphasized by the dark and irregular reflecting lagoon, the weeping maidens guarding caskets on the peristyle (meant to hold trees), and the intentional overgrowth that once sprang from monumental planter boxes--is meant to express the sadness that both the artist and the viewer feel for the inability of even the greatest art to reach perfection.(28)		Rivaled only by Mullgardt's Court of the Ages, the Palace of Fine Arts was the most beloved building at the [[SAILING TO BYZANTIUM: 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition \|fair]], its superbly evocative beauty saving it from ultimate demolition. While the rest of the fair may have seemed an artifice of eternity, Maybeck's Palace drew much of its success from a melancholic celebration of the transitory. Frank Morton Todd wrote that "it represented the beauty and grandeur of the past. A cloister enclosing nothing, a colonnade without a roof, stairs that ended nowhere, a fane with a lonely votary kneeling at a dying flame, fluted shafts that rose, half hid in vines, from the lush growth of an old swamp. . . . "(27) The elegiacal theme was, Todd also noted, inspired by Arnold Bocklin's moody painting "The Isle of the Dead," while the vocabulary of ruin is clearly taken from the visionary etchings of Piranesi. The melancholic theme-emphasized by the dark and irregular reflecting lagoon, the weeping maidens guarding caskets on the peristyle (meant to hold trees), and the intentional overgrowth that once sprang from monumental planter boxes--is meant to express the sadness that both the artist and the viewer feel for the inability of even the greatest art to reach perfection.(28)

	The Palace was universally admired, despite the shocking liberties it took with the classical orders. Professor van Noppen of Columbia remarked that "the Palace of Fine Arts is so sublime, so majestic, and is the product of such imagination that it would have graced the age of Pericles,"(29) while Thomas Edison exclaimed, The architect of that building is a genius. There is not the equal anywhere on earth."(30) In succeeding years, the Palace became exactly what its creator had intended, a vast and decadent ruin whose garish colors bleached to sunset tones of russet and ochre. Asked in old age what he felt should be done about the collapsing Palace, Maybeck characteristically responded:		[[Image:marina$pal-fine-arts-columns.jpg\|left\|thumb\|'''Columns at The Palace of Fine Arts;''' ''Photo: Chris Carlsson'']] The Palace was universally admired, despite the shocking liberties it took with the classical orders. Professor van Noppen of Columbia remarked that "the Palace of Fine Arts is so sublime, so majestic, and is the product of such imagination that it would have graced the age of Pericles,"(29) while Thomas Edison exclaimed, The architect of that building is a genius. There is not the equal anywhere on earth."(30) In succeeding years, the Palace became exactly what its creator had intended, a vast and decadent ruin whose garish colors bleached to sunset tones of russet and ochre. Asked in old age what he felt should be done about the collapsing Palace, Maybeck characteristically responded:

	''I think the main building should be torn down and redwoods planted around--completely around--the rotunda.... As they grow, the columns would slowly crumble at approximately the same speed. Then I would like to design an altar, with the figure of a maiden praying, to install in that grove of redwoods.... I should like my palace to die behind those great trees of its own accord, and become its own cemetery''.(31)		''I think the main building should be torn down and redwoods planted around--completely around--the rotunda.... As they grow, the columns would slowly crumble at approximately the same speed. Then I would like to design an altar, with the figure of a maiden praying, to install in that grove of redwoods.... I should like my palace to die behind those great trees of its own accord, and become its own cemetery''.(31)
Line 27:		Line 27:
	It appears that the Palace of Fine Arts was meant to complement another domed building to the south. Charcoal drawings in the Maybeck papers at Berkeley correspond to a "Peace Palace" that appears on the earliest block plans of the Panama Pacific International Exposition and for which Maybeck prepared advanced schematics. Drawings include elevations, perspectives, and plans of a central-plan Palladian villa on a high arcaded podium connected to the Fine Arts lagoon by an axial pool in a sunken garden. The earliest plans for the Palace of Fine Arts, in fact, show a rectilinear, rather than naturalistic, lagoon extending south toward the projected Peace Palace. The sunken garden itself, it appears, would have been enclosed by John McLaren's living walls (flats of South African iceplant stacked vertically) to create a curious combination of Baroque formality and ruinous overgrowth. The building, probably meant to echo the Peace Palace then being built with Andrew Carnegie's funds in The Hague, was apparently scrapped at an early date for reasons of economy and replaced by a huge revenue-producing hotel, the Inside Inn.		It appears that the Palace of Fine Arts was meant to complement another domed building to the south. Charcoal drawings in the Maybeck papers at Berkeley correspond to a "Peace Palace" that appears on the earliest block plans of the Panama Pacific International Exposition and for which Maybeck prepared advanced schematics. Drawings include elevations, perspectives, and plans of a central-plan Palladian villa on a high arcaded podium connected to the Fine Arts lagoon by an axial pool in a sunken garden. The earliest plans for the Palace of Fine Arts, in fact, show a rectilinear, rather than naturalistic, lagoon extending south toward the projected Peace Palace. The sunken garden itself, it appears, would have been enclosed by John McLaren's living walls (flats of South African iceplant stacked vertically) to create a curious combination of Baroque formality and ruinous overgrowth. The building, probably meant to echo the Peace Palace then being built with Andrew Carnegie's funds in The Hague, was apparently scrapped at an early date for reasons of economy and replaced by a huge revenue-producing hotel, the Inside Inn.

	[[Image:~~marina$pal~~-~~fine~~-~~arts~~-~~columns~~.jpg]]		[[Image:Marina-Blvd-west-towards-Palace-of-Fine-Arts-March-6-1925-SFDPW.jpg\|720px]]

	'''~~Columns at The~~ Palace of Fine Arts.'''		'''Marina Boulevard looking west towards Palace of Fine Arts, March 6, 1925.'''

			''Photo: SFDPW, courtesy Charles Ruiz collection''

	~~''Photo: Chris Carlsson''~~

	[[Destruction of the Fair\|Footnotes]]		[[Destruction of the Fair\|Footnotes]]

Ccarlsson: added color box to abstract

2014-03-18T00:11:56Z

added color box to abstract

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:11, 17 March 2014
Line 15:		Line 15:
	''Photo: Art Peterson''		''Photo: Art Peterson''

	'''A collection of contemporary reactions to and descriptions of Bernard Maybeck’s Palace of Fine Arts, which is one of the Panama Pacific International Exhibition’s few surviving structures. Additionally, Gray Brechin describes Maybeck’s initial plan for the Exhibition, which would have included a mirroring structure called the Peace Palace.'''		{\| style="color: black; background-color: #F5DA81;"
			\| colspan="2" \| '''A collection of contemporary reactions to and descriptions of Bernard Maybeck’s Palace of Fine Arts, which is one of the Panama Pacific International Exhibition’s few surviving structures. Additionally, Gray Brechin describes Maybeck’s initial plan for the Exhibition, which would have included a mirroring structure called the Peace Palace.'''
			\|}

	Rivaled only by Mullgardt's Court of the Ages, the Palace of Fine Arts was the most beloved building at the [[SAILING TO BYZANTIUM: 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition \|fair]], its superbly evocative beauty saving it from ultimate demolition. While the rest of the fair may have seemed an artifice of eternity, Maybeck's Palace drew much of its success from a melancholic celebration of the transitory. Frank Morton Todd wrote that "it represented the beauty and grandeur of the past. A cloister enclosing nothing, a colonnade without a roof, stairs that ended nowhere, a fane with a lonely votary kneeling at a dying flame, fluted shafts that rose, half hid in vines, from the lush growth of an old swamp. . . . "(27) The elegiacal theme was, Todd also noted, inspired by Arnold Bocklin's moody painting "The Isle of the Dead," while the vocabulary of ruin is clearly taken from the visionary etchings of Piranesi. The melancholic theme-emphasized by the dark and irregular reflecting lagoon, the weeping maidens guarding caskets on the peristyle (meant to hold trees), and the intentional overgrowth that once sprang from monumental planter boxes--is meant to express the sadness that both the artist and the viewer feel for the inability of even the greatest art to reach perfection.(28)		Rivaled only by Mullgardt's Court of the Ages, the Palace of Fine Arts was the most beloved building at the [[SAILING TO BYZANTIUM: 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition \|fair]], its superbly evocative beauty saving it from ultimate demolition. While the rest of the fair may have seemed an artifice of eternity, Maybeck's Palace drew much of its success from a melancholic celebration of the transitory. Frank Morton Todd wrote that "it represented the beauty and grandeur of the past. A cloister enclosing nothing, a colonnade without a roof, stairs that ended nowhere, a fane with a lonely votary kneeling at a dying flame, fluted shafts that rose, half hid in vines, from the lush growth of an old swamp. . . . "(27) The elegiacal theme was, Todd also noted, inspired by Arnold Bocklin's moody painting "The Isle of the Dead," while the vocabulary of ruin is clearly taken from the visionary etchings of Piranesi. The melancholic theme-emphasized by the dark and irregular reflecting lagoon, the weeping maidens guarding caskets on the peristyle (meant to hold trees), and the intentional overgrowth that once sprang from monumental planter boxes--is meant to express the sadness that both the artist and the viewer feel for the inability of even the greatest art to reach perfection.(28)

Lisaruth: added abstract

2014-03-11T05:56:28Z

added abstract

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:56, 10 March 2014
Line 14:		Line 14:

	''Photo: Art Peterson''		''Photo: Art Peterson''

			'''A collection of contemporary reactions to and descriptions of Bernard Maybeck’s Palace of Fine Arts, which is one of the Panama Pacific International Exhibition’s few surviving structures. Additionally, Gray Brechin describes Maybeck’s initial plan for the Exhibition, which would have included a mirroring structure called the Peace Palace.'''

	Rivaled only by Mullgardt's Court of the Ages, the Palace of Fine Arts was the most beloved building at the [[SAILING TO BYZANTIUM: 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition \|fair]], its superbly evocative beauty saving it from ultimate demolition. While the rest of the fair may have seemed an artifice of eternity, Maybeck's Palace drew much of its success from a melancholic celebration of the transitory. Frank Morton Todd wrote that "it represented the beauty and grandeur of the past. A cloister enclosing nothing, a colonnade without a roof, stairs that ended nowhere, a fane with a lonely votary kneeling at a dying flame, fluted shafts that rose, half hid in vines, from the lush growth of an old swamp. . . . "(27) The elegiacal theme was, Todd also noted, inspired by Arnold Bocklin's moody painting "The Isle of the Dead," while the vocabulary of ruin is clearly taken from the visionary etchings of Piranesi. The melancholic theme-emphasized by the dark and irregular reflecting lagoon, the weeping maidens guarding caskets on the peristyle (meant to hold trees), and the intentional overgrowth that once sprang from monumental planter boxes--is meant to express the sadness that both the artist and the viewer feel for the inability of even the greatest art to reach perfection.(28)		Rivaled only by Mullgardt's Court of the Ages, the Palace of Fine Arts was the most beloved building at the [[SAILING TO BYZANTIUM: 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition \|fair]], its superbly evocative beauty saving it from ultimate demolition. While the rest of the fair may have seemed an artifice of eternity, Maybeck's Palace drew much of its success from a melancholic celebration of the transitory. Frank Morton Todd wrote that "it represented the beauty and grandeur of the past. A cloister enclosing nothing, a colonnade without a roof, stairs that ended nowhere, a fane with a lonely votary kneeling at a dying flame, fluted shafts that rose, half hid in vines, from the lush growth of an old swamp. . . . "(27) The elegiacal theme was, Todd also noted, inspired by Arnold Bocklin's moody painting "The Isle of the Dead," while the vocabulary of ruin is clearly taken from the visionary etchings of Piranesi. The melancholic theme-emphasized by the dark and irregular reflecting lagoon, the weeping maidens guarding caskets on the peristyle (meant to hold trees), and the intentional overgrowth that once sprang from monumental planter boxes--is meant to express the sadness that both the artist and the viewer feel for the inability of even the greatest art to reach perfection.(28)

Ccarlsson: added 1915 photo

2013-09-28T17:15:55Z

added 1915 photo

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:15, 28 September 2013
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	''by Gray Brechin, from "Sailing to Byzantium: The Architecture of the Fair" in ''The Anthroplogy of World's Fairs'', edited by Burton Benedict)''		''by Gray Brechin, from "Sailing to Byzantium: The Architecture of the Fair" in ''The Anthroplogy of World's Fairs'', edited by Burton Benedict)''

			[[Image:Palace-of-fine-arts-bw-1915.jpg]]

			'''The Palace of Fine Arts, 1915, soon after its construction.'''

			''Photo: Shaping San Francisco''

	[[Image:Palace-of-Fine-Arts Art-Peterson.jpg]]		[[Image:Palace-of-Fine-Arts Art-Peterson.jpg]]
Line 9:		Line 15:
	''Photo: Art Peterson''		''Photo: Art Peterson''

	Rivaled only by Mullgardt's Court of the Ages, the Palace of Fine Arts was the most beloved building at the [[SAILING TO BYZANTIUM: 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition \|fair]], its superbly evocative beauty saving it from ultimate demolition. While the rest of the fair may have seemed an artifice of eternity, Maybeck's Palace drew much of its success from a melancholic celebration of the transitory. Frank Morton Todd wrote that "it represented the beauty and grandeur of the past. A cloister enclosing nothing, a colonnade without a roof, stairs that ended nowhere, a fane with a lonely votary kneeling at a dying flame, fluted shafts that rose, half hid in vines, from the lush growth of an old swamp. . . . "27 The elegiacal theme was, Todd also noted, inspired by Arnold Bocklin's moody painting "The Isle of the Dead," while the vocabulary of ruin is clearly taken from the visionary etchings of Piranesi. The melancholic theme-emphasized by the dark and irregular reflecting lagoon, the weeping maidens guarding caskets on the peristyle (meant to hold trees), and the intentional overgrowth that once sprang from monumental planter boxes--is meant to express the sadness that both the artist and the viewer feel for the inability of even the greatest art to reach perfection.28		Rivaled only by Mullgardt's Court of the Ages, the Palace of Fine Arts was the most beloved building at the [[SAILING TO BYZANTIUM: 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition \|fair]], its superbly evocative beauty saving it from ultimate demolition. While the rest of the fair may have seemed an artifice of eternity, Maybeck's Palace drew much of its success from a melancholic celebration of the transitory. Frank Morton Todd wrote that "it represented the beauty and grandeur of the past. A cloister enclosing nothing, a colonnade without a roof, stairs that ended nowhere, a fane with a lonely votary kneeling at a dying flame, fluted shafts that rose, half hid in vines, from the lush growth of an old swamp. . . . "(27) The elegiacal theme was, Todd also noted, inspired by Arnold Bocklin's moody painting "The Isle of the Dead," while the vocabulary of ruin is clearly taken from the visionary etchings of Piranesi. The melancholic theme-emphasized by the dark and irregular reflecting lagoon, the weeping maidens guarding caskets on the peristyle (meant to hold trees), and the intentional overgrowth that once sprang from monumental planter boxes--is meant to express the sadness that both the artist and the viewer feel for the inability of even the greatest art to reach perfection.(28)

	The Palace was universally admired, despite the shocking liberties it took with the classical orders. Professor van Noppen of Columbia remarked that "the Palace of Fine Arts is so sublime, so majestic, and is the product of such imagination that it would have graced the age of Pericles,"29 while Thomas Edison exclaimed, The architect of that building is a genius. There is not the equal anywhere on earth."30 In succeeding years, the Palace became exactly what its creator had intended, a vast and decadent ruin whose garish colors bleached to sunset tones of russet and ochre. Asked in old age what he felt should be done about the collapsing Palace, Maybeck characteristically responded:		The Palace was universally admired, despite the shocking liberties it took with the classical orders. Professor van Noppen of Columbia remarked that "the Palace of Fine Arts is so sublime, so majestic, and is the product of such imagination that it would have graced the age of Pericles,"(29) while Thomas Edison exclaimed, The architect of that building is a genius. There is not the equal anywhere on earth."(30) In succeeding years, the Palace became exactly what its creator had intended, a vast and decadent ruin whose garish colors bleached to sunset tones of russet and ochre. Asked in old age what he felt should be done about the collapsing Palace, Maybeck characteristically responded:

	''I think the main building should be torn down and redwoods planted around--completely around--the rotunda.... As they grow, the columns would slowly crumble at approximately the same speed. Then I would like to design an altar, with the figure of a maiden praying, to install in that grove of redwoods.... I should like my palace to die behind those great trees of its own accord, and become its own cemetery''.31		''I think the main building should be torn down and redwoods planted around--completely around--the rotunda.... As they grow, the columns would slowly crumble at approximately the same speed. Then I would like to design an altar, with the figure of a maiden praying, to install in that grove of redwoods.... I should like my palace to die behind those great trees of its own accord, and become its own cemetery''.(31)

	It appears that the Palace of Fine Arts was meant to complement another domed building to the south. Charcoal drawings in the Maybeck papers at Berkeley correspond to a "Peace Palace" that appears on the earliest block plans of the Panama Pacific International Exposition and for which Maybeck prepared advanced schematics. Drawings include elevations, perspectives, and plans of a central-plan Palladian villa on a high arcaded podium connected to the Fine Arts lagoon by an axial pool in a sunken garden. The earliest plans for the Palace of Fine Arts, in fact, show a rectilinear, rather than naturalistic, lagoon extending south toward the projected Peace Palace. The sunken garden itself, it appears, would have been enclosed by John McLaren's living walls (flats of South African iceplant stacked vertically) to create a curious combination of Baroque formality and ruinous overgrowth. The building, probably meant to echo the Peace Palace then being built with Andrew Carnegie's funds in The Hague, was apparently scrapped at an early date for reasons of economy and replaced by a huge revenue-producing hotel, the Inside Inn.		It appears that the Palace of Fine Arts was meant to complement another domed building to the south. Charcoal drawings in the Maybeck papers at Berkeley correspond to a "Peace Palace" that appears on the earliest block plans of the Panama Pacific International Exposition and for which Maybeck prepared advanced schematics. Drawings include elevations, perspectives, and plans of a central-plan Palladian villa on a high arcaded podium connected to the Fine Arts lagoon by an axial pool in a sunken garden. The earliest plans for the Palace of Fine Arts, in fact, show a rectilinear, rather than naturalistic, lagoon extending south toward the projected Peace Palace. The sunken garden itself, it appears, would have been enclosed by John McLaren's living walls (flats of South African iceplant stacked vertically) to create a curious combination of Baroque formality and ruinous overgrowth. The building, probably meant to echo the Peace Palace then being built with Andrew Carnegie's funds in The Hague, was apparently scrapped at an early date for reasons of economy and replaced by a huge revenue-producing hotel, the Inside Inn.

Ccarlsson: swapped photos

2013-09-28T17:12:30Z

swapped photos

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:12, 28 September 2013
Line 3:		Line 3:
	''by Gray Brechin, from "Sailing to Byzantium: The Architecture of the Fair" in ''The Anthroplogy of World's Fairs'', edited by Burton Benedict)''		''by Gray Brechin, from "Sailing to Byzantium: The Architecture of the Fair" in ''The Anthroplogy of World's Fairs'', edited by Burton Benedict)''

	[[Image:~~marina$palace~~-of-~~fine~~-~~arts~~-1.jpg]]		[[Image:Palace-of-Fine-Arts Art-Peterson.jpg]]

	'''Palace of Fine Arts, [[PFA 1919\|last remnant]] of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915, a world's fair to show the world that San Francisco had completely recovered from the 1906 Earthquake and fire.'''		'''Palace of Fine Arts, [[PFA 1919\|last remnant]] of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915, a world's fair to show the world that San Francisco had completely recovered from the 1906 Earthquake and fire.'''

	''Photo: ~~Chris Carlsson~~''		''Photo: Art Peterson''

	Rivaled only by Mullgardt's Court of the Ages, the Palace of Fine Arts was the most beloved building at the [[SAILING TO BYZANTIUM: 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition \|fair]], its superbly evocative beauty saving it from ultimate demolition. While the rest of the fair may have seemed an artifice of eternity, Maybeck's Palace drew much of its success from a melancholic celebration of the transitory. Frank Morton Todd wrote that "it represented the beauty and grandeur of the past. A cloister enclosing nothing, a colonnade without a roof, stairs that ended nowhere, a fane with a lonely votary kneeling at a dying flame, fluted shafts that rose, half hid in vines, from the lush growth of an old swamp. . . . "27 The elegiacal theme was, Todd also noted, inspired by Arnold Bocklin's moody painting "The Isle of the Dead," while the vocabulary of ruin is clearly taken from the visionary etchings of Piranesi. The melancholic theme-emphasized by the dark and irregular reflecting lagoon, the weeping maidens guarding caskets on the peristyle (meant to hold trees), and the intentional overgrowth that once sprang from monumental planter boxes--is meant to express the sadness that both the artist and the viewer feel for the inability of even the greatest art to reach perfection.28		Rivaled only by Mullgardt's Court of the Ages, the Palace of Fine Arts was the most beloved building at the [[SAILING TO BYZANTIUM: 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition \|fair]], its superbly evocative beauty saving it from ultimate demolition. While the rest of the fair may have seemed an artifice of eternity, Maybeck's Palace drew much of its success from a melancholic celebration of the transitory. Frank Morton Todd wrote that "it represented the beauty and grandeur of the past. A cloister enclosing nothing, a colonnade without a roof, stairs that ended nowhere, a fane with a lonely votary kneeling at a dying flame, fluted shafts that rose, half hid in vines, from the lush growth of an old swamp. . . . "27 The elegiacal theme was, Todd also noted, inspired by Arnold Bocklin's moody painting "The Isle of the Dead," while the vocabulary of ruin is clearly taken from the visionary etchings of Piranesi. The melancholic theme-emphasized by the dark and irregular reflecting lagoon, the weeping maidens guarding caskets on the peristyle (meant to hold trees), and the intentional overgrowth that once sprang from monumental planter boxes--is meant to express the sadness that both the artist and the viewer feel for the inability of even the greatest art to reach perfection.28

Lisaruth: relocated date and where article can be found to top

2013-03-27T00:07:00Z

relocated date and where article can be found to top

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	'''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>Historical Essay</font></font> </font>'''		'''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>Historical Essay</font></font> </font>'''

	''by Gray Brechin''		''by Gray Brechin, from "Sailing to Byzantium: The Architecture of the Fair" in ''The Anthroplogy of World's Fairs'', edited by Burton Benedict)''

	[[Image:marina$palace-of-fine-arts-1.jpg]]		[[Image:marina$palace-of-fine-arts-1.jpg]]
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	It appears that the Palace of Fine Arts was meant to complement another domed building to the south. Charcoal drawings in the Maybeck papers at Berkeley correspond to a "Peace Palace" that appears on the earliest block plans of the Panama Pacific International Exposition and for which Maybeck prepared advanced schematics. Drawings include elevations, perspectives, and plans of a central-plan Palladian villa on a high arcaded podium connected to the Fine Arts lagoon by an axial pool in a sunken garden. The earliest plans for the Palace of Fine Arts, in fact, show a rectilinear, rather than naturalistic, lagoon extending south toward the projected Peace Palace. The sunken garden itself, it appears, would have been enclosed by John McLaren's living walls (flats of South African iceplant stacked vertically) to create a curious combination of Baroque formality and ruinous overgrowth. The building, probably meant to echo the Peace Palace then being built with Andrew Carnegie's funds in The Hague, was apparently scrapped at an early date for reasons of economy and replaced by a huge revenue-producing hotel, the Inside Inn.		It appears that the Palace of Fine Arts was meant to complement another domed building to the south. Charcoal drawings in the Maybeck papers at Berkeley correspond to a "Peace Palace" that appears on the earliest block plans of the Panama Pacific International Exposition and for which Maybeck prepared advanced schematics. Drawings include elevations, perspectives, and plans of a central-plan Palladian villa on a high arcaded podium connected to the Fine Arts lagoon by an axial pool in a sunken garden. The earliest plans for the Palace of Fine Arts, in fact, show a rectilinear, rather than naturalistic, lagoon extending south toward the projected Peace Palace. The sunken garden itself, it appears, would have been enclosed by John McLaren's living walls (flats of South African iceplant stacked vertically) to create a curious combination of Baroque formality and ruinous overgrowth. The building, probably meant to echo the Peace Palace then being built with Andrew Carnegie's funds in The Hague, was apparently scrapped at an early date for reasons of economy and replaced by a huge revenue-producing hotel, the Inside Inn.

	~~''--by Gray Brechin'', (from "Sailing to Byzantium: The Architecture of the Fair" in ''The Anthroplogy of World's Fairs'', edited by Burton Benedict)~~

	[[Image:marina$pal-fine-arts-columns.jpg]]		[[Image:marina$pal-fine-arts-columns.jpg]]

Ccarlsson: Protected "The Palace of Fine Arts": finished essay [edit=sysop:move=sysop]

2008-12-30T22:24:55Z

Protected "The Palace of Fine Arts": finished essay [edit=sysop:move=sysop]

← Older revision	Revision as of 15:24, 30 December 2008
(No difference)