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| THE GREAT FOUNTAINS IN ACTION - The MacMonnies' Fountain was so large that few
persons could carry away an exact idea of its form and arrangement.
The view before us gives a study of the sea-horses and their riders,
of which there were four pair, with eight youths holding the reins.
These horses ended as fish, preserving the mythical form of the
hippocampus. The alleged controversy concerning the origination of
the MacMonnies Barge of State is based on
the fact that a sculptor submitted to the directory of the Exposition
a drawing, in which Columbus stood at the prow of a boat, with Time
guiding the craft by means of his scythe and nereides swimming about.
That there is a slight similarity is true, but that MacMonnies ever
saw or heard of the rejected plan is not shown, nor effectively
alleged. MacMonnies made these figures in Paris, in 1892, in his
studio on the Impasse du Main, and they were safely transported to
Chicago, though made only of plaster. If the plaster statuary cost
$50,000, - and MacMonnies is said to have spent $48,000 - it may be
imagined what a bronze work of this size would have demanded in time
and money. A very truthful impression of the lateral electric
fountains is here given, as they appeared in daylight when in action.
At night their sprays were gorgeously colored by electric lamps
beneath. |
