File:Pictorial guide to Boston and the country around (1902) (14595615369).jpg

Identifier: pictorialguideto00bost (find matches)
Title: Pictorial guide to Boston and the country around
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Boston (Mass.) -- Guidebooks
Publisher: Boston : G.W. Armstrong Dining Room & News Co.
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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he background the artist has sketcheda scene from the play. Prometheus, condemned by the gods toages of torture for stealing the divine fire and placing it in maiaspossession, lies bound upon a rock which rises abruptly fromthe sea. His naked body is exposed to the attacks of the vulturewhich hovers above. Rising from the water and floating abouthim in the air the Oceanides seek to charm and soothe him bytheir songs. The last panel, Epic Poetry, represents Homer asthe wandering minstrel of the heroic age. He is seated on astone by the roadside, his lyre lying on the ground. The twofigures standing beside him personify the Iliad and Odyssey.The former wears a helmet and carries a spear, in token of thecontinual warfare which is her theme. The latter has an oar forher adventurous career. The corridor decorations, also by Puvis de Chavannes, repre-sent the Muses Greeting the Genius of Enlightenment. The wall is di-vided into five high-arched panels. The lower part of the central ^ X n r.
Text Appearing After Image:
16 GUIDE TO BOSTON. panel is interrupted by the door into Bates Hall. Here theartist skilfully adapted his design to the formal conditions. Inexplaining his difficulties in an article in Harpers Weekly, hesaid: I could only unite my five arched panels in one singlecomposition by joining them at the top, the middle space beir tmuch shorter than the others; and as the stone wall is cut in;oregular festoons, I was obliged to paint skies in these archedspaces. So I determined to join them immediately under thearch by a straight line indicating the sea horizon, and to placethe Genius in the centre arch, while the Muses would quit theearth and soar toward him at the sound of his voice. Theforeground is the grassy summit of a hill with slender saplingsgrowing along its crest, and beyond it the sea. The Genius ofEnlightenment, a naked youth, occupies the centre of the dec-oration above Bates Hall door. He is resting on a cloud andholding rays of light above his head. Rising from the groundthe

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