Earth - Two canvases represent the Earth, the teeming, opulent earth giving of its fullness. Men with great baskets gather the harvests of vegetables and fruits (especially the luscious grapes in the second canvas).
Fire - One canvas shows Primitive Fire, where by means of leaves and twigs the narrow curl of smoke ascends between the trees. Men on bended knees blow the slowly burning leaves and fan the flame.
The aged draw near to feel the warmth; nearer comes the man with the little child in his arms - and, as a result, we have a homely woodland scene of primitive times.
The second representation of the same subject glows on the next canvas.
The subject is Industrial Fire. Men have made a rude furnace in which the pots are being baked. Pots of all sizes and shapes are being brought by the men and women of the neighboring region.
The great cloud of blue smoke rises in increasing breadth and height thru the trees.
Don"t fail to notice the wonderful skies in these two canvases.
Water - On a portion of land between two waters men and women have sauntered down to the water"s edge to fill their jars. The flamingoes, birds of the water, stand in the foreground telling you that water is near. Plants grow luxuriantly on the banks. Pregnant clouds are blown nearer and nearer. The canvas is fairly moist with watery suggestions.
It would not be hard to realize when you look at this canvas that it was done by a man who understands the art of making stained-gla.s.s windows.
He cannot keep his secret from you.
The second treatment of Water - Great brawny-armed fishermen are pulling in their heavy net. In the distance come men with baskets on their heads to carry away the wriggling fish. Beyond the trees the heavy moisture-laden clouds come nearer and nearer.
Air - A great windmill such as one sees in Frank Brangwyn"s etchings (for he lived during his youth in the windmill country, making what he saw around him his own).
The wind has brought the storm-laden clouds and the rain is descending.
The currents of moisture-laden air are reflecting the rainbow. The wheat of the field bends far forward as the wind blows over it.
The belated harvesters (the foremost with his winnowing sieves) are blown forcibly along their path.
The many flowers bend their heads under the forward movement of the breeze. It is most interesting to notice how many devices have been used in order to make the work as suggestive as possible.
The second treatment of Air. The great trees are most n.o.ble in their strength.
Men, strong like the trees, are shooting thru the air their arrows.
A flock of frightened white birds are cutting the air, showing you why the men are there. This is a simple but clever treatment of the subject.
If you would know why you feel that there is something ancestral in these glorious compositions, why the strong colors are so well combined, why the canvases breathe freedom of thought and action, why the distances are so marvelously expressed, why the sky and water are just that deep wonderful blue, read Sparrow"s "Frank Brangwyn" and you will soon discover, and the appreciation for the pictures will be increased tenfold.
Now step down into the Cloister, so that you can see well Helios, the setting sun. This was the primitive man"s idea of the setting sun. He saw the sun as a man holding a huge golden ball, splashing down into the waters of the west. The serpent represents the burning sting of the sun.
You are bound to reflect here that the sun has thrown off great nebulous ma.s.ses and that one of those ma.s.ses has cooled and that we now call it the Earth. Yonder it is, seen at the end of the fountain, with four streams of water, from prehistoric sea life, playing over it.
Pa.s.s along to the first group beyond Helios, realizing that Robt.
Aitken, the sculptor, calls this "The Dawn of Life." From right to left are these figures:
1. The Hand of Destiny Giving Life.
2. The Prenatal Sleep of Woman.
3. The Awakening.
4. The Joy of Living.
5. The Kiss of Life.
6. The Bringing Forth of Life.
The elemental feelings are here suggested.
You will then notice a gap which stands for the unknown period of history after the first "Dawn of Life."
Now pa.s.s to Panel 1 (facing Helios).
The central figure is Vanity, one of the compelling motives of that early life.
Following are two fine figures carrying their children, expressing the idea of the fecundity of the early races.
A hermes divides this panel from the next. Since in cla.s.sic times a herm, or hermes, was used to mark distances on the roads, so here the hermes is used to mark distances, or periods in time.
Panel 2 - We now see the successors of the children of the previous panel grown to manhood. The fact of Natural Selection inflicts itself upon man. Two women are attracted to the same male, a fine intellectual and physical type. The rejected suitors are seen at the end of the panel, one in anger, the other in despair.
Panel 3 is called The Survival of the Fittest. This is the suggestion that physical strength decides who shall survive. We notice that chieftains struggle to possess the same woman, a woman on the right endeavoring to separate them.
Panel 4 is called The Lesson of Life.
Elders of experience attempt to give counsel to the love-lorn and impetuous, knowing that impulse may sometimes be a poignant foe.
Returning to Panel 1, the two figures at the right represent l.u.s.t, another of the strong forces of the early peoples.
You have now reached your first group beyond the gap.
The first figure is Greed, the third motive in this history of life. He has been holding onto the material things of life - there they are, rolled into a great ball. He realizes how futile his life has been and looks back upon the past, longing to retrace his steps and live to n.o.bler purpose.
Then comes the old man who has the spiritual understanding, and he knows that the only hope for his companion is the realization of the spiritual, the consciousness of immortality, and so he gives to her the winged beetle, the symbol of renewed life.
The time has now arrived for her to leave her mortal life, and she pa.s.ses into that sleep by which her material body is cast aside.
Thereby the man has his first sorrow. She whom he loved is gone, and he is cast down in despair - because his outlook is not a spiritual one.
The hand of Destiny has drawn these lives unto itself. The law has been fulfilled.