Palace Of Education

The Palace of Education has three Renaissance portals on the south facade. These are more Spanish in feeling than those of the two palaces just passed. The tympanum panel of the central doorway may be taken to represent kindergarten teaching, instruction of boys and girls, and self-education in young manhood. It is by Gustave Gerlach. The two panels in the walls over the minor doorways treat very obviously of educational subjects. They are flat in more senses than one, lacking the life of the central tympanum group. They are by students of two American art schools.

The west facade of the Palace of Education is dominated by an immense half-dome, impressive in size and attractively decorated. The style of architecture here is mainly Roman, to harmonize with the Fine Arts Palace which it faces across the lagoon. There are two splendid architectural fountains, under the half-dome here and under, that of the Palace of Food Products.

Sculpture. Flanking the great arch are columns carrying the nude figure of a man, with hands crossed, gazing fixedly in thought. In the official list this is called "Philosophy" or "Thought," and from it the immense portal is called "The Half-dome of Philosophy." But the same figure occupies the corresponding position before the Food Products Palace, and is there called "Physical Vigor." The truth is that the artist designed the statue to suggest that finest of all unions of strength, the physically powerful man thinking. Thus the figure is appropriate to both a food products building and an education building. The figure is strong, but is not so convincing or appealing as the same artist's "Man with a Pick," in the Varied Industries portal. Within the half-dome is a repeated figure with a scroll inscribed "Libris," by Albert Weinert.

The six niches in the west wall have two repeated statues by Charles R. Harley, known as "The Triumph of the Field" and "Abundance." They are simply repeated from the Food Products Palace to the north, where they properly belong, and will be treated in the next chapter in connection with that building.

On the north facade of the Palace of Education are duplicates of the three south portals, with the same sculptured panels.