We know that now Mexico, the
Tlascalans and the Emperor Montezuma have been vanquished, that the
victor's ruthless ambition is already dreaming of the conquest of New
Spain and the navigation of the Pacific. There are infused into the work
a brilliancy and dash that fill the imagination with the glamor of that
picturesque period of history. The perfect horsemanship, the restrained
but vigorous motion, the whole bearing, have a stirring beauty. There is
also intended and expressed in the countenance a sense of vision, as if
Cortez had here a prophetic moment in which he saw the future of the
continent he claimed.
Pizarro
In Front of Tower of Jewels
Pizzaro, the companion equestrian to Cortez, is the work of Charles Cary
Rumsey. The grim, stern and epic history of the bold, arrogant
adventurer who was merciless in success and dauntless in failure is
ruggedly suggested by this figure, mounted upon a heavily armored
charger and advancing with drawn sword. The fact that Pizzaro was a
member of Balboa's party when that explorer discovered the Pacific and
that he himself was in charge of a Spanish colony at Darien in 1510,
makes his appearance at this Exposition appropriate. But it is, after
all, the conqueror of the Incas, the indomitable, who spared neither his
men nor his enemy until the rich cities of the Southern Empire had been
pillaged of their gold and destroyed, who is here portrayed.
Pages:
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37