The Fountain of Earth by
Robert I. Aitken has compelled the attention of the world of art and won
the gold medal for sculpture of the year offered by the Architectural
League. In this fountain the idea of man's evolution takes a subtler and
more profound significance. In general, it shows the development and
growth of love from its lower to higher forms and the upward effect of
that spiritualization upon the life of the earth. In the secondary
group, a prelude and epilogue to the main composition, on the prow of
the Ship of Earth are grouped the loves, greeds, passions, griefs and
spiritual cravings of man and woman, who come and go from the Unknown to
the Unknowable. The great arms of Destiny, pushing and pointing, giving
and taking, guide the way. Between the four panels of Life on the Earth,
stand the Hermes, milestones of ancient Rome, here used as milestones
upon the road of Time. Sea-creatures indicate our origin in the waters.
The description of the panels follows on succeeding pages.
Survival of the Fittest
A Panel, Fountain of Earth
The central fountain shows the globe of Earth revolving in the Infinite.
Streams of water by day, clouds of luminous steam by night, give it the
effect of swimming out of chaos. The powerful panels of Earth are boldly
modeled in pierced relief, giving statuesque realism as well as the
picturesqueness demanded of a panel.
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