It is by Edgar Walter, a
distinguished San Franciscan; he has given us a delightful, playful and
tender rendition of the old tale that has held the imagination of the
world since it first appeared in Straparola's "Piacevoli Notti" in 1550.
Since it was popularized by Madame le Prince de Beaumont in 1757, the
story has been translated into every language. The fountain shows, with
great restraint and refinement of handling, one of Beauty's
ministrations to the sick monster shortly before his transformation. It
is subject to the symbolism that may be read into the story itself; but
the note of fairy magic is the essential theme of the fountain. Quaint
fairy pipers, the unseen musicians of the Monster's Palace, stand about
the pedestal. The lower basin bears a frieze of charmed or enchanted
beasts, very lightly handled and not insistent. Their idea is continued
in the court by the gryphon decorations and Albert Laessle's
wreath-bearing Friendly Lions, at the entrances to the palaces.
Caryatid
Court of Palms
The Court of Palms is restful, meditative, a place where the feeling of
magical allure takes a deeper, more subjective character. It might well
be called the Court of Pools, for two, quiet pools, one circular, one
oblong except for its concave side to hold the other, fill the floor of
its sunken garden and reflect its pensive as well as its physical
charms.
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