architectural tiles for the entire Pacific coast.

Other European countries besides Holland are interestingly represented.
The Italian building is a dignified building of pure Florentine
Renaissance lines, with here and there a modern note.

This should rather be called a group of buildings, since it is a
combination of some of the finest bits of Italian Renaissance
architecture. The architects of this building succeeded admirably in
giving a feeling of antiquity to the general treatment of the whole
arrangement, which, under the blue sky of California, brings one
straight back into the land of sunshine and artistic tradition. The
whole arrangement of this Italian group seems somewhat bewildering at
first, but on closer inspection resolves itself into a very interesting
scheme which takes full advantage of the irregularly shaped site.

There is a most impressive noble dignity in the hall of the main
building, where mural decorations of figural character add much to the
sumptuousness of the general effect. It is remarkable how in this age of
low ceilings a return to great height for rooms, as in these, Italian
chambers, produces a marked note of originality. The light effect
created in this way, in all of these replicas of the mansions of the
wealthy of the Renaissance period, is most helpful in the display of a
multitude of lovely objects - furniture, jewelry, ceramics, tapestries,
and yet more. The sculptural imitations of so many old pieces of
statuary are not in very good taste. They bear too much the traces of
the pneumatic drill, and most of them are cold and devoid of the spirit
of the original. Some of the very modern marbles in the various rooms
are almost pathetic in their disregard for the standards established by
the forefathers of their creators.