The Struggle for the Beautiful
Frieze, Fine Arts Rotunda



A surpassingly beautiful contribution to the Exposition art has been
made by Bruno Louis Zimm in his panels of Greek culture. These lovely
panels in low relief, surely worthy of a permanent medium, are set in
the attic of the Rotunda or Belvedere before the Palace of Fine Arts,
used and known as the Temple of Sculpture. The panels express not so
much the historical Greek tradition - though they are, indeed, produced
in the purest Greek manner - as they do the high spirit and ideals of
Greek art, the devoted seeking for divine fire, the determined
opposition to the trivial and the base. Each of the panels is once
repeated. The panel of "The Triumph of Apollo" shows the fiery god of
Inspiration, Music and the Sun in a procession of worshipers; his
flaming wings are the rays of the sun. The panel of "The Unattainable in
Art" might well be called "The Struggle for the Beautiful." It pictures
the unending struggle with the gross and stupid, both objective and
subjective, that confronts the champion of the beautiful. Art stands
serene, aloof, unassailable in the center of the fray. The panel of
"Pegasus" shows the winged steed of the poets controlled by a true
aspirant, attended by Music, Literature and Art.



Guardian of the Arts