Caption Accompanying Eugene Savage's mural in Butler Library, Columbia University, axis panel main entrance hall

 

 

"The Butler Library Mural

"Painted by Eugene Savage, na

 

"A beam of light separates obscurity from evident and tangible things, be the source of that light what you will; it separates ignorance from enlightenment. It points out the way 'to those who sacrifice and stumble and aspire' to gain the heights.

 

            "The group of figures in the lower left of the painting are struggling upward from thorny and difficult paths, confused in direction and circumstances as to how they shall apply hand and brain and escape the chaos and suffering that could engulf them. Agricultural and industrial labor dominate the group which is led upward by three figures in the upper left section bearing symbols of the four major phases of human effort, Law, Religion, Art, and Science, historically the guiding spirits of progress. These two groups, proceed under the protecting hand of Columbia, represented by her prototype, Athena, who directs their steps as she stands in the center of the composition holding high her shield in opposition to the spirits of malignant ignorance and greed, who rise from the black on the right and direct at her head their shafts and fire in an effort to overwhelm the scene.

            "The longest line in the composition is the beam of light which is balanced by the lines of the hovering figures in the upper left, and the line of evil spirits continued athwart the beam of light. The opposition of these two lines forms an adequate counterpoint to the semicircular top to the composition. The line made by the hovering figures and that of the evil spirits required opposition in the lower left and this is supplied by the figure of labor, with the hammer, who leans forward in sympathy and interest for the climbing figures in his group."

 

Anonymous caption text transcribed 17 October 2011