(In Roman niche, above front building doors:) CREARE (In Renaissance niche, by Giammartini:) FECIT ANNO DOMINI MCMXIII unsigned
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Summary:
Carvings in five niches on building facade, each representing a type of architecture: (left to right) Medieval, Greek, Roman, Renaissance, and World/Oriental cultures (which represents the non-Western styles, Chinese, Egyptian, Hindu (India), Islamic, Khman (Cambodia), and Mayor. Each niche contains various scenes and figures from mythology, religion, and history.
The Medieval niche includes images of Eve, the Queen of Sheba, King Solomon (sculpted by Nicholas Fairplay), Mary Magdalene, John the Evangelist, Christ and his Apostles, and the Holy Family's flight into Egypt. It also includes images of a bagpiper (a stone salute to the world's first college to offer that major), a figure depicting music, a cat and fiddle. The Greek niche has free-standing Corinthian, Doric and Ionic columns and features a frieze of nude male atheletes, cavorting centaurs, and draped females in the Temple of Athena Nike. The Roman niche includes a bust of Bacchus, an image of Mecury (fashioned after portraits of the late Verner S. Purnell, funder), and an image of Henry Hornbostel, campus architect. It also features a copy of an 11th century Hindu statue of an Indian woman at Calcutta's Indian Museum. The Oriental niche includes an Islamic dome, a Buddha figure, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Maya columns.
