Birmingham Public Library Linn-Henley Research Library 2100 Park Place Birmingham Alabama 35203
Date:
Late 1920s
Notes:
"Ezra Winter's Murals," Birmingham Public Library, n.d. (illustrated brochure).
The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.
Summary:
Sixteen scenes representing the outstanding literature of the world. Scenes include the Egyptian Goddess of Love, Isis presenting a small clay figure of Truth to her godson Ramses II; the Hebrew shepherd lad, David singing the songs the Psalms to sooth the troubled mind of Saul, King of Israel; a scene from The Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) in which Shahrazad is seen entertaining her husband, the Sultan of Shahrynar; and the Hindu Krishna, hero of the tenth century text Bhagavata Purana, playing his flute for a village milkmaid.
Mural scenes also depict Bellerophon and Pegasus from Greek mythology; Ura-Shima Ta-ro opening a casket from his bride from the Japanese tale in the Man'yoshu (translated Ten Thousand Leaves); Sadi, an early Persian poet and philosopher and author of the Gulistan (translated as the Rose Garden); and Confucius, the Chinese teacher and philosopher.
Mural scenes also depict Scandinavian heros Sigurd and Brynhild; the Russian prince Novgorod-Seversk, from the Tale of Igor's Campaign; Pocahontas and John Smith; Celimene and Alceste (from Moliere's comedy La Misanthrope); Faust and Margaret; Dante and Virgil; Lancelot (from King Arthur's Round Table, Malory's Morte-d'Arthur), and Don Quixote.
