Page:EB1911 - Volume 21.djvu/388

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
  
PHILADELPHIA
367


two favourite subjects in Greek plastic art of the best period They are designed with wonderful fertility of invention, and life-like realism and spirit, the composition is arranged so as to form a series of diagonal lines or zigzags M, thus forming a pleasing contrast to the unbroken horizontal hnes of the cornice and architrave. The various groups are skilfully united together by some dominant line or action, so that the whole subject forms one unbroken composition.

The relief is very high, more than 3 1/2 in. in the most salient parts, and the whole treatment is quite opposite to that of the Parthenon frieze, which is a very superior work of art to that at Bassae. Many of the limbs are quite detached from the ground; the drill has been largely used to emphasize certain shadows, and in many places, for want of due calculation, the sculptor has had to cut into the flat background behind the figures. From this it would appear that no finished clay-model was prepared but that the relief was sculptured with only the help of a drawing. The point of sight, more than 20 ft. below the bottom of the frieze, and the direction in which the light fell on it have evidently been carefully considered. Many parts, invisible from below, are left comparatively rough. The workmanship throughout is unequal, and the hands of several sculptors can be detected On the whole, the execution is not equal to the beauty of the design, and the whole frieze is somewhat marred by an evident desire to produce the maximum of effect with the least possible amount of labour—very different from the almost gem-like finish of the Parthenon frieze. Even the design is inferior to the Athenian one; most of the figures are ungracefully short in their proportions and there is a great want of refined beauty in many of the female hands and faces. It is in the fire of its varied action and its subtlety of expression that this sculpture most excels. The noble movements of the heroic Greeks form a striking contrast to the feminine weakness of the wounded Amazons, or the struggles with teeth and hoofs of the brutish Centaurs; the group of Apollo and Artemis in their chariot is full of grace and dignified power. The marble in which this frieze is sculptured is somewhat coarse and crystalline, the slabs appear not to have been built into their place but fixed afterwards, with the aid of two bronze bolts driven through the face of each.

Of the metopes, which were 2 ft. 8 in. square, only one exists nearly complete, with eleven fragments; the one almost perfect has a relief of a nude warrior, with floating drapery, overcoming a long haired bearded man, who sinks vanquished at his feet. he relief of these is rather less than that of the frieze figures, and the work is nobler in character and superior in execution.

In addition to the works mentioned in the text, see Leake, Morea (i. 490 and ii. 319, Curtius, Peloponnesos. i. 319; Ross, Reisen in Peloponnesos, Stackelberg, Der Apollo-Tempel zu Bassae (1826); Lenormant, Bas-reliefs du Parthenon et de Phigalie (1834); and Histories of Sculpture mentioned under Greek Art.  (J. H. M.; E. Gr.) 


PHILADELPHIA, the Greek name (1) of a city in Palestine in the land of Ammon (see Ammonites), and (2) of a city so-called in honour of Attalus II. of Pergamum, the modern Ala-Shehr (q.v.)


PHILADELPHIA, the third city in population in the United States, the chief city of Pennsylvania, and a port of entry, co-extensive with Philadelphia county, extending W. from the Delaware river beyond the Schuylkill River, and from below the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers N.E. about 2; m along the Delaware river and Poquessing Creek. Independence Hall, which is a few squares east by south of the city hall, is in 39° 56′ 57·5″ N. and 75° 8′ 54·75″ W. The port is about 102 m. from the Atlantic Ocean, and the city hall is 90 m. by rail S.S.W of New York and 135 m. N.E. of Washington. The city has an area of 132·7 sq. m. At the southern extremity are lowlands protected by dikes from the tide, the business centre between the rivers is about 40 ft. higher but level, the district west of the Schuylkill is generally rolling, and in the upper district the surface rises from the Delaware toward the north-west until in the extreme north-west is a picturesque district overlooking Wissahickon Creek from hills exceeding 400 ft. in height

Population.—When the first United States census was taken, in 1790, Philadelphia was the second largest city in the Union, and had a population of 28,522. It held this rank until 1830, when it was exceeded in size by Baltimore as well as by New York. In 1850 it was smaller also than Boston, but in 1854 the Consolidation Act extended its boundaries so as to include all Philadelphia county and in 1860 the city had risen again to second rank. This rank it held until 1890 when, although its population had grown to 1,046,964, it was 50,000 less than that of Chicago. In 1900, with a population of 1,293,679, it was still farther behind both New York and Chicago. In 1900, of the total population, 998,357, or 77·18%, were native-born, as against only 63% native-born in New York and 65·43% native-born in Chicago. Of Philadelphia’s native-born white population, however, 414,093, or 44·24%, were of foreign born parentage. The foreign-born population included 98,427 born in Ireland, 71,319 born in Germany, 36,752 born in England, 28,951 born in Russia (largely Hebrews). 17,830 born in Italy, 8479 born in Scotland and 5154 born in Austria; and the coloured consisted of 62,613 negroes, 1165 Chinese, 234 Indians and 12 Japanese. In 1910 the population was 1,549,008.

Streets.—With the exception of a limited number of diagonal thoroughfares and of streets laid out in outlying districts in conformity with the natural contour of the ground the plan of the city is regular. Market Street—which Penn called High Street—is the principal thoroughfare east and west, Broad Street the principal thoroughfare north and south, and these streets intersect at right angles at City Hall Square in the business centre. The streets parallel with Broad are numbered from First or Front Street west from the Delaware River to Sixty-Third Street, taking the prefix “North” north of Market Street and the prefix “South” south of it; the streets parallel with Market are named mostly from trees and from the governors and counties of Pennsylvania.

The wholesale district is centred at the east end of Market Street near the Delaware river. The best retail shops are farther west on the south side of Chestnut Street and on Market and Arch streets. Most of the leading banks and trust companies are on Chestnut Street and on Third Street between Chestnut and Walnut streets. Several of the larger office buildings and the stations of the Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia 81 Reading railways are in the vicinity of the city hall; here too, are the Baldwin Locomotive Works. The large textile mills, the great coal wharves and the Cramp Ship-Yards are to the north-east along the Delaware, and in districts west of these are the leading manufactories of iron and steel. There are large sugar refineries in the south-eastern part of the city. Rittenhouse Square, a short distance south-west of the city hall, is the centre of the old aristocratic residential district, and the south side of Walnut Street between Fourteenth and Nineteenth streets is a fashionable parade There are fine residences on North Broad Street and on some of the streets crossing it, and many beautiful villas in the picturesque suburbs of the north-west. The most congested tenements, occupied largely by Italians, Hebrews and negroes, are along the alleys between the rivers and south of Market Street, often in the rear of some of the best of the older residences.

The principal structure is the city hall (or “Public Buildings”) one of the largest buildings in the world in ground space (4 1/2 acres). It rises 548 ft. to the top of a colossal bronze statue (37 ft. high) of William Penn (by Alexander Calder) surmounting the tower. It accommodates the state and county courts as well as the municipal and county offices. The foundation stone was laid in August 1872. On its first floor is Joseph A. Bailly’s statue of Washington, which was erected in front of Independence Hall in 1869. About the Public Buildings are statues of Generals McClellan and Reynolds, President McKinley, and Joseph Leidy and St Gaudens’s “Pilgrim.” On all sides are great buildings: on the north the masonic temple (1868–1873); on the south the stately Betz Building; on the west the enormous Broad Street station of the Pennsylvania railway. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Oddfellows’ Temple are among other notable buildings in the vicinity. The post office, facing Ninth Street and extending from Market Street to Chestnut Street, was opened in 1884; in front is a seated statue of Benjamin Franklin, by John J. Boyle. The mint is at the corner of Sixteenth and Spring Garden streets. The custom-house, on Chestnut Street, was designed by William Strickland (1787–1854), in his day the leading American architect. It was modelled after the Parthenon of Athens, was built for the Second United States Bank, was completed in 1824, and was put to its present use in 1845. Other prominent buildings of