Murals

The crowning feature of the lobby, Jules Guerin's frieze of murals, completes the iconographic trilogy proposed for the building. While the proposed bas-relief and acroteria on the exterior relate the mercantile activities of The Mart to the universal and the local, Guerin's murals within represent the ground between these realms in their depiction of commerce throughout the world, including the countries whence came most of the goods sold in the building. The murals depict the principal industries and products, the primary mode of transportation and the architecture of 14 countries; like the sculptures, they connect the modern world of The Mart with the distant past. Guerin executed the murals in red tones highlighted by gold leaf and drawing upon his experience as a stage set designer, employed a compositional technique that establishes distinct layers of image in successive planes. In the panel for Italy, vignettes of Venetian glassware seem to stand in front of fishing boats moored on the Grand Canal; the facade of the Palazzo Ducale stretches behind and beyond the rise of the towers of the Piazza San Marco.