Art in the Architecture: Sculpture Hall inspired by Baths of Caracalla

“Art in the Architecture” is a 1 Fine Arts Blog series dedicated to the ornamental details on the Saint Louis Art Museum’s Main Building, which was designed by Cass Gilbert for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. In 1904, the building was flanked by sprawling, temporary wings that together formed the Palace of Fine Arts, which presented fairgoers with approximately 11,000 works of art from 26 countries. It is the sole surviving building from the World’s Fair.

Sculpture Hall, the grand hall at the entrance of the Museum, was inspired by the baths of ancient Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, better known by his nickname, Caracalla. 

The Baths of Caracalla were the second largest baths in Rome. The lavish facilities, completed in 216, were created as a place for bathing, socializing, and relaxing. Original documents mention “enormous marble columns, flooring in colored . . . marbles, glass paste and marble mosaics on the walls, painted stuccos and hundreds of statues and colossal groups, both in the niches of the walls of the rooms and in the most important halls and in the gardens,” according to the Official Tourism Site of Rome. In addition to the Saint Louis Art Museum, the baths also served as inspiration for the Chicago Union Station and the original Pennsylvania Station in New York City. 

After several decades of excavation and restoration, the baths are a bustling tourist attraction. The rectangular plan of the baths is still visible today, along with many towering walls; however, most of the vaults and ceilings have been lost to time. An idea of what the baths look like in modern times can be seen in this photograph from the Museum’s collection by James Anderson. Rome, Baths of Caracalla was taken in the 1860s.

Architect Cass Gilbert first became acquainted with Roman architecture during his tour of Europe in January of 1880. He was 21 years old and spent almost an entire year traveling through the French, English, and Italian countryside. According to the Cass Gilbert Society, the artist “sketched architectural features that he would later use in many of his designs.” 

Sculpture Hall is a symmetrical gallery that bisects the Museum’s Main Building, originally the Palace of Fine Arts. The barrel-vaulted ceiling of the hall crests at 78 feet high, with arched clerestory windows that make the marble flooring sparkle. Like the Baths of Caracalla, the grandiose hall features niches below the windows with a circular decoration at top. These were originally skylights.

Gilbert was commissioned to build the center structure of the fair’s Palace of Fine Arts, which was completed in 1903. It was the only structure at the fair built of limestone and brick, flanked by enormous temporary wings during the exposition. After the fair, the building would become the new home for the city’s art museum, which had been located downtown.  

Due to the fair’s budget of $1 million, Gilbert had to be reserved in his design of Sculpture Hall, despite the grandiosity of his inspiration. The architect remained within the budget by building a temporary structure in front of the Palace of Fine Arts called Festival Hall. This ornate plaster building was used as an auditorium housing over 4,000 people. The final cost of construction of the Palace of Fine Arts cost $945,000, according to a contract in SLAM’s archives. In today’s money, construction would have cost more than $30 million.