City of Cleveland Welcomes the Arts
U.S. General Services Administration
The full title of this allegorical scene is The City of Cleveland, Supported by Federal Power, Welcomes the Arts Bearing a Plan for the New Civic Center.
A personification of the City of Cleveland is enthroned in the center of the painting. She wears a gold crown that resembles the crenellated battlement of a fortress.
Affixed to the columns of her throne are two shields. The shield on the left carries the historical insignia of Cleveland, with the Latin motto Labor omnia vincit (Labor conquers all things). The shield on the right shows the seal of Ohio, with the Latin motto Imperium in Imperio (Empire within an Empire).
On the left side of the painting is a figure representing Federal Power. She wears a red liberty cap, bears a sheathed sword, and grasps an oak branch that represents strength and longevity.
On the right, a figure who represents the Arts disembarks from a gondola decorated with a garland of grapes and roses, as well as a shield that bears the Great Seal of the United States. She is crowned with a golden laurel wreath and holds a scroll that is labeled Group Plan of the Public Buildings of the City of Cleveland, Ohio.
