| On January 9, 1914, by deliberation of the Marseilles City Council, Messrs. Alfred Lombard and Pierre Girieud, Marseille painters were commissioned, after submission, the execution of frescoes for the decoration of three amphitheaters of the new Faculty of Sciences. Happy to be able to realize in the city that they adored a true work, they went to work. For months, they did study studies to develop the model presented. They incurred expenses - they can justify - the scaffolding would be raised when the great turmoil surprised them at work. They did their duty as good soldiers, and Lombard did not even see his Provencal land until he had contracted an illness against the invader, from which he recovered only very slowly. Wanting to embody the eternal symbols in living groups, they asked the city, hostilities being over, where was the order. The administration replied: "The submission of January 5, 1914 has become void due to the non-continuation of the work." Only the administration, in its impersonal cynicism, could find such an answer. (....)
Pierre Girieud, he has put more calm and sobriety in his fresco on the theme of Physics and Mathematics. It is a vast composition of great safety of execution and a beautiful power of conception Physics and mathematics are represented by allegorical figures occupying the central part of the work between groups, Orpheus and Eurydice, and on the other side Adam and Eve who know nothing. In the right part are the mathematical sciences, mechanics, algebra, cosmography. Man has acquired knowledge. The completed Tower of Babel rises in the sky. On the other side are the physical sciences represented by happily grouped characters: electricity, acoustics, optics, hydrostatics are synthesized by familiar scenes that give a great impression of calm and happiness. It is an impression of calm which is the dominant note of this fresco of a real greatness. (....)
Reproduction of selfportrait of 1920 |