Chapter M: C. M

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Vital research, extending over a period of years, necessarily touches many people. At the culmination of any valued study an author suddenly finds himself indebted to countless individuals. Fashioning a mosaic from the life of Constantino Brumidi in spite of many missing pieces has been no exception. I find myself humble before my corps of helpers.

After a dozen years of assembling the Brumidi life story it suddenly became urgent that the material should be in printed form. At the same time it also became apparent that publishing a Brumidi volume featuring the artist’s Capital frescoes in color might never be realized, due to the initial cost of such a book. At a crucial moment, two Foundations, who wish to remain anonymous, became interested in the Capitol artist and were anxious to help the project. Their timely grants influenced beyond measure the final decision that such a publication could be attempted. I acknowledge this valued assistance with deepest gratitude.

Years before this publication was conceived I began collecting reproductions of the Brumidi Capitol frescoes. The book itself makes use of this collection together with many color reproductions by the same nationally known photographer, Theodor Horydczak. The Brumidi frontispiece by Brady was made by Mary Evans of the L. C. Handy Studios.

Also before there was any thought of a publication the Architect of the Capitol, the Hon. David Lynn, made available to me the Brumidi files for study. The interest and courtesy of Mr. Lynn and his assistants always spurred my efforts. The Sergeant at Arms of the Senate, the Hon. Joseph C. Duke, and the Sergeant at Arms of the House, the Hon. Joseph H. Callahan, have at all times shown their concern for the Brumidi project by making available to the author the services of their offices.

I have needed and greatly valued the sincere interest of the Capitol Guides and their leader, Harry Nash, who has been a Brumidi enthusiast during his thirty-five years’ work as a guide in the Capitol Building of the United States.

The Congressional services of the Library of Congress have shown great enthusiasm for the Brumidi research by tracing willingly every suggested clue and in addition often have launched forth on what seemed completely hidden trails and emerged with valuable materials. I am remembering at the moment the late George H. Milne of the Congressional Reading Room whose appreciative feeling for Brumidi and his art helped to bolster my early enthusiasm. The National Archives is another such human service in our governmental set-up. It was personal appreciation for Brumidi on the part of a group of employees of the National Archives that led to the finding of so many public documents vital to this study.

I wish to acknowledge especially the services of the National Gallery of Art and the National Collection of Fine Arts. These two galleries have had a continuing interest in the unfolding Brumidi story. The officials of the National Gallery of Art not only have been willing consultants concerning the materials for an art book but have commissioned their fresco expert to climb to the top of the Capitol Dome to examine minutely the 4,664 square feet of Brumidi painting. When the expert pronounced the Canopy “real fresco,” the National Gallery sincerely shared my own joy at this verification. A special debt of gratitude goes to the Director of the National Collection of Fine Arts, Thomas M. Beggs, for his splendid introduction to this Brumidi memorial volume.

Because of Brumidi’s twenty-five years’ service within the Capitol Building of the United States, the nation’s Public Printer, the Hon. John J. Deviny, of the Government Printing Office, delegated Frank H. Mortimer, Director of Typography and Design, to make available to the author consultation and advice upon the many problems connected with the publication of an art book. Mr. Mortimer and Mr. Warren W. Ferris of the Division of Typography and Design have carried their help far beyond the limit of duty. Their feeling for the subject matter of the book that makes known the forgotten Capitol artist, and their desire to show forth his work with the best possible arrangement and design, are partly responsible for the dignified beauty of this volume.

Many individuals throughout the Capital City have helped materially by their Brumidi enthusiasm, their sincere good wishes and by their active interest in locating Brumidiana outside the Capitol Building. Mildred Thompson, the great-grandniece of Mrs. Brumidi, the former Lola Germon, has carried on consistent research of her own into the Germon family which has verified many dates and other facts concerning the Capitol artist. James H. Rowe, grandnephew of Lola Germon Brumidi, has performed an outstanding service to the author by making available to her the working sketches for the Rotunda Frieze. His desire to make known his treasure by sending the priceless scroll across the continent is deeply appreciated, although the sketches arrived almost too late to have even one of the fifteen included on the last page of the book’s supplement.

Washington clubs and organizations have displayed their love for the Capitol Building of the United States by supporting in every possible way the author’s over-all plan to make known the forgotten Capitol artist. Native Washingtonians together with recent arrivals have been eager to visit the Capitol Building and to be shown the Brumidi frescoes. These same Brumidi friends have also helped to promote the marking of the artist’s lonely grave in Glenwood Cemetery.

Members of the Washington Press have been especially understanding and helpful. Editors, correspondents and reporters alike have combined to tell the American people about this Capitol artist and his great love for American liberty. This sincere spirit of cooperation and feeling for Brumidi is acknowledged appreciatively.

Congressman Murdock has consistently encouraged the Brumidi research through the years. His continued patient interest has helped immeasurably. To him and to Martha Wing go my last measure of gratitude for their persistent combing of the manuscript for minute error.

It is a warm and friendly feeling of indebtedness that I have toward those who have made appraisals in writing for this volume: Mr. Beggs adds new appreciation for the Italian artist; Architect Lynn sees Brumidi an integral part of the Capitol Building; and Virgil Perry pays tribute to the author and to the book in a manner to make us proud. All of this courtesy, however, is above and beyond friendship. It is a vital part of the Memorial to Constantino Brumidi.

MYRTLE CHENEY MURDOCK

_Washington, D. C., October, 1950_

Table of Contents

CONSTANTINO BRUMIDI, ITALIAN REFUGEE 1

BRUMIDI ART IN THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL 11

COLOR REPRODUCTIONS OF BRUMIDI FRESCOES IN THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL 47

THE ARTIST’S COMPENSATION 65

BRUMIDI’S AMERICAN WIFE AND CHILDREN 73

BRUMIDIANA OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL 83

Illustrations

[* Indicates real fresco.]

SENATE RECEPTION ROOM

_Washington-Jefferson-Hamilton_ 58 (REPRODUCED IN COLOR)

SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE ROOM

*_Storming of Stony Point_ 62 (REPRODUCED IN COLOR)

_Maidens of the Navy_ 35

*_Washington at Valley Forge_ 43

PRESIDENT’S ROOM--SENATE EXTENSION

_The President’s Room_ 17

_The Cherub of Justice_ 24

_The Winged Cherub_ 25

*_Christopher Columbus, a portrait_ 21

_Singing Cherubs_ 19

_Alexander Hamilton, a portrait_ 27

*_Religion_ 23

_Thomas Jefferson, a portrait_ 57 (REPRODUCED IN COLOR)

*_Benjamin Franklin, a portrait_ 61 (REPRODUCED IN COLOR)

*_Legislation_ 64 (REPRODUCED IN COLOR)

SENATE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COMMITTEE ROOMS

*_Telegraph_ 63 (REPRODUCED IN COLOR)

*_Three Graces_ 41

*_History_ 37

GROUND FLOOR CORRIDORS--SENATE EXTENSION

_Bronze staircase, a Brumidi design_ 9

_Horatio Gates, a profile_ 69

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CHAMBER

_Washington at Yorktown_ 59 (REPRODUCED IN COLOR)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ROOM

*_Spring_ 15

CAPITOL ROTUNDA

*_Landing of the Pilgrims_ 44 *_Penn’s Treaty with the Indians_ 45

CAPITOL DOME

_The Eye of the Dome_ 5 *_Brumidi’s Frescoed Canopy in the Eye of the Dome_ 49

_Agriculture_ (_Ceres_) 50 (REPRODUCED IN COLOR)

_Mechanics_ (_Vulcan_) 51 (REPRODUCED IN COLOR)

_Commerce_ (_Mercury_) 52 (REPRODUCED IN COLOR)

_Marine_ (_Neptune_) 53 (REPRODUCED IN COLOR)

_Arts and Sciences_ (_Minerva_) 54 (REPRODUCED IN COLOR)

_War_ (_Freedom_) 55 (REPRODUCED IN COLOR)

MISCELLANEOUS

_Constantino Brumidi, Brady photograph_ Frontispiece

_Mr. and Mrs. C. Brumidi, album photographs_ 77

_Brumidi’s Grave, Glenwood Cemetery_ 87

_Lola Germon’s Album_ 89

_Altar Mural, St. Aloysius Church_ 97

_The Capitol Dome_ 99

_Working Sketch for Dome Canopy_ 95

_Working Sketch for Three Graces_ 79

_Working Sketch for the Landing of the Pilgrims_ 111

Introduction

Enshrined in the domed Rotunda of the United States Capitol, as in the Roman Pantheon from which it is descended, are the noblest hopes of a mighty Nation. Yet less fearful of incurring the wrath of an unpropitiated power than the ancients who raised a statue in their sacred temple to “The Unknown God,” the American people have neglected and all but forgotten patriotic mural painting. Long overdue also is grateful tribute to its one-time protagonist, Constantino Brumidi. The story of Brumidi’s life in this country and his labors to express allegorically its principles of government and record visually the events and personalities which achieved its establishment should be instructive reading for many and particularly for those concerned with the direction of American painting. By it they may be led to the realization of a vital force that should be an important factor in national life, an unknown power needed now in support of the heritage we are called upon to defend.

The early settler in North America had little opportunity for monumental painting. The austerity of religious belief dominating many new world settlements, infused as they were with the spirit of the Reformation, afforded meager encouragement to its development. American artists, following Benjamin West to England, leaned heavily upon British custom and precedent. West’s pupils--Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert Stuart and Joseph Wright--became makers of likenesses, and liberty-loving John Trumbull pursued historical painting to produce four of the eight great framed pictures of the Rotunda of the Capitol. Contrasted with Brumidi’s paintings, these mark the difference between the easel picture, a loosely related, detachable embellishment, and mural decoration designed in scale and color especially to enhance architecture.

The easel picture, the favored form of painting in the United States, is a symbol not only of the American artist’s independence of expression and freedom of enterprise but also of his dependence upon his own resources and private patronage. Easily transported, it is adaptable for exhibit in distant galleries, for sale to successive owners, and is more easily reproduced. In the 19th century it was largely the means of living for the professional fine artist. George Catlin found admission charges to his exhibits remunerative. Others turned to engravings of their subjects for profit. In the 20th century the framed picture has become the delight of the amateur. American enjoyment of freedom of thought and action is lived in the solitude of private studios. Yet too rarely do these common privileges and fortunate blessings become the subject matter of the canvases. These canvases exist solely for the enjoyment of the individual.

Mural painting, however, in comparison to easel picture painting, is made for the edification of large numbers of people and demands the formal presentation of themes affecting all. The work of Brumidi, though in a foreign style long past the crest of its vigor in service to the Church, was found more suited to the requirements of monumental architecture than that of native painters of the middle of the 19th century.

The monumental mural is usually better if executed in fresco, the medium which Brumidi used. This process of painting directly on the wall is called “fresco secco” if the wall is allowed to harden and become almost dry and the pigment bound to it by means of a glue size, casein or egg yolk. This is much inferior to the true or “buono fresco” employed by Brumidi in the dome which is painting on freshly laid plaster with pigment suspended in pure water. Because the mortar sets in six or eight hours the painting must be done in sections no larger than can be completed at one time. In true fresco a finished study is generally required. Frequently this assumes the form of a full-size detailed drawing known as a cartoon. The outline of this is transferred to the damp plaster wall by pouncing dry color through a perforated tracing or “pattern,” or the cartoon on very light tough paper may be held against the surface and contours pressed into the damp wall with a stylus.

Figures are modeled within the drawn lines. Terre verte is employed in underpainting flesh, the rosier tones being superimposed later. Accessories are painted in washes of varying depths and appropriate colors further deepened or lightened until the desired three-dimensional effect is gained. In the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo used color glazes with such economy that the panels and single figures of his great ceiling decorations truly appear as water color paintings. Brumidi depended upon a heavier use of pigment and built up his lights opaquely.

If the day’s allotted portion is not satisfactorily finished while the wall is still absorbent, it must be removed and worked again. As the moisture leaves, the mortar sets and the wall hardens, its colors becoming lighter and more sparkling as the white lime and crystalline sand shine through. Carbon dioxide, ever present in the air, gradually combines with calcium hydroxide of the lime plaster resulting in a carbonate not unlike marble itself and very durable. Thus, the decoration is truly a part of the architecture and, being inseparable from it, is far more satisfactory than canvases from the most able painters to be attached to wall or ceiling.

In the face of the current challenge to the American way of life our painters should be given space in our Federal and State buildings for decorations reaffirming the faith that made our Nation great. More artists at present should be engaged in depicting the virtues of our system of government in the interest of the development of appreciative citizenship upon which it so justly depends.

Today, due to the rapidly declining private fortunes of the industrialist-connoisseur class, the artist is facing a vacuity in art patronage. Establish in its place a small but steadily sustained federal program of mural painting, and a revival is possible here in the United States not unlike that experienced in England when the social satire of Hogarth’s brush was followed under royal patronage by one of the most productive and prosperous periods of British painting.

This penetrating study of the life and works of Constantino Brumidi by Dr. Murdock should arouse in public-spirited readers a desire to honor the fresco artist for his accomplishment, an understanding of which is of fundamental importance in a movement to further a strong national program of mural art of an inspiring type. It is appropriate that this history be addressed to laymen by one alert to the problems of the hour and sensitive to the need of general public awareness of the power of painting.

THOMAS M. BEGGS, _Director_

NATIONAL COLLECTION OF FINE ARTS SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

Constantino Brumidi, Italian Refugee

It was late afternoon. The House of Representatives Chamber in the Capitol Building of the United States was deserted, save for one lone figure that stood motionless before the freshly painted mural on the south wall. Everything about this man in long black cape and close fitting beret betokened pride and triumph in achievement--the tense erectness of the body, the tilt of the head, the glow of the cheek and even the angle at which he held his pallet and brush. Suddenly, with strength and determination he said aloud, “I’ll do it,” then he rushed back to the picture, bent possessively over the lower right hand corner and began painting with quick, deft movements. When the lonely figure finally left the Chamber he seemed so satisfied with his work that he never once looked back.

Eighty years later as I stood before that mural on the south wall of our House of Representatives Chamber--that portrayal of a crisis in American history, representing Washington at Yorktown, I beheld for the first time the words in the lower right hand corner, left by that proud painter back in 1857, “C. Brumidi, artist. Citizen of the U. S.” Suddenly I asked myself, “Who is this C. Brumidi who has so much pride in his adopted country as to paint a portion of its Revolutionary history on the wall of the House of Representatives Chamber, and who glories so much in the citizenship of his adopted country that he emblazons that sentiment forever before the Congress of the United States?” I had no thought at that moment that those words inscribed on the wall of the Capitol Building of the United States by Constantino Brumidi could well be considered his epitaph, for he had no other, expressed in words. And of course I was unaware of the bitter criticism that followed his every effort. But I am ahead of my story.

So much did I want to see what this lover of America had done for his adopted country by way of decorating our Capitol Building, that I searched out every frescoed wall and ceiling, every painted panel, lunette, or medallion in committee rooms, corridors and Rotunda that were attributed to the Italian artist. As the number of those paintings mounted in my tabulations and as the beauty of his decorations sank into my consciousness, I decided he must have spent a lifetime in America for surely it would take a lifetime for such accomplishment. Then I learned that Brumidi came from Italy to America when he was almost fifty years old!

From meager biographical data the following additional facts came quickly to light: Brumidi was born in Italy in 1805, grew up in Rome, was admitted to the Academy of Arts in that city when only thirteen years old, and at the age of about thirty-five “restored some paintings in the Sacred Palaces to the full satisfaction of Pope Gregory XVIth.”

About all that is known of the artist’s next twenty years is that he became involved in “the French occupation of Rome in the year 1849 for the suppression of Republican institutions,” and when his friend, Pope Pius IX, was banished from Rome Brumidi was thrown into prison for fourteen months. As Captain of the Papal Guard Brumidi had refused to obey certain orders against his friends which resulted in the enmity of Cardinal Antonelli, Minister of State. Pope Pius IX was finally restored to the Vatican but he was unable to save Brumidi except on condition that the artist would flee the country and never return. Finally, to save his own life, Brumidi was forced to leave Italy. He reached America in 1852.

While the above facts concerning Brumidi were much the same in the few available references in the Library of Congress, stories of Brumidi’s life in America and of his services to the United States seemed to vary with the enthusiasm or bias of the narrator. Certain conflicting statements centered about the merit and authenticity of his paintings; the genuineness of his American patriotism; the amount of money paid him for the paintings in the Capitol Building; the loyalty of the artist’s family; the appreciation of the American people; and the poverty of the artist at the time of his death. For the most part, however, little has been written and less has been publicly known about the artist who spent his last twenty-five years in devoted effort toward beautifying the Capitol Building of the United States.

The most sympathetic appraisals of Brumidi’s art and his years in America have been done by Charles E. Fairman, Smith D. Fry, George C. Hazelton, Randolph Keim, and S. D. Wyeth. Mr. Wyeth wrote a small pamphlet of six pages in 1866 on “Brumidi’s Allegorical Painting within the Canopy of the Rotunda.” That was the year after Brumidi had finished the huge canopy fresco in the Dome of the Capitol Building. The author was so intent upon the allegorical interpretation of the figures in the Dome canopy that he almost forgot the artist and his art. He did, however, refer to Brumidi in this manner, “Brumidi has been mainly engaged for years in ornamenting various portions of the walls

The focal point of this Rotunda panorama is the huge Brumidi fresco covering The Eye of the Dome. At this perspective the six allegorical groupings about the circumference of the fresco are partly hidden from view. A portion of Brumidi’s unfinished frieze, painted in imitation sculpture, shows below the windows. Two white balconies encircle the dome, one between the windows and the frieze, and the other at the very top. A hidden stairway winds its way between the two iron shells of the Dome, a vertical distance of 180 feet from the rotunda floor.]

of the Capitol, and his name will ever be associated with the history and beauty of our world renowned National building.”

Since the Rotunda scaffolding, from which Brumidi worked on the Dome canopy, was removed in January 1866 and the magnificent fresco was then lighted and displayed for the first time to the public, we have every reason to believe that Wyeth’s six pages of allegorical explanations of that huge fresco, printed the same year, were direct from Brumidi’s own carefully planned allegories.

The tiny book entitled, “Keim’s Capitol Interior and Diagrams” was published in 1874. Since its stated purpose was “to furnish the visitor to the Capitol with complete and reliable plans and diagrams, with reference to and accurate descriptions of all objects of interest within the building,” it made no effort to evaluate the Brumidi paintings but it did give a comprehensive record throughout as to the location of Brumidi’s work. Most of the Brumidi frescoes, oils, and decorative portions can still be identified by the Keim references but some are evidently gone forever, while others undoubtedly are merely covered by the wall board or artificial ceiling panels of later renovations.

In George C. Hazelton’s book, “The National Capitol,” printed in 1897, and dealing with “The Architecture, Art and History of the National Capitol,” we find Brumidi a bit more appreciatively treated. Said Hazelton, “No higher compliment could be paid to his genius than the expression of a group of artists who were decorating the new building for the Congressional Library. When they visited the Capitol to study the frescoes of the Italian, they said, ‘We have nothing equal to this in the Library. There is no one who can do such work today.’” Then Hazelton continued, “Brumidi’s work so identifies him with the Capitol Building that he may almost now be called the Michelangelo of the Capitol.”

In “Fry’s Patriotic Story of the Capitol,” a booklet published in 1912, the author refers repeatedly to Brumidi in such an intimate way as to lead the reader to believe that Smith D. Fry must have known Brumidi personally and must have loved the artist genuinely. Since Mr. Fry graduated from law school the year the artist died it is not impossible that the two were personally acquainted. In the following Fry quotation there is evidence to support this view and the human touch to the biographical sketch may have come direct from the artist himself. Mr. Fry wrote,

“When about forty years of age, Brumidi threw away his brush and his great career, declaring that he would never paint another stroke until he had found liberty. Because of an indignity suffered by a member of his family he became a revolutionary soldier and fought in vain for liberty. When almost fifty years old he was banished from Italy and came to America. Here he found liberty and became an intensely patriotic citizen.”

Mr. Fry then gives a direct quotation from the artist himself. This is unique, being the only direct quotation from Brumidi passed on in this manner. Said Mr. Fry, “When Brumidi’s merit was disclosed (in America) fame and fortune sought him. Thousands of dollars were his for the taking. He refused all allurements in these words, ‘_I have no longer any desire for fame or fortune. My one ambition and my daily prayer is that I may live long enough to make beautiful the Capitol of the one country on earth in which there is liberty._’”

Charles E. Fairman, art curator of the Capitol for thirty-two years, compiled during that time valuable records on the “Art and Artists of the Capitol of the United States of America.” Mr. Fairman was born in 1854 about the time Brumidi began his decorations of the Capitol Building. Although Mr. Fairman did not begin his own work at the Capitol Building until 1911 it is entirely possible that as a young man he had occasion to watch Brumidi at work. While Mr. Fairman maintains an impersonal attitude in his treatment of Brumidi, his record is invaluable as proof of the authenticity of certain Brumidi frescoes and paintings.

The whole colossal piece of research so carefully assembled by Mr. Fairman and printed in 1927 contained the best summary of documentary material available on Constantino Brumidi. Since Mr. Fairman’s book covered all art and artists in any manner having connection with the Capitol Building the parts devoted to Brumidi and his murals occupy a not too prominent division of the book. However, Mr. Fairman’s combined references to Constantino Brumidi are of great service to one making a more extended study of the Capitol muralist.

_The Daily Evening Telegraph of Philadelphia_ announced Brumidi’s death in its issue of February 19, 1880. On the following day this same paper carried a lengthy article purporting to be an evaluation of the Brumidi frescoes. So scathing and crude was the criticism by this anonymous writer, even before the old artist had been buried, that one senses instinctively that this same type of critical carping had no doubt been stalking Brumidi from other sources during a period of years. The following quotation is a glaring example of this unjust criticism:

“...Of Brumidi, the frescoer of the Capitol at Washington, whose death was announced yesterday, it may be said, ‘He was most industrious.’ If hard work always represents a value given and received, the industrious Brumidi could be put down as having fairly earned the large sums which must have been paid him out of the public treasury. But, if the quality of his work is considered, we doubt whether those who are at all competent to judge with regard to the matter will differ among themselves as to the fact that his employment for a long term of years, in the face of repeated and emphatic protests from people who knew what good decoration was, was most scandalous.

“...He was permitted to paint on the interior of the dome a composition which, both in design and execution, is about as abominable as anything of that kind well could be. Now that he is dead and out of the way, let us hope that something like a serious effort will be made to have his place filled by an artist who is an artist, and who has some claims to consideration other than that of being skilled in the fresco process.”

On that same day, Friday, February 20, 1880, another reporter, this time for the _Washington Post_ in the Capital City, told of the death and life of Brumidi with a show of sympathetic appreciation. A portion of this article follows:

DEATH OF A GREAT ARTIST

“Constantino Brumidi, the artist, died yesterday morning at his residence, 921 G Street, at 6:30 o’clock. For months past he has been failing, but until within two weeks has been able to work every day in his studio, and was dressed and sat up each day until the one preceding his death. For a fortnight he has been failing rapidly. The last twenty-four hours before his death he was unconscious, but at the last moment he recognized those around him. The funeral will be attended from the house on Saturday. Mr. Brumidi leaves no family in this city except an adopted son, who bears his name and has adopted his father’s profession.

“Almost until the last hour he continued his work on the frescoes in the dome of the Capitol, though compelled to sit instead of standing, his hand and eye were as true and strong as ever, and the work from that point on shows no loss in spirit or excellence of execution. For months the little scaffold that clings to the wall in mid air under the dome of the Capitol has been deserted, and curious strangers, looking at the neglected cartoons hanging over the railings have been told that Brumidi would never come back to finish his frescoes. It was the dream of his life that he should come back. He wanted with his own hand to lead that historic procession round the dome till the encircling frieze should be complete. Of late, as growing infirmities have pressed upon him, he has gradually abandoned the hope and occupied himself in enlarging his original cartoons to working size, so that any artist might complete the work by simply following copy.--He lies in the pleasant parlor studio of his house, in death as in life, with his work about him. Half-finished designs are sketched on the walls, and busts and statuettes fill the corners; canvas and palette are on the easel.”

In the Senate of the United States on February 24, 1880, four days after the burial of Brumidi, two speeches were made in reference to the artist, one by Senator Voorhees of Indiana, and another by Senator Morrill of Vermont. Senator Voorhees eulogized Brumidi in this manner:

“May I not be pardoned some brief mention of the wonderful genius, so long, so gently, and so beautifully associated with this Capitol? He died poor, without money enough to bury his worn-out body, but how rich the inheritance he has left to the present and succeeding ages! During more than a quarter of a century he hovered along these walls from the basement to the Dome, leaving creations of imperishable beauty wherever his touch has been. Wherever he paused by a panel, or was seen suspended to a ceiling, there soon appeared the brilliant conceptions of his fertile and cultivated mind. We can form no correct idea of the extent, the variety, and the perfection of his taste and skill as an artist without sometimes forgetting our pressing cares, as we look in detail over his field of labor.”

Senator Morrill spoke of the artist in these words of friendship and understanding:

“Covering as he has done so much space with his fresco paintings--so difficult and so durable--it is wonderful that so great a part should be fairly excellent and so little that

So long has the name Brumidi been associated with the lovely cherubs about the Capitol Building that even this bronze staircase has come to be called a “Brumidi Stairway.” Two such Brumidi stairways lead from the House Chamber and two from the Senate Chamber. Hazelton wrote in 1897, “Brumidi made the attractive designs of the eagle, deer, and cherubs for all the railings upon paper; they were modeled by Baudin and cast in Philadelphia.” Mr. Baudin wrote from Philadelphia to Captain Meigs in 1857, “...I am waiting for the drawings for the stair rail....”]

competent critics esteem otherwise. If he has not attempted the ambitious role of the old masters on the walls and ceilings of churches, it may be at least said that his hand has rarely touched anything which it has not decorated. Even after that accident by which his life hung many minutes fearfully imperiled under the Dome of the Capitol, his latest work there, unfinished though it be, shows that his hand had not lost its cunning, and his acquaintance with American history and skill in its portrayal has, perhaps, never been more happily displayed.

“Those who have, without any special intimacy, barely seen this poor and quiet old man as he slowly passed and repassed to his daily tasks or who have but for a moment listened to his speech in broken English, and never heard his glib tongue when he met those with whom he could converse in his native language, will hardly comprehend his merits as a severe student in the art to which he had devoted his whole life, still less will they be inclined to credit the rapid and correct drawing of which he was undoubtedly a master; but the evidences of his rare genius and of swift work are too conspicuous to be denied. We have only to look around to behold them all.

“Brumidi was a diligent reader of Dante, of Gibbon, of Bancroft, and many other works from which he derived his historical and classical aid and his great desire was that he might live to complete his last great work. So long had he devoted his heart and strength to this Capitol that his love and reverence for it was not surpassed by even that of Michael Angelo for St. Peter’s.”

Brumidi Art in the United States Capitol

Brumidi’s art in the Capitol Building is not all accessible to the casual visitor. The large mural already mentioned which the old master executed on the wall of the House of Representatives Chamber can be viewed by visitors only from the galleries of the House, unless some special dispensation takes the visitor to the Floor of the House of Representatives for a close-up study. The beautiful frescoes on the walls and ceilings of six committee rooms, one in the House extension and five in the Senate extension, can be seen only by special permission or by attendance at certain committee hearings.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ROOM

The frescoes in the House of Representatives Committee room, originally occupied at the time of execution by the Committee on Agriculture, were finished in 1855. This room displays two large crescent-shaped wall frescoes, referred to as “lunettes” by Brumidi--“The Calling of Cincinnatus from the Plow”, and “The Calling of Putnam from the Plow to the Revolution.” Two portrait heads in imitation sculpture adorn the other two walls of this room. Beneath the marble-like medallion head of Washington is a choice panel showing an American harvest scene of early date, while beneath the medallion head of Jefferson on the opposite wall is what was then a modern threshing scene, a golden field of grain being harvested by the new McCormick Reaper. The ceiling is light and gay and exquisite with designs representing Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. The blues and golds and inimitable flesh tints of the entire room seem not to have faded one whit during the ninety years they have spread cheer and beauty about an otherwise sombre corner of the House extension of the Capitol.

In spite of all the beauty Brumidi painted into the old Capitol Building the Congressional Journal for those Brumidi years records occasional reference on the Floor of the House, criticizing the Italian artist and his work. In 1858 Congressman Lovejoy ridiculed in the House Chamber that “brilliant interpretation of the seasons” by Brumidi in his first frescoed ceiling decorated for the use of the House Agriculture Committee. Said Mr. Lovejoy in his Congressional speech,

“Overhead we have pictures of Bacchus, Ceres, and so on, surrounded with cupids, cherubs, etc., to the end of heathen mythology. All this we have; but not a single specimen of the valuable breeds of cattle, horses, sheep, etc., which are now found in this country. In another panel, we have a company of harvesters with the sickle, which is well enough, only a quarter of a century too late. But worst of all, there is not a single picture to represent maize. A panel ought to have been given to this single production. It should have been represented in its different stages; as it emerges, weak and diminutive, from the ground, as it sways in its dark luxuriance of June and July; and then as it waves its tasseled crest, like the plumes of an armed host; and last as it stands in its rich golden maturity.”

We find Brumidi’s art defended, however, on the Floor of the House of Representatives about two years later, on June 15, 1860, by Mr. Curtis of Pennsylvania. Said Mr. Curtis,

“If you go into these committee rooms, and these galleries, of which we have heard so much, and take any honorable and fair-minded artist with you, he will himself do justice to the specimens of art that will be before him, and admit its distinguished worth. What, sir, can be more beautiful than the fresco work in the room of the Agricultural Committee?”

Hanging on the side of a bookcase today, in this House Committee Room, where Brumidi began his Capitol decorations, is a framed bit of verse put on display evidently by an admirer of the artist. This attempt to give poetic expression to the worth of Brumidi and his art was written by Horace C. Carlisle, a present employee of the Architect’s office of the Capitol. Seven such pieces of verse on Brumidi and his art, written by Mr. Carlisle, were placed in the Congressional Record by Congressman Sheppard of California, on April 7, 1944. The verses themselves are irregular but one line in the frame beneath Brumidi’s first American fresco is an immortal prophecy. Said Mr. Carlisle, concerning Brumidi and that first fresco in the Capitol Building:

“Above the rebuke of the scorner he climbed to glory height there.”

In 1874 Brumidi himself referred to his first American fresco in a statement, “Relative to his employment at the Capitol,” which is now preserved in the Architect’s office. Said Brumidi, in part,

“The Committee Room on Agriculture in the south wing of the Capitol was painted in 1855 as the first specimen of real fresco introduced in America.

“In this connection can be mentioned a curious mistake common in this country, and that is the calling all and every decoration in oil, turpentine or glue that is put upon dry walls, real fresco.

“Fresco derives its name from fresh mortar, and is the immediate and rapid application of mineral colors diluted in water, to the fresh mortar just put upon the wall, thereby the colors are absorbed by the mortar during its freshness, and repeating this process in sections day by day, till the entire picture will be completed.

“This superior method is much admired in the celebrated works of the old masters, and is proper for historical subjects or classical ornamentations, like the Loggia of Raphael at the Vatican.”

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CHAMBER

A most revealing side light on the Cornwallis-Washington mural on the south wall of the House of Representatives Chamber, earlier referred to, is brought forth by an anonymous letter written on December 14,

One of four pleasing groups on the ceiling of the Old House Agriculture Committee Room is this Brumidi conception of spring. The four seasons on this ceiling make up Brumidi’s first fresco in the Capitol Building--painted in 1855. What appear to be sculptured figures and attached moldings surrounding the center panel in this picture are actually painted decorative borders on a flat surface. It was probably the tender hues of spring on this ceiling that led Congressman Curtis to say in 1860, “What, sir, can be more beautiful than the fresco work in the room of the Agriculture Committee?”]

1857, to Captain Montgomery C. Meigs, Superintendent of Construction, two days before the House met in its new “Hall of the House of Representatives.” The letter protesting this contract follows:

“Dear Sir:

It will be news to you, I dare say, to learn that there is a party
organizing to effect your removal from the Superintendent of the
Capitol extension and I take leave to say to you that the wall
painting, ‘The Surrender of Cornwallis,’ is considered
inappropriate and the execution execrable, in view of all of which
I suggest to you to have the painting wiped out.

Your friend and supporter,

OFFICIOUS”

Since Captain Meigs could not reply directly to “Officious” he gave vent to his feelings by penning a note on the above letter. This note gives among other things an idea of the speed with which Brumidi was able to work under pressure. The note follows:

“One of many indications. The picture is as good as could be
painted in six weeks. It serves to show what the effect of painting
on the panels will be which is all I intended. It cost little and I
have not the least objections to a better painting being by
Congress put over it, but it is the best that could be done at the
time and no more time was at my immediate disposal.