View allAll Photos Tagged USCapitolBuilding
Tea Party Photos, Washington DC, 03/20/2010, Capitol West Lawn 1
Description: Tea Party Photos, Washington DC, 03/20/2010, US Capitol Building, Healthcare Reform, Kill the Bill, R[evolution] Photography, TeaPartyMovement.us
Frieze of American History
The Frieze of American History in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol contains a painted panorama depicting significant events in American history. The frieze’s nineteen scenes are the work of three artists: Constantino Brumidi, Filippo Costaggini and Allyn Cox. The frieze is painted in grisaille, a monochrome of whites and browns that resembles sculpture. It measures eight feet and four inches in height and approximately three hundred feet in circumference. It starts fifty-eight feet above the floor.
•Artist: Constantino Brumidi, Filippo Costaggini and Allyn Cox
•Location: Rotunda, U.S. Capitol
Thomas U. Walter’s 1859 cross-section drawing of the new Dome (constructed 1855-1863) shows a recessed belt atop the Rotunda walls with relief sculpture. Eventually it was painted in true fresco, a difficult and exacting technique in which the pigments are applied directly onto wet plaster. As the plaster cures the colors become part of the wall. Consequently, each section of plaster must be painted the day it is laid.
In 1877 the Architect of the Capitol reported, “The belt of the Rotunda intended to be enriched with basso relievos [low relief] is being embellished in real fresco representing in light and shadow events in our history arranged in chronological order, beginning with the Landing of Columbus…”
The frieze is the work of three artists. It was designed by Constantino Brumidi, an Italian artist who studied in Rome before emigrating to America. He worked at the Capitol over a period of twenty-five years, decorating numerous committee rooms and the areas known as the Brumidi Corridors; he also painted the Rotunda canopy fresco, The Apotheosis of Washington. Brumidi created a sketch for the Rotunda frieze in 1859 but was not authorized to begin work until 1877. After enlarging the sketches for the first scenes, Brumidi began painting the frieze in 1878, at the age of seventy-three. His design traces America’s history from the landing of Columbus to the discovery of gold in California. As was common in the history books of the day, the Spanish explorers and the Revolutionary War are emphasized. While working on the figure of William Penn in the scene “William Penn and the Indians,” Brumidi’s chair slipped on the scaffold platform. He saved himself from falling only by clinging to the rung of a ladder for fifteen minutes until he was rescued. He returned to the scaffold once more but then worked on enlarging his remaining sketches until his death a few months later in February 1880.
Filippo Costaggini, who had also been trained in Rome, was selected to complete the remaining eight scenes using Brumidi’s sketches. When he finished in 1889 there was a gap of over thirty-one feet because of early miscalculations about the height of the frieze. Costaggini hoped to fill it with three of his own scenes, but Congress failed to approve his designs before his death in 1904. In 1918 Charles Ayer Whipple painted a trial scene in the blank section; it was later removed.
In 1951 Allyn Cox was commissioned to paint the last three panels tracing the growth of the nation from the Civil War through the birth of aviation. Cox also cleaned and retouched the frieze. The frieze was completed in 1953 and dedicated the next year. In 1986 Congress appropriated funds for a careful cleaning and restoration of the frieze to remove accumulated grime, overpaint, and streaks caused by leaking water. The conservation treatment, completed early in 1987, restored the original details and vividly brought out the illusion of relief sculpture. Minor repairs were made in 1994.
The sequence of nineteen scenes begins over the west door and moves clockwise around the Rotunda.
1.“America and History”
2.“Landing of Columbus” (1492)
3.“Cortez and Montezuma at Mexican Temple” (1520)
4.“Pizarro Going to Peru” (1533)
5.“Burial of DeSoto” (1542)
6.“Captain Smith and Pocahontas” (1607)
7.“Landing of the Pilgrims” (1620)
8.“William Penn and the Indians” (1682)
9.“Colonization of New England”
10.“Oglethorpe and the Indians” (1732)
11.“Battle of Lexington” (1775)
12.“Declaration of Independence” (1776)
13.“Surrender of Cornwallis” (1781)
14.“Death of Tecumseh” (1813)
15.“American Army Entering the City of Mexico” (1847)
16.“Discovery of Gold in California” (1848)
17.“Peace at the End of the Civil War” (1865)
18.“Naval Gun Crew in the Spanish-American War” (1898)
19.“The Birth of Aviation” (1903)
The domed, white-painted ceiling of the Chamber is elaborately coffered and enriched by decorative moldings.
The United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C.
The United States Capitol
East Capitol Street, NE and 1st Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
202-226-8000
Photo
Washington, D.C. USA North America
03/23/2013
Tea Party Photos, Washington DC, 03/20/2010, US Capitol Building, Healthcare Reform, Kill the Bill, R[evolution] Photography,
TeaPartyMovement.us, FoxNews, Jon Voight
Tea Party Photos, Washington DC, 03/20/2010, US Capitol Building, Healthcare Reform, Kill the Bill, R[evolution] Photography,
TeaPartyMovement.us, Politician
Tea Party Photos, Washington DC, 03/20/2010, US Capitol Building, Healthcare Reform, Kill the Bill, R[evolution] Photography,
TeaPartyMovement.us
Tea Party Photos, Washington DC, 03/20/2010, US Capitol Building, Healthcare Reform, Kill the Bill, R[evolution] Photography,
TeaPartyMovement.us, FoxNews, Jon Voight
Tea Party Photos, Washington DC, 03/20/2010, Capitol West Lawn 1
Description: Tea Party Photos, Washington DC, 03/20/2010, US Capitol Building, Healthcare Reform, Kill the Bill, R[evolution] Photography, TeaPartyMovement.us
Tea Party Photos, Washington DC, 03/20/2010, US Capitol Building, Healthcare Reform, Kill the Bill, R[evolution] Photography,
TeaPartyMovement.us, FoxNews, Jon Voight
Charles Carroll
This statue of Charles Carroll was given to the National Statuary Hall Collection by Maryland in 1903. Carroll was a statesman and signer of the Declaration of Independence.
•Artist: Richard E. Brooks
•Material: Bronze
•State: Given by Maryland in 1903
•Location: Crypt, U.S. Capitol
Charles Carroll was born on September 19, 1737, in Annapolis, Maryland. The child of a prominent family, he was educated in Paris and London, where he studied civil law. He returned to Maryland in 1765 to assume control of the family estate, one of the largest in the colonies. At that time he added “of Carrollton” to his name to distinguish himself from his father and cousins of the same name. As a Roman Catholic, he was barred from entering politics, practicing law, and voting. However, writing in the Maryland Gazette under the pseudonym “First Citizen,” he became a prominent spokesman against the governor’s proclamation increasing legal fees to state officers and Protestant clergy. Carroll served on various committees of correspondence.
He was commissioned with Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Chase in February 1774 to seek aid from Canada. He was appointed a delegate to the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, and signed the Declaration of Independence. He resigned in 1778 to serve in the Maryland State Assembly and helped draft the Maryland constitution.
Carroll served as Maryland’s first Senator from 1789 to 1792, but retired to manage his extensive estates, work for a canal to the West and serve on the first Board of Directors of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He died on November 14, 1832, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Tea Party Photos, Washington DC, 03/20/2010, US Capitol Building, Healthcare Reform, Kill the Bill, R[evolution] Photography,
TeaPartyMovement.us, Politician
Tea Party Photos, Washington DC, 03/20/2010, US Capitol Building, Healthcare Reform, Kill the Bill, R[evolution] Photography,
TeaPartyMovement.us, Politician
Tea Party Movement
Tea Party Photos, Washington DC, 03/20/2010, US Capitol Building, Healthcare Reform, Kill the Bill, R[evolution] Photography,
TeaPartyMovement.us