US Capitol Rotunda - Washington, DC
Posted by: 
DougK
N 38° 53.395 W 077° 00.544
18S E 325754 N 4306479
The US Capitol features the mural, The Apotheosis of Washington, in the eye of the Rotunda Dome.
Waymark Code: WMB9MH
Location: District of Columbia, United States
Date Posted: 04/23/2011
Views: 38
The interior dome of the US Capitol Building is just part of the many art treasures in the rotunda. In addition to the fresco painting in the dome, the room is surrounded with eight large historical paintings, and statues of historic people around the room. At the base of the dome, like a belt, is a circular frieze art panorama showing events from American history. The walls of the rotunda contain many 3D relief sculptures.
From the Capitol Campus Art web page:
The Apotheosis of Washington in the eye of the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol was painted in the true fresco technique by
Constantino Brumidi in 1865. Brumidi (1805-1880) was born and trained in Rome and had painted in the Vatican and Roman palaces before emigrating to the United States in 1852. A master of creating the illusion of three-dimensional forms and figures on flat walls, Brumidi painted frescoes and murals throughout the Capitol from 1855 until his death. The canopy fresco, his most ambitious work at the Capitol, was painted in eleven months at the end of the Civil War, soon after the new dome was completed, for $40,000. Suspended 180 feet above the Rotunda floor, it covers an area of 4,664 square feet. The figures, up to 15 feet tall, were painted to be intelligible from close up as well as from 180 feet below. Some of the groups and figures were inspired by classical and Renaissance images, especially by those of the Italian master Raphael.
In the central group of the fresco, Brumidi depicted George Washington rising to the heavens in glory, flanked by female figures representing Liberty and Victory/Fame. A rainbow arches at his feet, and thirteen maidens symbolizing the original states flank the three central figures. (The word "apotheosis" in the title means literally the raising of a person to the rank of a god, or the glorification of a person as an ideal; George Washington was honored as a national icon in the nineteenth century.)
Six groups of figures line the perimeter of the canopy; the following list begins below the central group and proceeds clockwise:
• War, with Armed Freedom and the eagle defeating Tyranny and Kingly Power
• Science, with Minerva teaching Benjamin Franklin, Robert Fulton, and Samuel F.B. Morse
• Marine, with Neptune holding his trident and Venus holding the transatlantic cable, which was being laid at the time the fresco was painted
• Commerce, with Mercury handing a bag of money to Robert Morris, financier of the American Revolution
• Mechanics, with Vulcan at the anvil and forge, producing a cannon and a steam engine
• Agriculture, with Ceres seated on the McCormick Reaper, accompanied by America in a red liberty cap and Flora picking flowers