In 1852, Constantino Brumidi arrived in New York as a refugee from Rome. He was already an accomplished artist, but in America, he found the work that would consume the rest of his life. For the next twenty-five years, Brumidi climbed scaffolds, painted ceilings, and covered the halls of the U.S. Capitol with scenes drawn from American history and the ideals of his adopted country.
His greatest work waited 180 feet above the Rotunda floor. There, inside the Capitol dome, Brumidi painted George Washington, known to many as “America’s Indispensable Man,” rising into the heavens surrounded by Liberty, Victory, Fame, and figures representing the original thirteen states. Our own Lee Habeeb shares how an Italian immigrant came to paint The Apotheosis of Washington, earning a remarkable nickname of his own in the process: “America’s Michelangelo.”
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Lee Habeeb (00:00:18):
This is Lee Habeeb, and this is Our American Stories. Up next, the story of an Italian immigrant whose love for the homeland that adopted him created some of the finest art our nation has ever seen. So good, in fact, that some have dubbed him America's Michelangelo. Let's get into the story.
It's an utterly unlikely union. America's Cincinnatus, George Washington, and America's Michelangelo, painter Constantino Brumidi, never met. Washington was born in 1732, third-generation Virginian. Brumidi was born in Rome in 1805 and emigrated to America in 1849, becoming a naturalized citizen soon after.
Washington left his mark on the nation like no other military and political leader before or after, earning the honorific America's Indispensable Man. Brumidi, who honed his craft painting frescoes and murals in Rome, would leave his mark throughout the nation's most important building, earning the honorific the United States Capitol's indispensable artist.
The Capitol Historical Society wrote an essay on the man: "Those beautiful hallways on the Senate side of the Capitol, Brumidi. The historic committee rooms and the fancy reception rooms, Brumidi. The decorative band wrapping around the rotunda with the scenes from American history, that would be Brumidi, too."
Brumidi's crowning achievement among many throughout the Capitol, painted over a 25-year period, is the mural known as the Apotheosis of Washington. Painted in 11 months, not long after the new Capitol dome was completed in 1864, the magnificent fresco is suspended 180 feet above the rotunda floor and covers an area of 4,664 square feet.
How did this Italian immigrant earn this commission? And why was George Washington chosen as the main subject of his masterpiece? To understand the answer to the former question, it's best to answer the latter.
There's no better American to describe Washington's importance than Abraham Lincoln, who said these words to an audience in Springfield, Illinois, in 1842: "Washington's is the mightiest name of earth. To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of Washington is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pronounce the name, and in its naked deathless splendor leave it shining on."
Lincoln's words were not hyperbole, but rather an expression of well-earned reverence. Washington not only led an upstart fighting force to victory over the mighty British army, he resigned his commission not long after the big win. When told by the American artist Benjamin West that Washington was walking away from power, King George III of England famously said, "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."
Washington, the man who chose not to be king, returned to Mount Vernon to pursue civilian life. Duty called again when Washington was summoned to Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to serve as president of the Constitutional Convention. Washington was then unanimously called upon to be our first president. Among his achievements, he signed into law the Northwest Ordinance of 1789, which, among other things, precluded slavery in the new territories of the United States. After serving just two terms, Washington once again walked away from power to return to Mount Vernon.
But who was Brumidi, and how did he become the U.S. Capitol's most important painter? Here's how the U.S. Capitol Historical Society described him: "As a boy in Italy, he studied at a famous arts academy and learned how to fresco, painting on wet plaster so colors could become a permanent part of the wall. In Rome, he would paint frescoes in palaces and chapels, and at the Pope's residence at the Vatican."
Forced to flee the Italian Revolution in 1852, Brumidi came to America. Living in New York, he traveled extensively to paint private homes and churches, including a cathedral in Mexico City. It was on his way back home that Brumidi stopped in Washington, D.C., to visit the Capitol. That side trip would forever change his life.
The timing couldn't have been better for Brumidi and America. The Capitol had recently doubled in length to make room for larger chambers for the House and the Senate. What was left after construction was a building filled with empty walls, walls beckoning for an artist to bring them to life.
Brumidi was determined to win the commission, demonstrating his talents with a small painting in a Capitol meeting room. He passed the audition and would paint in the Capitol for the next 25 years. Indeed, few people could remember a day when Brumidi was not painting at the Capitol.
If Brumidi was a fixture there, so too was the scaffolding needed for his most memorable creation. Here's more from the Capitol Historical Society: "The enormous wooden scaffolding for the Apotheosis of Washington mural raised Brumidi 180 feet into the eye of the dome. Often, Brumidi would lie down on that platform, working flat on his back as he painted on the curved surface 17 stories above the rotunda's floor."
It was dangerous work, and people often gathered simply to watch him get up all the way to the scaffolding's peak. One fall nearly cost him his life, but for a watchful security guard who was able to save him. Injured, he would continue to paint for another year before his death in 1880.
The most memorable creation of Brumidi's career is his effort to honor our nation's founding father. In the central group of the fresco, Brumidi depicted Washington rising to the heavens in glory, flanked by female figures representing Liberty and Victory and Fame. A rainbow arches at his feet, and 13 maidens symbolizing the original 13 states flank the three central figures. The figures in the painting, up to 15 feet tall, were painted to be intelligible from up close as well as from 150 feet below.
What was the significance of this godlike rendition of Washington? I quote author Nayeli Riano: "The fresco is less a deification of Washington than a creative recording of his achievements. And like any historical painting, it's telling us a story about how we understand our nation and its identity."
She added: "We might easily mistake such a work as blind reverence, but that's not the case. Brumidi's fresco demonstrates instead the purpose of art, to lift our spirits and grant us something, an ideal, worth striving for."
One of our great historians, the late David McCullough, agreed: "This isn't ancestor worship. This is reality. This is the truth. To be indifferent to people like Washington is a form of ingratitude. We ought to be down on our knees thanking God we're a part of this country, and we ought to know about the people who made it possible."
That's precisely what Brumidi believed, expressing his reverence for Washington and the nation that adopted him, not with a pen, but with paint and a paintbrush.
Washington died at his home on December 14, 1799, to worldwide accolades. Brumidi died more than 80 years later at his home in Washington, D.C., in near anonymity, and with another important work left unfinished, the Capitol's Frieze of American History.
Thus ended the mystical story of America's Cincinnatus and America's Michelangelo, forever connected in a fresco adorning the dome of the U.S. Capitol, one the American people have admired for centuries and will be admiring for centuries to come.
The story of America's Cincinnatus and America's Michelangelo, here on Our American Stories.
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