Background
Constantino Brumidi was born on July 26, 1805 in Rome, his father a Greek and his mother an Italian.
(Carol M. Highsmith, born 1946 and raised in North Carolin...)
Carol M. Highsmith, born 1946 and raised in North Carolina, has often been called "America's Photographer" for her photographic contributions. Her collection in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division is ranked in the top 6 collections overall, alongside crucially important historical photographers such as Dust Bowl photojournalist Dorothea Lange and Civil War photographer Mathew Brady.She has published over 50 exclusive photographic books dedicated to specific cities and states, most of which are published through Random House and have sold over 1.5 million copies nationwide.Highsmith has also been commissioned by the US government for numerous photography projects over the years, including the restorations of the Willard Hotel and Pennsylvania Avenue, the collection of Abraham Lincoln's possessions, and federal courthouses across the country. Source: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Carol M. Highsmith.
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Constantino Brumidi was born on July 26, 1805 in Rome, his father a Greek and his mother an Italian.
As a young boy, Constantino Brumidi showed great talent for drawing and became a pupil of the Academy of Fine Arts. When thirteen years old, he was admitted to the Academia di San Lucca, studying painting under Baron Camuccini and modeling under Canova and Thorwaldsen.
Constantino Brumidi was made a captain of the papal guards, and in 1848 when Rossi was assassinated and the Pope fled to Gaeta, Brumidi was ordered to turn the guns of his command upon the people. This he refused to do, with the result that he was arrested and thrown into prison, where he remained fourteen months.
When the Pope was restored to power, he had the artist released and advised him to leave Italy forever. He decided upon America as the haven of his exile and arrived in New York in 1852.
At his first meeting with Captain Meigs, superintendent of the Capitol, who was apparently interested in examples of Roman grandeur, Brumidi's services were accepted. His first work was the decoration of the Agricultural Committee room, where he selected as his subject "Cincinnatus at the Plough. "
This was painted in 1855, being the first example of fresco in America. His work in the Capitol, from then on, extended over thirty years. In the corridors, Washington at Valley Forge, the battle of Lexington, the death of Gen. Wooster, the storming of Stony Point, and the Boston Massacre, were all graphically portrayed. In the committee rooms, Brumidi painted symbolic figures, typifying History, Geography, Arts and Sciences, Mechanics, Commerce and War; also portraits of Robert Fulton, Franklin, Morse, and John Fitch.
When he began his work he received only $8 a day; later Jefferson Davis had this increased to $10. The decoration of the Rotunda was his great ambition. He knew that the tremendous height and width of the vaulted room would lend themselves to mural decoration, and at every spare moment he worked on the cartoons for the decoration of the canopy and the frieze. The frieze was done in imitation of sculpture, in alto-relievo. The belt upon which the frieze is painted is one hundred feet from the floor.
When Brumidi began his work on the frieze he was over seventy years old, but he planned and rigged the scaffolding, a sliding affair, and every day the striking figure of the old man, his hair and beard snow white, might be seen being hoisted by a system of pulleys to what he called his "shop. "
He worked from ten in the morning until three in the afternoon, and his descent from the lofty height was an event of the day to the visitors, who watched anxiously the slowly moving ropes until his cage was safely landed. He was three years on this work and received $30, 000, the only decoration for which he was paid a lump sum.
In January 1880 he was taken ill, as the result of a partial fall, and never recovered. The decoration was left unfinished. Brumidi painted many portraits of distinguished men and was painting a portrait of Clay at the time of his death, but he was essentially a decorative artist, knowing well the technical side of his craft: how to draw and paint large figures in distemper on curved plaster surfaces.
Many years after his death, original studies of some of his ceiling frescoes were discovered; also paintings which were acquired by distant relatives.
(Carol M. Highsmith, born 1946 and raised in North Carolin...)
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Quotations: In the only known quote attributed to him, he said, "I have no longer any desire for fame and 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. "
Brumidi was twice married before leaving Italy, and late in life he married a Washington woman, said to be a great beauty, Lola V. Germon. He left one son, who also became an artist.