Constantino Brumidi

“ 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. ”

“ He had prayed to live long enough to paint this frieze, but when the signal finally came from Capitol authorities to begin this last cherished fresco he was an old man of seventy-two. Brumidi had lost his physical strength but not his will to work toward the completion of his dream.
The young wife he had married at the height of his American financial success had long since gone with a younger man; his lonely years and his poverty weighed heavily upon him; criticism and ridicule had undoubtedly taken their toll but the old artist persistently stayed with that last assignment. ”

“ One of the figures in the ceiling of the rotunda is said to be an exact likeness of the artist’s beautiful wife, while most of the figures he painted in the Capitol portray some of her characteristics.”
The old Bible given to Mr. Brumidi by the American Bible Society in 1852 when the artist landed in New York no doubt was originally saved by Lola Germon for her son Laurence. On the inside front cover are these words written in the C. Brumidi hand:
“Constantino Brumidi from Rome, Italy, arrived in New York, America, the 18th of September, 1852. Presented to me by the American Bible Society.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ In both arts Signor Brumidi has left several specimens of his skill in Rome. For instance, he was employed during eleven years in making frescoes and decorations of the villa and of the palace of Prince Torlonia in Rome. These works are admired by visitors. Should an American admire the works of Signor Brumidi at home and despise them when he finds them at Washington? ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There is continually being uncovered other evidence of appreciation for the artist Brumidi—recognition that has lain buried in the hearts and homes of numerous American families and churches since the year 1880. Many Brumidi canvases outside the Capitol Building of the United States have been found: portraits of friends; working sketches in color for the artist’s huge frescoes ”

“ The Dome of the Capitol Building of the United States actually symbolized to Constantino Brumidi “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” In return for that liberty and security this Italian refugee dedicated himself in service to his adopted country. He spent the last twenty-five years of his life “making beautiful the Capitol of the one country on earth in which there is Liberty.” His crowning effort was the huge canopy in color—4,664 square feet of concave fresco—covering the inside of the Dome of the Capitol of the country he had learned to love. ”

“ In many instances the Strieby signature followed the Brumidi signature in the old Time Books in spite of an otherwise alphabetical listing of Capitol employees. All of this lends credence to the story of Mrs. Strieby that Philip’s father loved the old artist, helped him through his last hard years, and finally shared responsibility for the burial of Brumidi in Glenwood Cemetery. ”

“ In these groups we find Minerva, Goddess of Arts and Sciences, as the center of her allegorical group; Ceres, of Agriculture; Mercury, messenger of the Gods, symbolizing Commerce; Vulcan, the God of Mechanics; Neptune, God of the Marine, and Armed Liberty with shield and sword, symbolizing War.
S. D. Wyeth says, “The fresco of Brumidi (on the canopy of the Dome) arrests the gaze as though the sky had opened and it were permitted to look into the beyond.” ”

“ I can only record for you authenticated Brumidi facts as they have unfolded themselves to me during the fourteen years I have been inspired by the artist’s frescoes—all the time waiting for a poet or an artist to tell this story.
However, I do know that great service and sacrifice in our Democracy often are not rewarded until long years have slipped away. I know, too, that unjust criticism and ridicule can so befog the patriotic works of a good man that even half a century is often not long enough for those works to emerge with all their significant meaning. ”

“ In the showing before you the artist and Lola focus attention to the upper half of the right-hand page. The lower half portrays Elena Brumidi, the artist’s daughter left behind in Italy, and the artist’s son, Laurence, the child of his American wife Lola, in Washington. On the left-hand page are pictures of four religious paintings. The upper two have been identified as photographs of working sketches for Brumidi paintings in St. Stephen’s Church, New York City, and the Cathedral of St. ”

“ The laying of the Atlantic cable, with its great significance, has been painted by Brumidi into two Capitol frescoes. “Telegraph” is Brumidi’s own title for this lunette painted as a part of the ceiling fresco in the District of Columbia Committee Room of the Senate. The beauty, freedom, and plenty of America extending a welcome across the seas, as here portrayed, was always in the heart of the artist. The working sketch for this lunette was among the Brumidi paintings stored in a Washington bank vault for forty years. ”

“ I confess that my national feelings were a little wounded when I saw vituperated to some extent in Washington an artist much esteemed in Rome. Music and the fine arts are all that remain of our former greatness, and we are naturally jealous of this glory. Besides, I am convinced that Signor Brumidi is a good artist and an excellent fresco painter. He has studied long in Rome, even from his boyhood, and visited for instruction all the most important schools of art in Italy. Baron Camucini was his master in painting, and the great Thorwaldsen taught him sculpture. ”

“ The newspaper article for November 2, 1919, quotes the accumulated storage charges as $300. It states also that “the packing evidently was done by Brumidi himself because they were arranged so expertly as to sustain no damage whatever.”
The boxes were opened by Court Order by Mr. Edward P. Schwartz who was named executor of the 1879 Brumidi will, and also “named committeeman by the Court” for Laurence who had been committed to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. ”

“ Four Brumidi Madonnas on the frescoed ceiling of the President’s Room are of great interest to visitors. The most lasting impression, however, is made by “Religion.” The story is often repeated that Brumidi painted “Religion” with an “all-seeing eye of God” which will follow any individual from place to place inside the room. The “connections of the pieces of plaster” which help to identify real fresco are easily discernible in this medallion background. The color beauty of “Religion” is illustrated by “Legislation” in this book’s color section. ”

“ Brumidi is the only real fresco painter in this country capable of executing the work. The design is probably the grandest and most imposing that has ever been executed in the world and Mr. Brumidi has proved by his real frescoes in the Capitol extension (all of which were painted by his own hand) that he is fully equal to the task. ”

“ Laurence is the boy to whom Senator Morrill referred in his Senate speech on February 24, 1880, as the “adopted son” of Brumidi. This letter from Laurence to the Architect of the Capitol leads us to believe that Laurence is the artist’s own son. The letter is quoted in full as it is the only original document in the Brumidi file throwing any light on the American born son of the artist:
“It may seem strange after so many years’ silence I recall myself to you. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Mrs. Harvey Hunt who attended the Brumidi auction of 1925 with Mrs. Ashmun Brown, purchased four of the Brumidi paintings. Two of these are working sketches of cherubs, one bearing the Brumidi signature; another, a sketch of Lola Germon used for “Prudence” in the Senate Reception Room; and the fourth, an oval landscape much like those painted on the walls of the main corridor on the ground floor of the Senate Annex.
Mrs. Hunt being a grandniece of Lola Germon gave three of her treasures to a grandnephew of her Aunt Lola so today three of these working sketches are in the home of Mr. and Mrs. ”

“ WASHINGTON-JEFFERSON-HAMILTON
Brumidi was paid $500 for this mural of Washington-Jefferson-Hamilton on the south wall of the Senate Reception Room as indicated by an 1873 voucher. Portions of two empty medallions showing in this reproduction beyond the “decorative figures in light and shade (chiaroscuro) ” remind us of Brumidi’s sorrowful words in 1874: “Now many panels remain empty, disfiguring the elaborate ornaments and gilded mouldings around them, which sooner or later must be completed.{59}” ”

“ Among the twenty-seven oil paintings of various sizes belonging to the estate of Brumidi, of which I am the Executor and Committeeman for his son, Laurence S. Brumidi, who is now in St. Elizabeth’s Asylum for the insane, there is one worthy of consideration, and that is the original oil painting of the Rotunda of the Capitol which I have in storage and is in excellent condition. This miniature is in oil, about 35 inches in diameter from which, no doubt, he copied his wonderful Rotunda painting. It is quite an education and shows the process of making a great picture. ”

“ The Brumidi working sketches found in Washington during recent years are in a wonderfully fine state of preservation, whether they have come directly from the hand of Lola Germon or from Laurence Brumidi’s storage cache found in 1919, or from other sources. Most of the canvases have in no manner been restored or retouched but the colors are soft and true and pleasing. Those art lovers who fear that certain Capitol decorations may have suffered by “restorations” have but to compare the Capitol fresco with its working sketch to be reassured. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Even during the years that Brumidi created the beauty of the President’s Room cruel words were hurled against his art. In 1858 a convention of self-styled American artists assembled and drew up an estimate of their own worth which they titled: “Memorial of the Artists of the United States.” This petition of grievance presented to the Congress of the United States carried the names of 127 individuals, chiefly from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore with only eight from the Capital City. ”

“ 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.{xvi}
The monumental mural is usually better if executed in fresco, the medium which Brumidi used. ”

“ The House of Representatives referred the Artists’ Memorial to a select committee of five. This Committee brought out Report No. 198, March 3, 1859. That Report not only sanctioned the establishment of the suggested Art Commission to protect the “embellishment of National buildings” but it voiced criticism by the Congressmen making up the select Committee of five. Brumidi’s name was not mentioned in the Report but there is no mistaking the artist to whom they referred. ”