Constantino Brumidi by Alexander Gardner, c. 1865, albumen print
The occupation of Rome by French forces in 1849 apparently persuaded Brumidi to emigrate, having joined the short-lived risorgimentalRoman Republic, and he sailed for the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1852. Taking up his residence in New York City, the artist painted a number of portraits.[1]
His first art work in the Capitol Building was in the meeting room of the House Committee on Agriculture. At first he received eight dollars a day, which Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War of the United States, helped increase to ten dollars. His work attracting much favorable attention, he was given further commissions, and gradually settled into the position of a Government painter. His chief work in Washington was done in the rotunda of the Capitol and included The Apotheosis of Washington in the dome and the Frieze of American History, which contains allegorical scenes from American history. His artistic vision was influenced by the wall paintings of Pompeii and ancient Rome, as well as the classical revivals that characterized the Renaissance and Baroque periods.[3][4] His work in the rotunda was left unfinished at his death, but he had decorated many other sections of the building, most notably hallways in the Senate side of the Capitol now known as the Brumidi Corridors. Filippo Costaggini continued painting the frieze over the next 8 years based on the sketches Brumidi left; however, there was no sketch left for the final panel, which remained empty until 1953, when Allyn Cox designed and painted it.[5]
Brumidi's Liberty and Union paintings are mounted near the ceiling of the White House entrance hall.
Grave of Constantino Brumidi, his wife, his son, and his in-laws at Glenwood Cemetery.
Another Brumidi altarpiece was recently restored behind the marble high altar of the Shrine and Parish Church of the Holy Innocents in New York, New York. The fresco commissioned by the first pastor of Holy Innocents, John Larkin, portrays the Crucifixion of Jesus.
In memoriam
Brumidi died in Washington, D.C., and was interred at Glenwood Cemetery. When he was buried, his grave was unmarked. The location of Brumidi's grave was lost for 72 years. It was rediscovered, and on 19 February 1952, a marker was finally placed above it.[7]
Forgotten for many years, Brumidi's role was rescued from obscurity by Myrtle Cheney Murdock.[8]
On 10 June 2008, Congress passed, and on 1 September 2008, President George W. Bush signed, Public Law 110–59 (122 Stat. 2430), which posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to Constantino Brumidi, to be displayed in the Capitol Visitor Center, as part of an exhibit honoring him.[9]
Statue of Constantino Brumidi near the central square of Filiatra, Greece, the hometown of his father
A memorial statue of Constantino Brumidi stands near the central square of Filiatra, Greece, the birthplace of his father.
123Barbara A. Wolanin, "Brumidi, Constantino" in The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art (ed. Joan M. Marter), pp. 353-54.
↑Anthony Grafton; Glenn W. Most; Salvatore Settis, eds. (2010). The Classical Tradition(PDF). Harvard University Press. p.764. Archived from the original on 19 March 2022. Likewise still visible, in the Senate wing of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., is the decorative program conceived and executed in the mid-19th century by Constantino Brumidi, which comprises one of the most creative modern combinations of Pompeian compositional style with images of national import. Beginning in 1856, Brumidi, an Italian painter well versed in the classical tradition, engaged a large workforce of decorative fresco painters to execute along the corridors and in the committee chambers of the Senate wing his designs combining illusionistic architecture and intricate ornamentation in Fourth Style format to frame significant scenes from American history often modeled upon the work of such Neoclassical painters as Benjamin West. Although some critics have characterized the installation's heavy-duty Victorian classicism as retrograde, it does appear symbolically reflective of the eminence of the senior American legislative body.
