BGuthrie Photos: DC -- U.S. Capitol (interior) -- Rotunda

DC -- U.S. Capitol (interior) -- Rotunda:

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[1] CAPROT_120106_002.JPG	[2] CAPROT_120106_005.JPG	[3] CAPROT_120106_010.JPG	[4] CAPROT_120106_015.JPG	[5] CAPROT_120106_019.JPG
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. CAPROT_120106_005.JPG: Portrait Monument to Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony The Basics Artist: Adelaide Johnson Materials: Marble Year: 1920 Location: Capitol Rotunda The monument was presented to the U.S. Capitol as a gift from the women of the United States by the National Woman's Party and was accepted on behalf of Congress by the Joint Committee on the Library on February 10, 1921. The unveiling ceremony was held in the Capitol Rotunda on February 15, 1921, the 101st anniversary of the birth of Susan B. Anthony, and was attended by representatives of over 70 women's organizations. The Committee authorized the installation of the monument in the Crypt, where it remained on continuous display. In accordance with House Concurrent Resolution 216, which was passed by the Congress in September 1996, the sculpture was relocated to the Rotunda in May 1997. The portraits are copies of the individual busts Adelaide Johnson carved for the Court of Honor of the Woman's Building at the World's Columbian Exhibition in 1893. The detailed busts are surrounded by rough-hewn marble at the top of the sculpture. The monument originally consisted of three parts, the 14,000-pound sculpture itself and two rectangular stone base slabs. The black Belgian marble base and the white Carrara marble base were donated by Johnson in 1925. However, the black marble base arrived broken and was not replaced by the artist until 1929. In 1930 both pieces were installed, completing the artist's design. The total weight of the monument and its two bases was approximately 26,000 pounds. To allow safe placement in the Rotunda, the marble base slabs were replaced with lighter structures designed to resemble them. From left to right the figures represent: Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), president of the National Woman Suffrage Association from 1865 to 1893; author of the woman's bill of rights, which she read at the Seneca Falls, New York, convention in 1848; first to demand the vote for women. Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), abolitionist, temperance advocate, and later president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, who joined with Stanton in 1851 to promote woman suffrage; proposed the constitutional amendment passed many years after her death. Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), Quaker reformer and preacher, who worked for abolition, peace, and equality for women in jobs and education; organizer of the 1848 Seneca Falls, New York, convention, which launched the women's rights movement. The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/portrait-monument-mott-stanton-anthony
2. CAPROT_120106_027.JPG: Declaration of Independence One of four revolutionary period scenes in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. The Basics Artist: John Trumbull Materials: Oil on canvas Year: 1826 Dimensions: 12' x 18' Location: Capitol Rotunda This painting depicts the moment on June 28, 1776, when the first draft of the Declaration of Independence was presented to the Second Continental Congress. The document stated the principles for which the Revolutionary War was being fought and which remain fundamental to the nation. Less than a week later, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration was officially adopted, it was later signed on August 2, 1776. In the central group in the painting, Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration, is shown placing the document before John Hancock, president of the Congress. With him stand the other members of the committee that created the draft: John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston and Benjamin Franklin. This event occurred in the Pennsylvania State House, now Independence Hall, in Philadelphia. This is the first completed painting of four Revolutionary-era scenes that the U.S. Congress commissioned from John Trumbull (1756–1843) in 1817. It is an enlarged version of a smaller painting (approximately 21 inches by 31 inches) that the artist had created as part of a series to document the events of the American revolution. When Trumbull was planning the smaller painting in 1786, he decided not to attempt a wholly accurate rendering of the scene; rather, he made his goal the preservation of the images of the Nation’s founders. He excluded those for whom no authoritative image could be found or created, and he included delegates who were not in attendance at the time of the event. In all, 47 individuals (42 of the 56 signers and 5 other patriots) are depicted, all painted from life or life portraits. Some of the room’s architectural features (e.g., the number and placement of doors and windows) differ from historical fact, having been based on an inaccurate sketch that Thomas Jefferson produced from memory in Paris. Trumbull also painted more elegant furniture, covered the windows with heavy draperies rather than venetian blinds, and decorated the room’s rear wall with captured British military flags, believing that such trophies were probably displayed there. The exhibition of this small painting (now owned by the Yale University art gallery) was instrumental in securing for the 61-year-old artist a commission to create monumental paintings for the U.S. Capitol. Trumbull created the enlarged painting for the Rotunda between August 1817 and September 1818. On October 5, 1818, the painting was put on public view at the American Academy of Fine Arts in New York. Over the next four months, he exhibited it in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; it was in the Capitol early in 1819 and was displayed or stored in various rooms until 1826, when it and Trumbull’s other three paintings were installed in the Rotunda. Declaration of Independence balances the last of Trumbull’s Rotunda paintings, General George Washington Resigning His Commission. The two paintings are similar in composition, with figures seated and standing in the background. The central action in each is the presentation of papers: here, by Thomas Jefferson; in Washington Resigning, by George Washington. Both scenes take place in the chambers of a civilian legislature, and Trumbull’s use of similar chairs in the two paintings subtly reinforces their relationship. Trumbull performed the first cleaning and restoration of his Rotunda paintings in 1828, applying wax to their backs to protect them from dampness and cleaning and re-varnishing their surfaces. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries the painting was cleaned, restored, varnished, and relined. All of the Rotunda paintings were most recently cleaned in 2008. An 1820 engraving of Declaration of Independence by Asher B. Durand, who would later become a renowned landscape painter, helped to make it Trumbull’s most famous painting. It is pictured on the reverse of the two-dollar bill and has appeared on U. S. postage stamps: a 24-cent stamp in the series of 1869 and two sets of bicentennial stamps in 1976 (a sheet of five 18-cent stamps and a strip of four 13-cent stamps). The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/declaration-independence
3. CAPROT_120106_029.JPG: Conflict of Daniel Boone and the Indians, 1773, Relief Sculpture Enrico Causici Sandstone 1826-1827
4. CAPROT_120106_041.JPG: Gerald R. Ford Jr. Statue The Basics Artist: J Brett Grill Materials: Bronze Year: 2011 Location: Capitol Rotunda This statue of Gerald Ford was given to the National Statuary Hall Collection by Michigan in 2011. Gerald R. Ford, 38th president of the United States, was the first person to assume the offices of vice president and president upon the resignation of his predecessors. This followed upon 25 years of service in Congress, including eight as House minority leader. The future president was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska, and was raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After his mother divorced his father, she married Gerald Rudolph Ford, in whose honor her son would take the name Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. He studied economics and political science at the University of Michigan, where he was also a champion football player. At Yale University he earned a law degree while coaching football and boxing. He graduated in 1941, practiced law briefly, and enlisted in the navy in 1942 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. His service included time on an aircraft carrier that saw action in the Pacific until it was irreparably damaged by a typhoon and fire, and he was honorably discharged in 1946. In 1948 Ford married Elizabeth ("Betty") Bloomer and was elected to the first of 13 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. During his service on committees and on the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, he established a reputation for fairness and integrity, and beginning in 1965 he served as minority leader. Upon the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew, President Richard Nixon selected him to fill the vacancy, and he was confirmed by the House and Senate as required by the 25th amendment to the Constitution. On August 9, 1974, Nixon himself left office because of the ongoing Watergate scandal, and Ford assumed the presidency. Among the challenges he faced were low public confidence in the government, economic inflation, conflict in the Middle East, the fall of South Vietnam and Cambodia, and an increasing Soviet military threat. He ran for election to a full term in 1976 but was defeated by Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia. Ford remained athletic, robust and active after leaving office, appearing at historical and ceremonial events, such as state funerals, and speaking out on subjects of domestic and international importance. He died on December 26, 2006, at his home in Rancho Mirage, California. His remains lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda from December 30, 2006, to January 2, 2007. Following a state funeral and a memorial service held at the National Cathedral on January 2, Ford was interred at his Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids. The Statue The statue depicts Ford wearing a three-piece suit and leaning forward, his feet splayed and his slightly raised left heel suggesting forward motion; the sculptor stated that this posture is "meant to embody the idea of someone standing up to serve their country when called." The president's right hand holds his open suit jacket with two fingers below the right lapel and his left hand holds two thick files, the outer one of which carries the presidential seal. The pedestal, clad in India Black granite, is inscribed on the front with Ford's name, life dates, positions and terms of federal service, and the state name "Michigan." On the proper right side is inscribed a quotation from a tribute by Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, Speaker of the House during Ford's presidency: "God has been good to America, especially during difficult times. At the time of the Civil War, he gave us Abraham Lincoln. And at the time of Watergate, he gave us Gerald Ford—the right man at the right time who was able to put our nation back together again." On the proper left side are words from Ford's swearing-in address: "Our constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule." The statue was unveiled in the Capitol Rotunda on May 3, 2011. The Sculptor Sculptor J Brett Grill (1979– ) holds a BFA in sculpture from the University of Michigan and an MFA in painting from the New York Academy of Art. Now an assistant professor of art, he teaches painting and drawing at the University of Missouri. He was selected by a panel of experts on behalf of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation following a national call for applications; the Foundation commissioned the sculpture on behalf of the state of Michigan. Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Grill also grew up there, as did Ford. Grill was familiar with Ford’s history and had previously depicted him in a bust. The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/gerald-r-ford-jr-statue
5. CAPROT_120106_051.JPG: The Apotheosis of Washington 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. Photographs of the inner dome and canopy (41k) and of the canopy fresco (42k) are available, as are photographs of individual groupings: In the central group (37k) 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: (1) War, with Armed Freedom and the eagle defeating Tyranny and Kingly Power (2) Science, with Minerva teaching Benjamin Franklin, Robert Fulton, and Samuel F.B. Morse (3) Marine, with Neptune holding his trident and Venus holding the transatlantic cable, which was being laid at the time the fresco was painted (4) Commerce, with Mercury handing a bag of money to Robert Morris, financier of the American Revolution (5) Mechanics, with Vulcan at the anvil and forge, producing a cannon and a steam engine; (6) Agriculture, with Ceres seated on the McCormick Reaper, accompanied by America in a red liberty cap and Flora picking flowers. The Capitol's cast-iron dome was designed in 1854 by Thomas U. Walter, the fourth Architect of the Capitol, who had also designed the building's north and south extensions. Work on the dome began in 1856; in 1859 Walter redesigned the structure to consist of an inner and outer dome. A canopy suspended between them would be visible through an oculus, or eye, at the top of the inner dome, and in 1862 Walter asked Brumidi to furnish a design for "a picture 65 feet in diameter, painted in fresco, on the concave canopy over the eye of the New Dome of the U.S. Capitol." It is possible that Brumidi added a watercolor image of his final canopy design over a tentative sketch on Walter's 1859 drawing at this time. ... The fresco underwent a thorough cleaning and restoration in 1987-1988. Although fresco is a very durable medium, grime had accumulated on the surface of Brumidi's Apotheosis for over a century. In particular, the joints between the giornate, the sections of plaster, had darkened, creating disfiguring lines in the composition. Today, with the fresco completely cleaned and treated, the unified effect and soaring illusion of space intended by the artist can once again be seen.
6. CAPROT_120106_060.JPG: Preservation of Captain Smith by Pocahontas, 1606, Relief Sculpture Antonio Capellano Sandstone 1825 Rotunda, above west door
7. CAPROT_120106_122.JPG: Martin Luther King Jr. Bust The Basics Artist: John Wilson Materials: Bronze Year: 1986 Dimensions: 36" high on a 66" high base Location: Capitol Rotunda Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK Jr.) born in 1929 to a family of pastors and civil rights leaders, received a B.A. degree from Morehouse College in 1948, a B.D. degree from Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania in 1951 and a Ph.D. from Boston University in 1955. He returned to Montgomery, Alabama, to work for civil rights while serving as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Already a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), he gained national recognition as a leader of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In 1957, he founded and was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He traveled extensively, giving over 2,500 speeches, and wrote five books as well as numerous articles. During his 1963 incarceration in Alabama he wrote his famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." He planned drives in Alabama for the registration of African-Americans as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people, to whom he delivered his "I Have a Dream" address in 1963; and he counseled Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. His actions brought about consideration and passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, Dr. King was the youngest man to receive that honor. On April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, he was assassinated. The Bust The bust of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s head and shoulders depicts Dr. King in a contemplative and peaceful mood, looking slightly downward. His face is smoothly modeled, in contrast to the textures of his hair and of his jacket and tie. The pedestal was designed by the sculptor to follow the lines of the shoulders of the bust, creating a unified shape and enhancing the monumental effect. The bronze sculpture is 36 inches high on a 66-inch high Belgian black marble base. On December 21, 1982, the Congress passed House Concurrent Resolution 153, which directed the procurement of a marble bust "to serve to memorialize [Dr. King's] contributions on such matters as the historic legislation of the 1960s affecting civil rights and the right to vote." Senator Charles McC. Mathias, Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Library, the congressional committee overseeing the procurement, said at the unveiling that "Martin Luther King takes his rightful place among the heroes of this nation." Because the bust would be such an important and visible work of art, the Joint Committee on the Library decided to have a national competition to select a sculptor. The competition was conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts, using a panel selection process that the Endowment had successfully developed over the previous 20 years. Mrs. Coretta Scott King agreed to serve on the advisory committee and to advise the panel of "the salient qualities of Dr. King's character and physical expression which the Panel should consider in evaluating the qualifications of the competitors." In December 1984, the panel selected John Wilson of Boston, Massachusetts; Elizabeth Catlett of New York City and Mexico; and Zenos Frudakis of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as finalists in the competition. Each sculptor received a $500 grant to create a maquette (i.e., a model) for the panel to review before making its final decision. The Chairman of the Arts Endowment was proud to point out that "this was the first time that Arts Endowment was asked by Congress to prove the expertise of its peer review process, which specifies artistic excellence as its primary criterion to select an artist to create a work of art to be placed in the U.S. Capitol." After reviewing the maquettes at a special meeting on April 15, 1985, the committee selected John Wilson; the artist was awarded a $50,000 commission to cast the model in bronze. The bust was unveiled in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on January 16, 1986, the 57th anniversary of Dr. King's birth, by Mrs. King, accompanied by their four children and Dr. King's sister. The Sculptor African-American sculptor John Wilson was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1922. After graduating from Tufts University in 1947 he studied in Paris and Mexico City. He served as professor of art at Boston University from 1964 to 1986. He won prizes in national exhibitions from 1951 to 1969. His work is in the collections of the DeCordova Museum, the Smith Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the University of Wisconsin. His most notable work, Eternal Presence, is at the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists in Boston. He also won the 1983 competition for the statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for Buffalo, New York. The above was from https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/martin-luther-king-jr-bust
8. CAPROT_120106_130.JPG: Landing of the Pilgrims, 1620 Enrico Causici Sandstone 1825
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