New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-05-17
THE DECORATION OF THE CAPITOL.

From Oar Own Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Monday, May 10, 1853.
good deal of feeling is beginning to be mani
tested in Washington about the way in which the
decoration of the new Capitol is going on; and I'M
derstand that the subject will be brought up before
Congress in few days, at least before the Ses-
sion closes. In material, in architecture, and in
size, the Capitol in its enlarged FORM is entitled to
be ranked in the first class of edces, either ancient
or modern. Rightly enough, tho intention OF the
architect and of Congress is to have it decorated
internally in style Of art correspondent with its
rank and character as the foremost OF American
structures To effect this, it is obvious that the
paintings and the sculptures which ornament the
building should be Of the highest style of art attain
able at the present day, and should, moreover, be
designed and arranged upon some system or general
plan which shall give them historical character,
and impart to the building when complete pecu
liar value as an embodiment in art of all that
most characteristic in our history and m our pas
and present condition as a nation.
The field afforded by the Capitol is ample enough
to occupy for years to come all our artists who are
worth employing. The old Hall of the Representa-
tiyes now vacant and disused, is admirably calcu-
lated for gallery of pictures and statues, and IN
fact, cannot well be put to any other use. Inc
new buildings, throughout, have been designed
with reference to decoration by painting and by
scuIpure: inches, panels and fields, as the artists
call them. have been provided wherever there was
possible room for them. The ceilings and the walls,
not only of the principal halls, but of the corridors,
Hobbies and countless committee rooms, are TO be
covered with paintings in fresco or IN oil. In the
new Hall of Representatives alone there are twenty
large panels admirably designed for series OF MS
torical pictures. And each of the truly noble
and beautiful starcases III each wing affords fctdS
for three large and one very large picture.
The best artists Of the country, with scarcely an
exceptiop have offered their services and asked 10
be employed upon the Capitol. Without an ex,
cent;on their applications have been rejected, and
the work of decoration is going rapidly forward
under the direction of an Italian whose reputation
ia little better than that of skiiul scene painter,
and who employs under him crowd OF sixty OF
seventy foreign painters, cneny Italians ana feucn
men The result of their labors Is now visible here
and there throughout the new wings IN tawdry and
DANDY ornaments vile in taste, poor III design and
Offensive in color The most fragrant and consplcu
Gus scene of their exertions 50 far Is the senate
Naval Committee roOm-an apartment about thlrty
feet by twenty in size. The decorations oil THIS
one room have already cost 500 and the orna-
eucu ds IL 10 lo4 iAoHn
1t is scarcely possible to imagine anything more
absurd, or in more outrageous taste. Yet II Is
entirely in keeping with the general style OF
decoration of the Capitol, which is ser
yile tasteless reproduction of the PompeIan
style, with its WORKOUT, fade, wesrisome gods
goddesses, nymphs, and monsters, OF which
all sensible, cultivated men have long been
tired and which have passed away IRON
literature and art wherever literature and arr reay
flourish know nothing that can be more exactly
and appropriately compared TO the decoration ei
the Capitol than the stock in trade OF dealer In
valentines in the first half of the month OF req,
ruary The venuses and cupids and donkey'headed
monsters of the shopman are just as high specimens
Of art and have Just as much meaning and slgnin'
canoe as the similar classic and NEUROLOGICAL crea-
lures which disfgure the Capitol. Nay, more. FOR
in the valentine shOp have reason TO LOOK LOT
ANYTHING better, while in the Capitol OF the Aueri-
can people and particularly in that part oil II winch
dates from the middle of the nineteenth century! VIC
might naturally expect something illustrative VI TIC
national history character The poverty OF nod-
ern invention in architecture obliges US u DOT
row the external forms of our buildings irom Tue
Greeks and Italians but there is surely no hecess
in decorating the interiors, to reproduce the CASTOR
absurdties Of the Old World, which to US nave no
| meaning, not even the shadow of meaning. Inc
plain paint and whitewash of our fathers Is Hiolc
respectable and even more pleasant TO LOOK upon
than these taseess limitations OF Obsolete Euooi';
The Naval COmmittee-roomi winch II"
| have said, has already cost slo,VVo, d.
| forded perhaps as good an opportunity
any other room for the display OF some