The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-02-28
Painting Under the Dome of the Capitol.

A Roman from Rome paints our cap
itol, says q Washington correspondent.
Brumidi has recently started, at the age
of more than eighty, the bas-relief paint
ing on the frieze of the dome. He has
to climb down into an architectural cave
to get to work. Brumidi's scaffold is
supported on three diagonal props of
wood, each forty feet long, resting upon
the cornice of the old dome, and extend
ing outward, and half way up their length
making shelf upon the broad architrave
of the new or superintendent dome of
iron. Ropes from the gallery above the
new cornice hold these long stanchions.
A couple of ladders descend from the
gallery by twenty-five long steps to the
scaffold, which is movable, around the
inner circle of the dome. The old man,
at the age of eighty, has to climb up the
inner gallery-which is built in the
dome's shelby ladder, step on the
balustrade, and go down second ladder
nearly one hundred feet from the floor
below. Then he stops on little rallied
scaffold, turning himself half way round,
and goes down the third long ladder. If
he should fall, he would mash down
yonder like q basket of eggs. He has
nothing upon his scaffold but q wooden
chair and box for table, and two tall
trestles to reach the top of his design.
His cups of colors are arranged outside
the ratings of his scaffold, along the sill
of the architrave. AS he stands up to
paint his head is at the knees of the
figures in his design. By getting on
the shelf across the long trestles, his
head is even with their faces. The dome
at this height is a little cold in winter.
The old man it the age of eighty is
thrice lonely thereby age, by deser-
ton and by the solitude of avocation.
He is about fifty feet above the rotunda,
forty feet below the nearest gallery, and
perhaps ninety or one hundred below
the eye of the dome, where, ten years
ago, he finished q huge composition
lying on his back and painting with
whitewash brushes. That immense
composition has in the centre Washing
ton bareheaded, in uniform, sitting with
an inverted sword between a trumpet
blowing Fame and Liberty holding
the book of law. These figures are
females, and from either side of them
sweeps round the circle of thirteen
Graces dancing on the clouds, the sister
States. They are generally fat and
matronly, and fly the white pennant of
"E Pluribus Unum." Surrounding
this centre are six great groups, Com
merce, Mines, War, &c.
Brumidi's design stands on painted
sill OF base, tinted like marble. 1t is to
represent in picture Or allegory the pro.
cesslon of America from her discovery
to the riddle of her future, looking out
from the eyes of her sibyls: Liberty and
History. The tints are those of sculp.
ture, marble forms depending on natural
shadow, and backed and divided by
whatever naturally arises to the theme,
church column or palm tree. Col
umbus descends from his great barge
with uncovered head and furled ensign
in his left hand, his boat full of armed
men. The shore end of the plank, or
which he walks, is beset by Indians, one
bending to kiss his feet, others stand.
ing back with gifts. This scene is
about twenty-five feet wide. 1t glides
into church scene, which appears tc
be the marriage of John Rolfe to Poca.
hontas; three cavaliers confronting three
Indian maidens. But this is since under
stood to be Cortez in the halls af the
Montezuma. Thesonly design or things
in our period is to be the discovery Of
gold in California.