Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1883-08-24
PARODIES ON ART.
The Most Magnificent Building in
the World Filled With Bad Pic
TIRES and Worse Statues =

SsAk OS AAu w OESC SUAttICSs
Cleveland Leaders Washington Letter. ~
Our National Capitol has no superior,
travellers say, in the world for beauty
of position and architectural granduer.
seated ON hill on the banks of the Po-
tomac, surrounded by rolling country
of picturesque scenery, it has the COM
binations of natures art added to the
best Of mans skill to make it beautiful:
Capitol Hill is ninety feet higher than
the capitol itself, measuring from the top
Of the Indian girl who poses as figure
of Justice on its dome and rises 2S7 feet
above this, has an elevation auove the
surrounding country of 81 feet. Every
one knows how the outside Of the cap
itol looks, but few appreciate its dimen-
sions. 1t covers three and half acres
Of ground, and is Isl feet long and 324
feet wide. It is built Of marble and
sandstone, but the sandstone which was
first used has been painted white, and
marble. The iron dome is of the same
glittering white-it is also p inted This
building has already cost SIS 100000.
The furniture and other things in the
interior will run this estimate into sew
eral hun ired thousand more. In gen
eral, the expenditures have been very
we'll made. But not always so.
Greenough's statue Of Washington,
which stands in front of the Capitol, is
parody on art and also a parody on the
man it is intended to represent. Still it
ought to be good Why? It cost. all told,
about $43, 100. But it is notgood. It rep
resents the father Of his country sitting
as naked as Adam on Roman chair,
holding one hand in the air and
sword in the other. Allen G.. Thur
man, in looking at it one cold day, said:
''See poor naked George Washington.
He is cold to-day, and he is pointing
with that uplifted hand toward his
clothes, which you know are in the Pa
tent Office, and mutely asking for them"
Still it cost 5000. Better sculptors
would haye made him and have thrown
in the clothes for half the money. 1t is
so with the most of the pictures through
is mighty smart. as our countrymen say
abroad, but it generally gets cheated on
it's art purchases.
The pictures of the rotunda look as
though they had been done by some
house painter. Still they cost small
fortune only $4,000. They were nearly
ruined Of late by the Garfield fair, but
Congress made al appropriation of s.,
500 to have them repaired, and a man
is working at them in little pen in the
rotunda to-day. | called on the artist
as was passing through. He was care.
fully removing the pictures from thell
| canvasses and transient ny them to 9th
orc ,ou, coDcosSnS Ha nO1rta6 ont
| some peculiarities in their damaged con.
! dition which seemed very strange. Said
! he: See the cracks in that picture,
| pointing to one that looked as though il
had been scratched with rake, ''those
cracks all correspond to cracks on the
wall behind the picture. The painting
does not touch the wall, and it is very
strange that the two coincide. It is SC
with all the pictures here.' s'Did you
ever notice." he continued, "that these
historical pictures are historically incor'
rect?'
"No," said I. Chow so?''
''In many respects. Here, for instance
IN this Handing of the Pilgrims.
Look at that portrait Of Miles Standish
Standish was, you know, man very
short in stature. This picture represents
! life-size, but if you will take measure
ments of that portrait you will find Stan
dish here is a giant of over eight feet.
This is only in one instance, There
are numbers of inaccuracies in nearly
every protrait in this room. Still some
! of these pictures are valuable. But it is
rather as containing portraits Of the
Statesmen Of tn days past than as works
| Declaration of Independence contains
portraits of nearly every one OF them
| and these. in some cases, are the only
ones on record"
Ibid you ever hear" said I, 'hoW
that picture came to be called the shi1
picture?"
"No," replied the artist.
"It came," said I, "from those little
| tables placed in front Of every man ir
| the front row. When Trumbull finished
the pctpGs and hand e it oyer to Cen
as sitting with their legs crossed over
: their knees, and their sllins, clad in the
knee breecbes Of the time, facing the
Speaker. A great deal of fun was m de
over it, and John Randolph dubbed it.
as the shin picture. The ridie ule be;
came at ,ast so treat That Congress passed
an at ordering the artist to put tables
| in front of the men to relieve the stiff
| ness of the picture. Th was done, and
that is how those tables came to be
| there to-day"
Every day crowds OF visitors stand ad-
miringly before these paintings ia the
! rot 1nda, or 20 into ecstacies over the
poorly-executed statues ofVinnie Ream
| and others scattered through the Cap
| itol. They pass without seeing many of
the real y great beauties of the building.
The dome itself, for instance, is the
finest piece of iron work in the world.
The bronze doors, by Rogers & Craw-
| ford, have not their equals in this
! country, and they will compare favor
ably with any of the works Of Europe,
except those wonderful doors in the
baptistry at Florence. which Ghiberty
made hundreds of years ago, and which
Michael Angelo said were fit to be the
gates of Paradise. The Rogers door was
modelled in Rome and cast in Munich.
II contains eight panels in alto-relievo.
illustrating the life OF Colombus and the
discovery of America. Iii a wonderful
work of art, and like the other, the
bso 2n door Of the Senate. one can
icately made. The Rogers door weighs
| 10000 pounds, it is seventeen feet high
! and nine feet wide and its cost was over
$4,000.
The Crawford door is on the Senate
Dortico. It was modelled by Crawford
and was made in Massachusetts. Its
cost was over $50, 900 Or more than $780,
900 more for the privileges of having it
made in this country. The door repre-
sents revolutionary and federal history
scenes, one side being devoted to views
of the revolution and the other to re o.
RESERVATIONS of the glories of peace. 1t
is considered work ofgreat artistic mer.
| it.
Brumidi's painting with the canopy OF
| the dome cost about $4,000. Standing
in the rotunda below, you may look at