Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-08-20
AN ARTISTS REVENGE.
How Brumidi, the Frescoer, Adorned
the Capitol Dome.
New York SUI

It is recorded that Michael Angelo,
while engaged in his grand work on
S.. Peters, had a tilt with a high
church potentate and w1eaked an ar
fiscal revenge upon him by delinea>
ting his features upon the face of the
devil In his grouping. Whether the
story be true or not is of little conse-
Quence; but in q measure we have here
IN Washington, and in the national
capitol, an analogically similar art
incident, and in itself the most pecu-
liarly interesting feature of a histori-
! cal character in the works Of art in
the country. Yet, oddly enough, al
though gazed upon by hundreds of
thousands, and though in existence
for nearly score Of years lis special
interc SITS has been passed by unre3og-
nized, not even a single employe in or
about the building being aware of it's
existence and not visitor having re-
marked it. And yet itstands in bold
est relief and of heroic size, furnishing
| the most striking feature in the allie
gorical series of paintings in tho can
opy of the dome. It is the description
of the Goddess of Liberty defeating
treason and destroying discord.
1t has a little romance attached to
| its origin. While Brumidi, the Italian
artist of the capitol, was engaged in
his labors, he met a very beautiful
| girl here; boarded in the same house,
believe. Miss Jennie German, or
Lola, as her family called her, was
without exception the handsomest
young lady IN Washington. Although
without a trace OF Italian blood in
her VEINS, she possessed all the per-
fecting features Of beauty which poets
choose to accord their heroiaes of that
race, and, in addition. was grandly
tall and as faultless in physique as a
| sculptor ideal. Brum1dI grew young
again in his intense love for her,
| courted and married her. He was
then at least 60 and an age in appear
ance as if he had passed the allotted
three-score and ten; she was scarcely
twenty.
She admired his artistic powers and
also hersels; and with a pardonable
vanity suggested to him that he per
petuate her as the goddess in his mas
terpiece- He acquiesced and went
considerably further than her sugges-
ton. 1t opened to him a fresh idea
which he proceeded to act upon, aud
which, completed, furnishes t'.e pecu,
liar bit of history connected with the
painting.
CT eason and Discord are represent
ed by five human figures fleeing into
chaos before the Goddess of Liberty,
with unraised sword, and preceded by
the American eagle. Brumidi chose
in his art allegory five of the most
prominent faces In the just then dead
confederacy with which to character
ize the quintet la process of being cast
into the outer darkness: Jefferson
Davis, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall
Jackson, Alex. Stephens and Robt.
Toombs Jackson's is the most prom
1nent. He is helmeted and in black
armor, with q white cloak covering
his right arm, which is raised as he is
falling to escape the upliftsd sword of
the goddess; partly under him, and
to the left, is Davis with a face re-
sembling some of Macbeth's witches
in hysterical condition of fear, and
beyond him is Alexander Stephens
the best portrait of the lot To the
right, and almost side by side with
Jackson, is Lee with disheveIed white
hair and King Lsar beard, with a latter
ed brick colored garment scantily Gov
ering bis body, in terror stricken flight,
while Bob Toombs, who is making the
best time of all, is about two laps
ahead, with hands outstretched to-
wards Georgia
None of the men so caricatured ever
saw the portrait or knew of the fact
The only one of them who was ever
IN the capitol subsequent to the war
was Stephens, and he never entered
the rotunda. Brumidi, the artist, is
dead, yet this work will continue, no
doubt, as long as the capitol stands,
and a generation from now, when
every other relic of old and bitter SEN
timent will have passed away, Will
continue intact.