Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-26
The Unfinished Frieze.

| From the Chicago Chronicle.
| Tourists who visit Washington are apt to
| regard the Capitol as the most interesting
| sight and the rotunda as the most interest
| mo mart of II. When they stand beneath
| the vast dome and look upward the first
thing that is apt to strike them is the un-
finished painting on the frieze, seventy-hVe
feet from the floor. The dome Is probably
900 feet in circumference, but the last nifty
feet of the frieZe is blank wall. The
na,ntins was designed and partly executed
| by Brumidi and is greatly admired 1t was
| to have depicted typical scenes In the his
| tory of this country from its discovery by
| Columbus down to the revolutionary war,
| but the work was arrested by the death OF
| the famous artist. Brumidi had a narrow
escape from falling off his scaffold, ana died
soon afterward from the shock.
This happened in 1880, and after few
years the completion of the work was com
mItted to Fillipo Costaggan, who after
painting few more of the scenes according
| to Brumidi's sketches abandoned the work
| in 1889 because he was not allowed TO fnish
| 1t according to his own Ideas. he wlsned
| tn crowd Brumidis design into less space
and complete 1t with scenes from the civil
| war and the worlds fair at Chicago. That
| showed what he was tit for, and he was al
lowed to go, leaving fifty feet of the frieze
| a blank wall
The country is to be congratulated that
| Costaggan was not allowed to have his way,
| even If the frieze should never be completed
| Charles Sumner and the United States SEN
ate had settled 1t years before that nothing
commemorative of the civil war should be
seen in the Capitol They considered 1t
neither magnanimous nor good policy, and
they justified 1t by the example OF antiquity.
The rulers of ancient Rome. who were not
much given to sentimentality, acted on the
same principle. A painting Of a Union VIC
tory on this frieze would have done more to
embitter southern feeling and delay return
ing patriotism in the south than any
amount of insulting and oppressive legisla-
ton.
sectional feeling alike visible and tangible
thing, especially If 1t be a symbolical pic
ture or stature. This is the principle on
which national flags excite enthusiasm and
are defended to the DEATH
Even aside from this objection Costaggan's
design was Objectionable. After deVoting
all Of this immense space to the period be-
fore the revolution 1t would have been an
objectionable violation of proportion to
finish 1t up with mere glimpses of two other
more important periods. 1t reminds one of
Moses description OF the creation, where
after detailing at considerable length the
making of the sun and moon, he adds, par
enthetically, as 1t were: He made the stars
Also. Perhaps 1t might more aptly be COM
pared to the first effort of an immature
photographer whose photograph of horse
shows his head larger than his body
1t Is not known now how far Costaggan
was from getting his polyglot design ac-
the frieze until last week, when a Joint SUBJ
COMMITTEES OF the House and Senate commit
tees on the Library decided that the work
should be resumed. There seems to be no
Well-deflned opinion on the subject. All the
plans are to be gone over and a report on
the subject will be made to the full commit
tee, after which we may learn on Whit
principle the work ls to be completed. This
may be vexed problem to congressman,
but It would not puzzle any one else a mo-,
ment. The only correct thing to do is to