It should be made clear by way of an introduction to this appraisal of
Constantino Brumidi that the author is neither an artist nor an art
critic. I am simply the wife of a Western Congressman who has been
stirred by the patriotism of the Italian refugee-artist, Brumidi; by his
exquisite decorations on the walls and ceilings of our Capitol Building
of the United States; by his persistent effort in the face of blinding
criticism; and finally by the lack, of recognition characterized by his
unmarked burial place.
I have asked myself these questions many times: “How can countless
exquisite frescoes and paintings adorn our Capitol Building and yet the
American people have little or no knowledge of their existence?” “Can an
artist spend twenty-five years decorating this Capitol Building and then
remain as unknown as his frescoes?” “How could a Government such as
ours, that has rewarded so many for so much, forget the artist, Brumidi,
and let him lie unhonored and unknown for seventy years in an unmarked
grave?”
These questions I cannot answer. I can only record for you authenticated
Brumidi facts as they have unfolded themselves to me during the fourteen
years I have been inspired by the artist’s frescoes--all the time
waiting for a poet or an artist to tell this story.
However, I do know that great service and sacrifice in our Democracy
often are not rewarded until long years have slipped away. I know, too,
that unjust criticism and ridicule can so befog the patriotic works of a
good man that even half a century is often not long enough for those
works to emerge with all their significant meaning.
I know, also, that when the early refugees to our shores negotiated
immediately for citizenship it indicated sincere appreciation for
America. This was true of Constantino Brumidi. He landed in New York on
September 18, 1852; he filed his original intention to become a citizen
of the United States on November 9, 1852; and he was admitted and sworn
on November 12, 1857. Indeed, he was so fired with love of liberty that
no amount of work and determined effort was too great for him to expend
for his adopted country.
He worked on the Capitol Building of the United States throughout the
terms of six presidents: Franklin Pierce; James Buchanan; Abraham
Lincoln; Andrew Johnson; Ulysses S. Grant; and Rutherford B. Hayes. He
made frescoed ceilings and wall murals in six Committee Rooms--five in
the Senate extension and one in the House extension. He is responsible
for the complete design and execution of the President’s Room in the
Senate Annex, the Senate Reception Room and a large mural in the House
of Representatives itself, the latter bearing his signature.
At the age of sixty he finished the almost unbelievable task of painting
in the very top of the Dome of the Capitol Building 4,664 square feet of
concave fresco--huge colorful figures that appear life-size 180 feet
below. Brumidi was evidently in sympathy with the words of Lincoln,
voiced when a critic put this question to our great President, “Do you
intend to continue building on the Capitol Dome during this war?”
Lincoln replied, “If the world sees this Capitol going on they will know
that we intend the Union shall go on.”
And even before the Civil War Brumidi sketched the fifteen scenes of
American history for a frieze to encircle the Rotunda, some 58 feet
above the floor. He had prayed to live long enough to paint this frieze,
but when the signal finally came from Capitol authorities to begin this
last cherished fresco he was an old man of seventy-two. Brumidi had lost
his physical strength but not his will to work toward the completion of
his dream.
The young wife he had married at the height of his American financial
success had long since gone with a younger man; his lonely years and his
poverty weighed heavily upon him; criticism and ridicule had undoubtedly
taken their toll but the old artist persistently stayed with that last
assignment.
Even when he slipped on his painting platform, the day of his almost
fatal accident, and hung by his bare hands 58 feet above the stone floor
of the Rotunda, until workmen could reach him from the top of the Dome
and from the floor below--even then it must have been sheer will power
that closed those old artist hands tight enough to hold his body weight
from the floor below.
But he never came back to finish his frieze. He died “at his parlor
studio with his work about him,” amid the loneliness and poverty which
he feared. He was buried by a few friends and forgotten.
That burial place was lost to our National Government for a period of
seventy years but the 81st Congress of the United States, without
debate, has voted to erect a monument, a simple marker, at the recently
found burial site of the Capitol artist. This National recognition,
though belated, is sincere appreciation for the Brumidi frescoes in the
Capitol Building of the United States that proclaim for all time the
artist’s genius, his love of liberty, and his reverence for America.
There is continually being uncovered other evidence of appreciation for
the artist Brumidi--recognition that has lain buried in the hearts and
homes of numerous American families and churches since the year 1880.
Many Brumidi canvases outside the Capitol Building of the United States
have been found: portraits of friends; working sketches in color for the
artist’s huge frescoes; and magnificent murals for church altars. Some
of these treasures are being offered to the Government of the United
States with the thought that a collection of Brumidiana may ultimately
be on exhibit at some central spot accessible to the American people.
What the critics termed “gaudy colored plaster” ninety years ago can, by
the miracle of modern printing, be reproduced for us today with all the
original color preserved. Could the artist have foreseen the exquisite
Brumidi reproductions in this book the burden of his last lonely years
would have been lightened.