Constantino Brumidi

Constantino Brumidi ( born July 26, 1805 in Rome, † February 19, 1880 in Washington, DC ) was an Italian- American painter. His most famous work is the fresco The Apotheosis of Washington in the top of the dome of the rotunda of the Capitol of the United States.

Youth and work in Italy

Brumidi was born the son of the Greek Stavro Brumidi and an Italian woman in Rome. His artistic talent showed itself early. So he painted already as a teenager frescoes in several Roman palaces, including the Prince Alessandro Torlonia. Under Pope Gregory XVI. Brumidi worked for three years at the Vatican.

Emigration and work in the United States

The military occupation of Rome by French forces in 1849 led Brumidi to emigrate to the United States, where he in 1852 received U.S. citizenship. Brumidi moved into an apartment in New York and continued his artistic work. First, he concentrated on the painting of portraits, before he returned to the frescoes and other works at St. Stephen's Church or Taylor 's Chapel created.

In 1854 Brumidi went to Mexico, where he painted an allegorical representation of the Holy Trinity in the Cathedral of Mexico City. On the way back to New York, he paused in Washington DC and visited the U.S. Capitol. Impressed by the possibilities of artistic decoration on the large indoor walls, he offered the Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs his services. This accepted, and henceforth worked Brumidi, now an officer in the cavalry, in the Capitol.

His first work of art in the Capitol was the artistic design of the conference room of the Agriculture Committee. First, he received a salary of $ 8 per day, this payment was increased rapidly to $ 10 on the initiative of the then U.S. Defense Secretary Jefferson Davis. In addition, he received further orders in recognition of his services and was appointed official painter government.

His most famous works are the fresco The Apotheosis of Washington in the top of the dome of the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, Brumidi Corridors in the tract of the Senate and the frieze of American history in the U.S. Capitol. In the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia, he also made it to Saint Peter and Saint Paul dar.

Brumidi died in 1880 in Washington, DC, to the late effects of a fall in the preparation of the frieze of American history.