CONSTANTINO BRUMIDI

'Constantino Brumidi' (July 26, 1805, Rome – February 19, 1880, Washington, DC), was an Italian-American historical painter, best known and honored for his fresco work in the Capitol Building in Washington, DC.

Contents

Parentage and early life

Emigration and following work

Parentage and early life

Son of Stavro Broumidi[1], a native of Filiatra (in western Messinia, a district in the Peloponnesos, a region in southern Greece). His mother was from Rome. He showed his talent for fresco painting at an early age and painted in several Roman palaces, among them being that of Prince Torlonia. Under Gregory XVI he worked for three years in the Vatican.

Emigration and following work

The occupation of Rome by French forces in 1849 apparently persuaded Brumidi to emigrate, and he sailed for the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1852. Taking up his residence in New York City, the artist painted a number of portraits. Subsequently he undertook more important works, the principal being a fresco of the Crucifixion in St. Stephen's Church, for which he also executed a ''Martyrdom of St. Stephen'' and an ''Assumption of the Virgin''.

In 1854 Brumidi went to Mexico, where he painted an allegorical representation of the Holy Trinity in the Mexico City cathedral. On his way back to New York he stopped at Washington D.C. and visited the Capitol. Impressed with the opportunity for decoration presented by its vast interior wall spaces, he offered his services for that purpose to Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs. This offer was accepted, and about the same time he was commissioned as a captain of cavalry.

His first art work in the Capitol Building was in the meeting room of the House Committee on Agriculture. At first he received eight dollars a day, which Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War of the United States, caused to be increased to ten dollars. His work attracting much favourable attention, he was given further commissions, and gradually settled into the position of a Government painter. His chief work in Washington was done in the rotunda of the Capitol and included the ''Apotheosis of George Washington'' in the dome, as well as other allegories, and scenes from American history. His work in the rotunda was left unfinished at his death, but he had decorated many other sections of the building, most notably hallways in the Senate side of the Capitol now known as the Brumidi Corridors.
In the Cathedral-Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he pictured St. Peter and St. Paul. Brumidi was a capable, if conventional painter, and his black and white modeling in the work at Washington, in imitation of bas-relief, is strikingly effective.
''See Constantino Brumidi: artist of the Capitol'', by Barbara A. Wolanin, curator of the U.S. Capitol art and architecture, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington: 1998