mural blog

Artist-Citizen: The Story Behind the Murals in our Nation's Capitol Building

Today's New York Times has a fascinating article on Constantino Brumidi, the artist whose Pompeian style decorative art and Renaissance style murals contribute so impressively to the neo-classical grandeur of the United States Capitol building.

The picture above is a detail of Brumidi's masterpiece "The Apotheosis of Washington" on the canopy of the Capitol Rotunda.  As someone who has seen a lot of fresco murals on domes, it was interesting for me to see George Washington and other early American patriots amongst the cast of "characters in clouds".  Normally, murals in this style are populated exclusively with angels, cherubs, Greeks and Romans, so running into George Washington is kind of like seeing cotton candy at a fine French Patisserie - unexpected, but fun.

From Brumidi's early success in Italy, to his exile following the Catholic Church's accusations that he had stolen artworks, to his immigrant success story of painting much of the artwork in our nation's Capitol, till his his pauper's death, it's an amazing story, and worth checking out.  Even if you get the Times, check out the online link for the additional photos posted in 'slide show' format.

Dreams for the Future

I guess the technology is not fully developed yet, but the Pixel Roller is on the way.

If you click the link, it takes you to a video of the roller in action.  Somehow, when the roller touches the wall, it activates some kind of paint release mechanism, and as you roll the roller on the wall, an image comes into view.  It started, apparently, as a student project at London's Royal College of Art, but is in the process of being commercialized.

The video is quite remarkable.

Here at Silver Hill, our mural artists claim the future can't come soon enough!

Ten Commandments of Murals

Today, the Supreme Court ruled that depictions of the Ten Commandments cannot appear in courthouses....unless, like the mural frieze in the Supreme Court's own courthouse, the commandments are depicted in such a way that is artistic, and part of a general depiction of history.

From the decision:

"Nor does the Court hold that a sacred text can never be integrated constitutionally into a governmental display on law or history. Its own courtroom (mural) frieze depicts Moses holding tablets exhibiting a portion of the secularly phrased Commandments; in the company of 17 other lawgivers, most of them secular figures, there is no risk that Moses would strike an observer as evidence that the National Government was violating religious neutrality."

Now, the last thing we like to do here at Silver Hill is mix business with religion or politics.  But we did find it interesting that by placing the Commandments into an artistic context the expression gained some protections in the eyes of the Court. 

We think that speaks to the power of murals and artistic expression!