I knew him in Rome, where he was much esteemed and has left excellent specimens of his artistic skill. I can hardly believe that ten years of exile could have so entirely destroyed his capacity or impaired my judgment. Had the attack been confined to the ground that artists or workmen of foreign birth who are satisfied with a small compensation should be excluded from the Capitol in order to have the work done exclusively by natives well paid, I would have nothing to say for I keep off entirely from your administrative questions and politics. But on the ground of art and taste a Roman might be allowed to express an opinion quite different from that of your own correspondent and his friends.
Fresco painting represents in art what improvisation is in poetry. The artist must execute his work upon a fresh wall, tracing the outlines by a steel point and using mineral colors which are instantly absorbed and do not show their effect until the wall dries. The artist, therefore, must work with great rapidity and has no opportunity for corrections. It does not require a greater capacity than the ordinary painting with oil or water colors on a dry wall, but the artist must have a peculiar disposition, and this the Italian possesses to a greater degree than others.
Michelangelo had never practiced fresco painting when Bramante procured him the commission to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel with a view to ruin his reputation. Michelangelo called from Florence his former schoolmate, Granacci, and other fresco painters, to teach him the art. He was much perplexed at the beginning but afterward declared it the best style of painting. I believe that your best painters, by exerting themselves and gaining experience, might have succeeded in doing the work accomplished by Brumidi, but it would have required a long time and an enormous expenditure.
It is a fact that in France, in England, in Belgium, in Italy and everywhere public buildings have been decorated by competent artists, you meet the same style and symbols, allegories and classical memories occasionally adopted by Signor Brumidi. Before condemning him you must find fault with all the best painters who preceded him, and especially with Michelangelo and Raphael who
RELIGION
Four Brumidi Madonnas on the frescoed ceiling of the President’s Room are of great interest to visitors. The most lasting impression, however, is made by “Religion.” The story is often repeated that Brumidi painted “Religion” with an “all-seeing eye of God” which will follow any individual from place to place inside the room. The “connections of the pieces of plaster” which help to identify real fresco are easily discernible in this medallion background. The color beauty of “Religion” is illustrated by “Legislation” in this book’s color section.
