Constantino Brumidi, Michelangelo of the United States Capitol

by Myrtle Cheney Murdock

Four days after the artist’s death a bill was introduced into the Senate of the United States which read as follows:

“Be it enacted.... That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, directed to pay to the heirs of Constantino Brumidi, deceased, the sum of $500, that being the amount reserved from the last voucher paid him for painting in fresco the picture on the canopy of the Dome of the Capitol; and also to pay to said heirs the sum of $200 to defray the funeral expenses of said deceased; said payments to be made out of moneys appropriated by an act approved March 3, 1879.”

Upon introducing this bill, Senator Voorhees of Indiana made the following explanation:

“Mr. President, the reason for the introduction of this bill grows out of the following facts: The Government made a contract with Mr. Brumidi for the painting, in fresco, on the canopy of the Dome of the Capitol. The scaffolding necessary to enable the artist to do his work was furnished by the Government. When the painting was finished and the scaffolding removed the Secretary of the Interior withheld the sum of $500 of the contract price as a guarantee for any retouching which the work might need after it dried out and became thoroughly seasoned to the air. This amount was held back, to be paid to Mr. Brumidi for such future attention on his part as the painting might be found to require.

“He was at all times in readiness to comply with the wishes of the Government on this subject. No scaffolding, however, was ever replaced on which to work in the Canopy of the Dome, nor was he ever called on by the officials having this matter in charge to give his painting there any further attention.... Both branches of Congress made the following provision in the sundry civil act for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880:

“‘To pay C. Brumidi for retouching and blending the picture in fresco on the Canopy of the Dome of the Capitol and for constructing a scaffolding under said picture, $700.’

“The money thus appropriated has been available nearly a year, yet no steps were taken by the proper authorities to enable Mr. Brumidi to ascend again into the Canopy of the Dome of this Capitol, and none now ever will be. In the exact and legal fulfillment of a contract it is our duty to pay this sum of $500 to his heirs. On this point I conceive there can be no difference of opinion. I have ventured, however, in the bill just introduced to ask Congress to apply the remaining $200 of the appropriation of March 3, 1879, to the payment of the funeral expenses of the great artist who has just passed away.”

Senator Morrill of Vermont followed Senator Voorhees on the Floor of the Senate on that 24th day of February back in 1880 to add his sanction to the bill introduced. Said Senator Morrill:

“Mr. President, I desire to express my hearty approval of the measure proposed by the Senator from Indiana. It is only justice—and that coldly measured—that we should now pay all we ever promised to one who can make no further demands upon us, but whose works will live to remind us of his twenty-five years of most valuable service in a branch of art where he stood on this continent confessedly foremost, whether among foreign or native artists. He leaves a daughter in Italy dependent upon a regular remittance from her father, and he leaves an adopted son beginning to be taught in the line of his father’s vocation, but not so far advanced as to give support. I hope it will be the pleasure of the Senate unanimously to pass the bill whenever it comes up for action.”

Senator Morrill who made the above speech in the Senate of the United States is the same Senator Morrill to whom Brumidi referred in the following letter written to Mr. Clark, Architect of the Capitol, and dated November 30, 1874: