The Apotheosis of Washington

The dome's lower interior is hung with paintings depicting mythologized scenes from the founding story of the United States much the same way the interior of a church is often decorated with scenes of sacred stories from the Bible.

Up above, the dome ceiling is covered in a fresco called The Apotheosis of Washington, a word that literally means to elevate something or someone to divine status.

Washington sits saint-like, ascending to heaven on a cloud like some colonial era Virgin Mary.

So equating the Capitol with a sacred building was not invented out of thin air in the moment.

The historic committee rooms and the fancy reception rooms? Brumidi.

The decorative band wrapping around the rotunda with the scenes from American history? That would be Brumidi, too." Brumidi's crowning achievement, among many throughout the Capitol painted over a 25-year period, is the mural known as The Apotheosis of Washington.

Painted in 11 months, not long after the new Capitol dome was completed in 1864, the magnificent fresco is suspended 180 feet above the rotunda floor and covers an area of 4,664 square feet.

How did this Italian immigrant earn this commission? And why was George Washington chosen as the main subject of his masterpiece? To understand the answer to the former question, it's best to answer the latter.

If Brumidi was a fixture there, so too was the scaffolding needed for his most memorable creation.

Here's more from the Capitol Historical Society.

Quote, "The enormous wooden scaffolding for the Apotheosis of Washington Mural raised Brumidi 180 feet into the eye of the dome.

Often, Brumidi would lie down on that platform, working flat on his back as he painted on the curved surface 17 stories above the rotundus floor." End quote.

Some kind of weird version of church, a, a, a civic religion.

But, um, if you've ever seen the painting, the best, this is best embodied in The Apotheosis of Washington.

Have you seen that painting?

I don't...

I, I, if I have, I might, I'm not aware that the name is The Apotheosis of Washington.

Oh, yeah.

That's the name of it.