“Brumidi was a diligent reader of Dante, of Gibbon, of Bancroft, and many other works from which he derived his historical and classical aid and his great desire was that he might live to complete his last great work. So long had he devoted his heart and strength to this Capitol that his love and reverence for it was not surpassed by even that of Michael Angelo for St. Peter’s.” [Illustration] Brumidi Art in the United States Capitol Brumidi’s art in the Capitol Building is not all accessible to the casual visitor. The large mural already mentioned which the old master executed on the wall of the House of Representatives Chamber can be viewed by visitors only from the galleries of the House, unless some special dispensation takes the visitor to the Floor of the House of Representatives for a close-up study. The beautiful frescoes on the walls and ceilings of six committee rooms, one in the House extension and five in the Senate extension, can be seen only by special permission or by attendance at certain committee hearings. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ROOM The frescoes in the House of Representatives Committee room, originally occupied at the time of execution by the Committee on Agriculture, were finished in 1855. This room displays two large crescent-shaped wall frescoes, referred to as “lunettes” by Brumidi--“The Calling of Cincinnatus from the Plow”, and “The Calling of Putnam from the Plow to the Revolution.” Two portrait heads in imitation sculpture adorn the other two walls of this room. Beneath the marble-like medallion head of Washington is a choice panel showing an American harvest scene of early date, while beneath the medallion head of Jefferson on the opposite wall is what was then a modern threshing scene, a golden field of grain being harvested by the new McCormick Reaper. The ceiling is light and gay and exquisite with designs representing Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. The blues and golds and inimitable flesh tints of the entire room seem not to have faded one whit during the ninety years they have spread cheer and beauty about an otherwise sombre corner of the House extension of the Capitol. In spite of all the beauty Brumidi painted into the old Capitol Building the Congressional Journal for those Brumidi years records occasional reference on the Floor of the House, criticizing the Italian artist and his work. In 1858 Congressman Lovejoy ridiculed in the House Chamber that “brilliant interpretation of the seasons” by Brumidi in his first frescoed ceiling decorated for the use of the House Agriculture Committee. Said Mr. Lovejoy in his Congressional speech,