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detailed and thus less resembling a bas relief ). When Costaggini finished the "Discovery of Gold" scene in 1889, thirty-one feet of blank wall separated the last scene from the first. e problem came from an early miscal- culation. While Brumidi had planned for scenes with a height of nine feet, the band's usable vertical space was actually seven feet, nine inches, forcing the scenes to be smaller in scale. Costaggini offered to finish the frieze with his own designs, but arguments over subject matter blocked their implementation. His death in 1904, and fur- ther difficulties with congressional authorization, delayed the band's completion until 1953, when the American art- ist Allyn Cox finally closed the circle with three scenes of his own design depicting the Civil War, the Spanish- American War, and "e Birth of Aviation" (fig. 7). 40 So while Brumidi had envisioned a gold-digger whispering to Columbus, the frieze concludes with an airplane, symbol- izing a new era of exploration. e question remains, had Brumidi's chair not slipped on the scaffolding in 1879, could he have finished the frieze, his "life's work"? e evidence provides a stark an- swer: no. Brumidi, with his chronic illness and dwindling strength, had no chance to complete the project, let alone enlarge the additional scenes needed. e lengthy delay in commencing the frieze, not the "fright and shock" caused by the incident on the scaffolding, led to the unfortunate situation. Brumidi simply ran out of time. Still, the story is fascinating, and also a bit sad: the painter of cathedrals, religious and secular, fearing for his life, high above the Rotunda floor. An old man, "thrice lonely there—by age, by desertion and by the solitude of avocation." 41 Jane Armstrong Hudiburg, M.A., is the Student Programs Coordinator for the Mar yland General A ssembly and a freelance writer, specializing in the his- tory of the Senate and congressional biographies. She has been published in The Washington Post Magazine and several reference books, including e Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History. Formerly, she worked as a tour guide for the Capitol Guide Service (where she first became interested in Constantino Brumidi), as a writer/ researcher for the U.S. Senate Historical Office, and as an American history college instructor. 34 Clark, "[I] have employed all the working days in drawing the cartoons for the frieze now in progress in the Rotunda of the Capitol, and having completed the subject of Oglethorpe, and the Muscogee Chief, with a portion of the insurrec- tion of Lexington. I work sometime with difficulty when I am troubled by the asthma, but after some rest, I proceed with my work." By January, though, the general consensus held that Brumidi would never finish the frieze, which was "not more than one-third done." According to a Sacramento reporter, "He regards this last labor as the best of his life, and is exceedingly anxious to live long enough to see it fin- ished, but he has given up all hope of doing it himself. In a recent conversation he said that he thought he would be able to finish the cartoons with crayons on paper, and that he thought an artist could be secured in Italy who could transfer the designs to the walls of the Rotunda." 33 Brumidi toiled on into February, working on the scene, "The Battle of Lexington," then lost consciousness the day before his death in his home on February 19th. 34 While some obituaries cited the lingering effects of the October accident, or his chronic asthma, others concluded that, "disorders with the natural infirmities of age were the immediate cause of his death." 35 Surrounded by "many friends," Brumidi was buried in the Glenwood Cemetery (fig. 5) with Architect of the Capitol Clark serving as a pallbearer. 36 Accolades followed Brumidi's death: "He was the genius of the Capitol." 37 Others called Brumidi the second Michelangelo. Senator Daniel Voorhees (D-IN) eulogized him from the Senate floor: "During more than a quarter of a century he hovered along these walls from the basement to the dome, leaving creations of imperishable beauty wher- ever his touch has been. Wherever he paused by a panel, or was seen suspending to a ceiling, there soon appeared the brilliant conceptions of his fertile and cultivated mind." 38 Senator Justin Morrill (R-VT), a personal friend to the artist, agreed. "e evidences of his rare genius . . . are too conspicuous to be denied." "Even after that accident by which his life hung many minutes fearfully imperiled under the dome of the Capitol, his latest work there, un- finished though it be, shows that his hand had not lost its cunning, and his acquaintance with American history and skill in its portrayal has, perhaps, never been more happily displayed." 39 However appreciated the unfinished frieze was, it still needed to be completed. Recommended by Brumidi, the painter chosen to assume the task, Filippo Costaggini (fig. 6), seemed idea l: Ita lia n, a fel low graduate of t he Accademia di San Luca, and willing and able to follow Brumidi's drawings (although his painting style was more THE CAPITOL DOME SPRING 2014