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tionship between the legislative and executive branches. In a letter to George Washington dated 22 June 1791, L'Enfant describes Jenkins Hill, an elevation of about ninety feet above sea level overlooking vast wetlands to the west and his choice for the site of the Capitol, as a "pedestal waiting for a monument." He suggested placing below the crest of the hill a "grand Equestrian figure," a reference to the bronze statue of George Washington that Congress had approved on 7 August 1783. 5 The concept of Washington's equestrian statue became the core of the next serious attempt to per- sonify an American Liberty. Also in 1791, the Roman sculptor Giuseppe Ceracchi (fig. 4) arrived in America, "filled with a volcanic enthusiasm for Liberty and the Rights of Man." 6 Ceracchi was fresh from Europe, where he had struggled mightily to establish him- self as a top-tier sculptor of political leaders and political monuments. His busts and portraits were often excellent; his larger compositions, with their metaphors and allegories, were often complicated. Previous work included allegori- cal sculpture at London's Somerset House for Sir William Chambers, busts of a cardinal, a pope, and a field marshal, and a complex monument to Dutch liberty fighter Baron Joan Derk van der Capellen. Ceracchi's monument to van der Capellen was only partially executed, but three drawings from a private collection indicate his powers of triangulation and allegory. The three figures that were executed are strong and animated in the Baroque fashion, but the figures never left Rome, and are now in the Borghese Gardens (fig. 5). In a fluid, synthetic attempt to both bring glory to the revolutionary spirit in America, as well as invigorate his own career, Ceracchi proposed to Congress a "Monument designed to perpetuate the Memory of American Liberty." Based on Ceracchi's verbose description, his American national monument proposal was, in spirit, similar to the van der Capellen monument, and was topped by a fantastic per- sonification of Liberty. Ceracchi proposed his concept to Congress in 1791 and then again in 1795. Most likely, the statue was to be erected below Capitol Hill, at the base of what would become the West Front. In his opening paragraph (fig. 6), Ceracchi writes: "The Goddess [of Liberty] is represented descending in a car drawn by four horses, darting through a volume of clouds, which conceals the summit of a rainbow. Her form is at once expressive of dignity and grace. In her right hand she brandishes a flaming dart, which, by dispelling the mists of Error, illuminates the universe; her left is extended in the attitude of calling upon the people of America to listen to her voice. A simple pileus covers her head; her hair plays unconfined over her shoulders; her bent brow expresses the energy of her character; her lips appear partly open, whilst her Fig. 4. Giuseppe Ceracchi (ca. 1792), by John Trumbull MORRIS K. JESUP FUND, 1936, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK Fig. 5. Modèle No. 3 of van der Cappellen monument (1788), by Giuseppe Ceracchi ART QUARTERLY 27[1964]:483 5 THE CAPITOL DOME