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ART IN EARLY AMERICA In his 6 March 1805 letter to Philip Mazzei, Jefferson's confidante in Italy, Latrobe stated that "the Capitol was begun at a time when the country was entirely destitute of artists." From Latrobe's perspective as a classically educated European, this was true; painting, sculpture and architecture were fledgling arts in 1792. In 1811, in a formal address in Philadelphia to the Society of Artists of the United States, however, he expressed his optimism that in a free republic, it is inevitable that the arts will flourish. "The days of Greece may be revived in the woods of America," he predicted, "and Philadelphia become the Athens of the Western world." 9 In the same address, Latrobe identifies architecture as the most advanced of American arts in the year 1800. First, he lauded Samuel Blodgett's First Bank of the United States (1797), in Philadelphia, for its use of marble. Secondly, he lauded his own client Samuel Fox for having the vision and courage to build The Bank of Pennsylvania. Latrobe shyly neglects to mention that this latter masterpiece was his own design. The Bank of Pennsylvania, the first Greek revival building in America, built of white marble, was innovative for any modern city in 1800. Masonry-vaulted, naturally lit, unencumbered of ornament, and sleekly elevated by elegant Greek angles, it must have been breathtaking to see in the context of brick-red Philadelphia. In painting, Latrobe suggests that America was on the cusp of greatness, but that America's painters lacked good commissions and Europe valued our great painters more than we did. Latrobe thought that America rivaled Europe in portraits, most likely referring to Gilbert Stuart and John Trumbull. Though personally slighted by the brilliant and profligate Stuart, Latrobe held his work in high esteem. In 1800, America languished in sculpture. American figu- rative sculpture in the late eighteenth century mainly consisted of decorative woodcarving, such as in the making of nauti- cal figureheads, or the decorative carving of fine furniture. Stone carving in the eighteenth century mainly consisted of the carving and incising of gravestones. America's best figural sculptor of the period was William Rush of Philadelphia, who, with Charles Willson Peale, founded the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Rush (1756-1833), a wood-carver, made figureheads for ships, which Latrobe regarded very highly and considered an art form in and of itself. Rush carved the allegorical Water Nymph and Bittern that stood as the center landscape feature in Centre Square, Philadelphia, directly in front of Latrobe's Greek-style pump house of the Water Works. Today, this site is occupied by Philadelphia's City Hall. Latrobe did not call Rush to duty, however, when hiring sculptors for the Capitol, although Rush was a mere one hun- dred forty miles north of Washington. Latrobe stated quite simply that Rush's medium was wood; and though extremely talented, he was never considered for work on the Capitol. Rush's carved wood figure of George Washington (1814, fig. 12) demonstrates great talent. It is a sophisticated sculpture, alive and animated in contrapposto. Fig. 8. Author's composite depiction of Giuseppe Ceracchi's Minerva as it would have appeared in Congress Hall, ca. 1792 Fig. 9. Minerva (terracotta, ca. 1791-92), by Giuseppe Ceracchi AUTHOR 7 THE CAPITOL DOME