30
Fig. 19. Giovanni Paolo Panini. Interior of the Pantheon, Rome, ca. 1734, oil on canvas, National
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Human Understanding (fig. 17) is also seated among the
clouds and is accompanied by two putti, one of whom holds
a book of wisdom. Likewise raising her arms, Human
Understanding removes her veil, a veil of ignorance, and
looks upward from the human achievements represented in
the collar surrounding her to focus on intellectual progress
beyond this mural
.2
All of the allegorical figures in e Evolution of Civili-
zation contain symbols that identify who they are and what
contributions they make. Located to the le of America,
France, for instance, is represented as Marianne, the
national embodiment of the French Republic. Modeled by
Blashfield's wife, the Italian Renaissance author and editor
Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield (1858–1918), France is readily
THE CAPITOL DOME
