The Capitol Dome

31 identifiable by her Phrygian cap, popularly worn during the French Revolution as a symbol of liberty, and holds the document "Les Droits de l'Homme," e Declaration of the Rights of Man adopted by the French Assembly in 1789. Shaped as an octagonal rotunda with a coffered dome, the Main Reading Room (fig. 18) clearly emulates the ulti- mate rotunda, the Pantheon (118–125 C.E.) in Rome (fig. 19), by the Syrian-Greek engineer and architect Apollodorus of Damascus (50–130 C.E.). Derived from two Greek words, pan, every, and theon, divinity, this temple was dedicated to all of the Roman gods. Whereas the Pantheon features one circle of statues originally consisting of Roman deities that were later replaced with Christian saints, the Main Reading Room has two groups of sculptures encircling this chamber. One series consists of eight plaster female allegories repre- senting different branches of knowledge, while the second set features 16 bronze portraits depicting male practitioners of various branches of knowledge. Several artists designed the statues in the Main Reading Room, sometimes in collaboration, as is the case with the allegorical figure of Art (fig. 20) by Augustus Saint-Gaud- ens (1848–1907) and François Michel Louis Tonetti-Dozzi (1863–1920). e foremost American sculptor of the late nineteenth century, as well as Martiny's teacher and mentor, Saint-Gaudens was born in Dublin but raised in New York. During the 1860s and early 1870s, Saint-Gaudens worked as an apprentice for two cameo cutters and studied art at the Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design before completing his education in Paris at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, the most influential art school of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Returning to New York by 1874, he quickly became an enormously influential icon of the Gilded Age through his Civil War memorials, funerary monuments, classical allegories, por- trait busts, commemorative medals, and coins for the U.S. Mint, along with his teaching of art courses and serving as an artistic advisor. His long series of sculptures are displayed in museums and parks throughout the U.S. and in Europe. Tonetti-Dozzi executed the plaster allegory of Art based on sketches from Saint-Gaudens. Born in Paris, Tonetti- Dozzi, like Saint-Gaudens, attended the École des Beaux- Arts. In addition, he worked as a studio assistant for Fred- erick William MacMonnies (1863–1937), one of the most accomplished expatriate American sculptors of his time and a former assistant to Saint-Gaudens. Tonetti-Dozzi moved to New York around 1899, where he designed his own sculptures, including allegorical figures of Venice and Spain for the U.S. Custom House between 1902 and 1907. e only nearly-nude personification in the Main Read- ing Room, Art is seen with the tools of two of the fine arts, Fig. 20. Augustus Saint-Gaudens and François Michel Louis Tonetti-Dozzi. Plaster statue of Art, ca. 1896, Main Reading Room, Library of Congress, omas Jefferson Building. THE CAPITOL DOME

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