Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1180196
in books acquired by the library in the mid-nineteenth century, the name "City of Washington" is known to have been used during this antebellum period, whereas after the Civil War and especially from 1871 on the city was more commonly referred to as "Washington, D.C." Second, and most convincingly, Zahn's Volume 1 (and 2) do not appear in any of the published catalogs or supple- ments for the Library of Congress until 1849, when both volumes are recorded for the first time under the cate- gory of "Gardening, Painting, Etc." 12 Therefore, between 1 September 1846 and 30 June 1849, the Library of Con- gress copies of Zahn's Volumes 1 and 2 made their way first from Leipzig to the United Kingdom and then to America, such that they were available for Brumidi and Meigs to consult in 1856. 13 In fact, in 1856 the Library of Congress was housed in the Capitol, making access to Zahn's volumes even more straightforward. Though Bru- midi would not have had borrowing privileges, he could have consulted the volume in the reading room, and we also know that occasionally senators requested books on his behalf. 14 POMPEII ON THE POTOMAC: "A PALACE FOR THE PEOPLE" Why would Brumidi and Meigs (who approved the artist's design) have chosen to decorate this first highly decorated room in the Senate wing in such a coherent Pompeian style, delivered directly from the early nineteenth-century excavations on the Bay of Naples to the walls of the Cap- itol via a prominent German book renowned for being the first color publication of the wall paintings at Pom- peii and other nearby sites? For Brumidi, this style and its motifs were most familiar both from his training at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome but also especially from his subsequent work in and around Rome. Brumidi had acquired plenty of experience implementing such Pom- peian style programs during his work for the Torlonia family, decorating both their palace in Rome and the the- ater in their extra-urban villa. 15 Thus, the Pompeian style would have been a natural decorative mode to deploy in this early, full-scale commission in the Senate wing. For Meigs, the Pompeian style and subject matter fit perfectly with what he saw as his role as a patron of art, especially in the Capitol. First, in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson, Meigs seems to have felt a responsibility to his young country to utilize public art to cultivate American taste, American artistic technique and skill, and the cul- tural (and thereby political) stature of the United States. Meigs writes constantly in his journals and letters about his efforts on behalf of American art and artists, at one point announcing that "American art…has no sincerer friend than myself." 16 Second, Meigs was dedicated not only to advancing the art of the young United States through architecture rooted in the classical tradition (adapted to American needs and locale), but also via inte- rior décor—and specifically decorative painting derived from ancient Rome and the resulting tradition of Italian fresco, since he had been planning to decorate the inte- rior of the Capitol with classically-inspired murals even before he met Brumidi. 17 In fact, this Pompeian style was in vogue throughout Europe during the later eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries, when roy- alty and elite were decorating rooms of their palaces and estates with fresco cycles done in the Pompeian style. 18 Brumidi's patron, Meigs, clearly knew about this trend. Though he had not yet travelled overseas as of 1854, Meigs records in his journal that he aimed to create in the Capitol a "people's palace"—that is, a building for the American people decorated in the style of the famous 11 THE CAPITOL DOME Fig. 13. Author with the Library of Congress copy of Wilhelm Zahn, Die schönsten Ornamente und merkwürdigsten Gemälde aus Pompeji, Herkulanum und Stabiae: nebst einigen Grundrissen und Ansichten nach den an Ort und Stelle gemachten Originalzeichnungen, Vol. 1 (Berlin, 1829)