Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/216603
Fig. 6. William Penn's Treaty with the Indians, 1682, by Nicholas Gevelot, 1827, sandstone, Capitol Rotunda, above north door. 28 THE CAPITOL DOME in wonder or adoration. The European side is in light bringing civilization to the darkened area of the natives. The last painting, placed in 1855 but actually commissioned in 1847 during the Mexican War, was Discovery of the Mississippi by DeSoto by William Henry Powell (fig. 11). A New York painter trained under Henry Inman, Powell also painted Perry's Victory on Lake Erie, which hangs in the east staircase of the Senate wing. In the Discovery of the Mississippi, Indian tepees and European flags frame the central regal figure of the explorer on a white horse, juxtaposing the two cultures, one "savage" and the other "civilized." The cross is prominent. Implements of war are also prominent while the Indians are shown as submissive. The cross and the sword are both evident as the "civilizing" instruments of the European conquest of the North American continent. Opportunities for further decoration of the Rotunda under the newly completed dome were fulfilled mainly by Constantino Brumidi. He brought prevailing themes into his work that reflect the ideology of national expansion. Part of Brumidi's work in the Rotunda consisted of a frieze at the base of the new dome (fig. 12). Designed in 1859 in the model of the spiral of scenes on the Column of Trajan in Rome, it was actually started much later and was incomplete at the time of his death in 1880. The frieze commemorates the New World's "higher achievements of civilization." The scroll begins with one of the most frequently used symbols. The figure of America holds the shield in one hand, a spear in the other, and an eagle. Once again, the "Landing of Columbus" is the first scene in the narrative of historical events in American history, followed by "Cortez and Montezuma at Mexican Temple" and "Pizarro Going to Peru" before coming to "DeSoto's Burial in the Mississippi River." Inclusion of the Spanish conquerors of the indigenous peoples in the Rotunda frieze suggests a connection between them and the fulfillment of their mission by the United States as their true heir. The next scenes replicate the stone reliefs already over the doors leading to the Rotunda dealing with John Smith and Jamestown, the Pilgrims, and William Penn's treaty with the Indians (with the addition of the depiction of the equivalent treaty by James Oglethorpe, the founder of the settlement at Savannah in Georgia). The section on the American Revolution starts with the Battle of Lexington before it once again replicates the themes of Trumbull's Rotunda paintings of the "Declaration of Independence" and the "Surrender of Cornwallis" at Yorktown. However, there is then a new topic that reflects for the first time the War of 1812. A panel designed by Constantino Brumidi, but executed after his death by Filippo Costaggini, depicts the death of Tecumseh (fig. 13). He was the leader of the Indian Confederation supporting the British in the War of 1812 with the aim of thwarting American expansion into the trans-Appalachian area. The death of SUMMER 2013