The baroque urban model, which provided the basis for Pierre L'Enfant's design of Washington, is based on the idea of connecting spaces through the creation of long vistas. The idea follows from the use of perspective in Renaissance painting and is probably first manifested in painted scenery. Rome (under the reorganization effort by Pope Sixtus V) is the site of the first attempt to put some of these ideas into practice. It does not diminish the visual grandeur of Rome to describe it a three-dimensionalized version of a dramatic stage set. Paris later followed this model, although the Palace and gardens of Versailles did it used a baroque model before it was applied to the city itself, and did it more completely, given that the King quite literally used the gardens as a stage set for performances of political power. This would seem to make it an odd precedent for the capital of a democracy, but L'Enfant, after all, was French and Versailles was part of his cultural heritage.

L'Enfant's plan for the city was viewed as a symbol of the unification of the country, a symbol whose grandeur is enhanced by the scale of the city which conveyed immensity, unification and expansion. (Remember that this is the late 18th century.)

I.  Historical Context

• From the start, the basic plan envisioned was similar to the Williamsburg Capitol in that it was bicameral, but larger and more monumental: two wings joined by a domed rotunda
• Also from the start, the U.S. Capitol was envisioned in a way which made it a new type of religious symbol: a “temple” of liberty.
• This goal, however, of creating an iconic symbol for a new idea led to the “bricolage” which Upton describes: multiple sources, multiple architects, and eventually, multiple meanings.

II. L’Enfant’s Plan:

• based on Versailles and Williamsburg
• two systems superimposed:
• 1) grid of streets which creates neighborhoods
• 2) diagonal boulevards connecting monuments or ceremonial public spaces: these were the major avenues names for the 13 states
• center: T-shaped park anchored at opposite ends by the Capitol and the President’s house, connected by the mall

III. The competition

• a public competition was used to select the design
• first round selected George Turner and Stephen Hallet
• Washington and Jefferson preferred William Thornton’s design (based on the popular Georgian style)
• eventually, a design which combined Thornton’s ideas, Hallet’s, and L’Enfant’s (who did not enter the competition) was created as the final design and credited to Thornton
• Benjamin Latrobe later made some modifications to it when he was appointed the supervising architect (a position which was held by numerous people during the time it took to complete the building)

IV. Continued Development

• One reason for the protracted process was the fact that the British destroyed most of it during the War of 1812
• As the rebuilding progressed, it became apparent that the nation was growing at a pace which made the size of the Capitol inadequate and expansions had to be planned
• Thomas Ustick Walter was responsible for most of the work done in the 1850s-60s, a process which was delayed this time because of the Civil War
• His additions included adding wings to the building, and raising the dome, since the shallow dome did not look very monumental as the building became larger

If the street plan and important buildings were to be the stage set for the political theater of the country, it was not only the politicians who would be the actors. Oddly enough, it was not the people, either, who would fill that role. This part went to the elements of the Capitol's decorative program. The early plans for decorating the capitol were fairly minimal, and the commissions at first were to go to European artists, following the belief that America as yet did not have artists of the necessary skill or quality, although after the reconstruction began, some American artists were given work in the capitol decorative program -- John Trumbull was the first of these. The first four history paintings for the capitol were to be two scenes from the Revolutionary War and two scenes from civic life (the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the resignation of General Washington from the Army). As completed, all four paintings are similar in style and composition, with the military scenes coming across as static, symmetric, and classical as the civic scenes.
 

Trumbull: The Resignation of General Washington, 1824	Trumbull: Surrender of Lord Cornwallis, ca 1820s

Essentially all that differentiates these paintings is the setting: military field versus indoor chamber. As Trumbull envisioned the program, there would have been no wall ornamentation between the four paintings, creating the effect of an almost continuous panel, an effect which would have further enhanced the similarity between the military and civic settings. He made four paintings for this part of the decorative program: the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, the surrender of General Burgoyne, and General Washington resigning his commission, so he could assume the role of president. Trumbull's vision of the capitol as a panel decorated by his paintings was modified before their installation by the commissioning of sculptural reliefs which focused on pre-revolutionary, colonial scenes of the discovery, and early conflicts of the settlers with the natives. The panels generally transform the violence of the true historical events into an easy victory for the newcomers, associated with the retreat of the native Americans; part of the theme of the capitol seems to be that the European settler will reign with little challenge from the natives, who are weaker, docile in their anger, and less civilized than the new Americans.
 

Enrico Causici: Conflict of Daniel Boone and the Indians, 1826-7	Causici: Landing of the Pilgrims, 1825
Nicholas Gevelot:: William Penn's Treaty with the Indians, 1827	Antonio Capellano: Preservation of Captain Smith by Pocahontas, 1825

In the Preservation of Captain Smith, Pocahontas is the smallest figure. But she is closely linked to Smith and appears to be raised above the surface more than the other figures, giving her role as intercessor importance. In addition, the dual dominance of Pocahontas and Smith asserts a role for native Americans that is given prominence over the combative and assertively independent role of the warriors in the background. Yet, as we will see, this linkage between the two figures may be asserting the assimilation of Pocahontas, and not her role as an intercessor. It is her union with Smith that makes her acceptable; it is not her shielding of Smith that allows him to live. In fact, it might be more accurate to say that he allows her to live. It is true that we don't see all of that in this single panel, but when we view it in conjunction with the painting of the Baptism of Pocahontas (see below), this message emerges. And it is precisely that ability of the paintings and sculpture to speak to one another and recast their meanings that makes them the actors in the Capitol's theater.

The one scene which depicts the native Americans as more equal to the settlers is the scene with Penn signing a treaty with the Indians--yet what this scene does not show is that Penn is using the treaty to obtain more land, and further subjugate the Indians. It actually makes the Indians into willing and complicit participants in their subjugation. The four scenes, each in its own way, depict a narrative of conquest and subjugation with the Indians defeated either because they are shown as heathens, as childlike, or as primitive (lacking the sophisticated weaponry of the Europeans, as in the scene of Daniel Boone's conflict).

The next stage of decoration involved four murals painted by American artists between 1840 and 1855. These paintings detailed the landing of Columbus, the embarkation of the Pilgrims, the baptism of Pocahontas, and the discovery of the Mississippi -- in other words, four events which defined the history of this country: discovery, settlement and subjugation, and expansion.
 

Chapman: Baptism of Pocahontas at Jamestown, 1837-40

John Chapman's painting of the Baptism of Pocahontas depicts her as more akin to a virgin Mary than to her family origins, showing her in the process of converting to Christianity and symbolically to British culture. Whereas many artists had depicted the scene of Pocahontas saving Smith, Chapman was the first to depict the baptism. If Smith was the presumed victim in the sculptural panel, Pocahontas in this painting was neither savage native nor victim nor savior. In a sense, she has no status: she is no longer "native" since she is in the process of converting, and when she is converted, her assimilated "non-status" will be official. It is through dialogue with the earlier sculptural panel that this painting, acquires its message. In both cases, Pocahontas is celebrated for her acclimation to the lifestyle and beliefs of the people who have conquered her people.

In the decorative program as a whole, the characters of the murals are the same as the characters of the reliefs but the events depicted are different. It is in this respect that the decorative program begins to function like a theater, with the Capitol as the stage and stage set for the dramatic enactment of a narrative of settlement, conquest, and expansion of the nation, a theater in which paintings and sculpture are the actors. Theater becomes a metaphor and virtual framework for this play as the "characters" enter into a dialogue with one another and call for a response from the spectator. Yet they also provide a reflective commentary on the history of the nation, one which the viewer should simply accept, and this demand probably superceded the demand for active engagement from the spectator.

Bibliographic sources:
Vivien Green Fryd. Art and Empire. The Politics of Ethnicity in the United States Capitol, 1815-1860. (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2001).
Pamela Scott. Temple of Liberty. Building the Capitol for a New Nation. (NY: Oxford University Press, 1995).