Art and Empire: The Politics of Ethnicity in the United States Capitol, 1815-1860

by Vivien Green Fryd

Overview

The subject matter and iconography of much of the art in the U.S. Capitol forms a remarkably coherent program of the early course of North American empire, from discovery and settlement to the national development and westward expansion that necessitated the subjugation of the indigenous peoples.

In Art and Empire, Vivien Green Fryd’s revealing cultural and political interpretation of the portraits, reliefs, allegories, and historical paintings commissioned for the U.S. Capitol, the reader is given an enhanced appreciation for the racial and ethnic implications of these works.

This latest contribution to the United States Capitol Historical Society’s Perspectives on the Art and Architectural History of the United States Capitol series provides an affordable and accessible insight into one of our most visited, viewed, and revered national buildings. Professor Fryd demonstrates how the politics of our history is written in stone and painted on the walls of these hallowed halls.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780821413425
Publisher:	Ohio University Press
Publication date:	03/15/2001
Series:	Perspective On Art & Architect
Edition description:	1ST OHIO P
Pages:	292
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Vivien Green Fryd is associate professor of art history at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of Marriage and Modernity: The Art and Lives of Edward Hopper and Georgia O'Keefe.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
	Acknowledgments	xiii
	Introduction	1
Part 1	The Capitol Reconstruction, 1815-1849
1	The Rotunda Reliefs	9
2	The Rotunda Paintings	42
3	Horatio Greenough's George Washington	62
4	Luigi Persico's Discovery of America and Horatio Greenough's Rescue	89
Part 2	The Capitol Extension, 1850-1860
5	Thomas Crawford's Progress of Civilization	109
6	Randolph Rogers's Bronze Doors and Constantino Brumidi's Frieze	125
Part 3	The Politics of Exclusions
7	Ethnographic Exclusions	157
8	Liberty, Justice, and Slavery	177
	Epilogue: Emanuel Leutze's Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way	209
	Notes	215
	Bibliography	249
	Index	265

What People are Saying About This

Michele Bogart

This is the book on the art of the U.S. Capitol. It is also an important contribution to the social history of American public art.

Editorial Reviews

Art and Empire is an insightful and long-overdue account…[that] should be read not only by those interested in antebellum American culture but by anyone interested in the wider problem of official art in modern society.”—Art Bulletin


“Art and Empire is a fine cultural history, well researched, well illustrated, and illuminating.”—The Journal of American History

From the Publisher

Through a study of the U.S. Capitol and its artworks, Fryd (art history, Vanderbilt U.) sheds light on the racist attitudes toward African Americans and Native Americans that the art and architecture have reflected. Rather than attempting to hide examples of the stereotypes and racism of the past (by removing from the Capitol, for example, Luigi Persico's statue Discovery of America), Fryd advocates retaining them in the building and studying them as a way to remember and change such attitudes that are still prevalent in American culture today. Includes many b&w images of the art under discussion. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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