Next up was our tour of the Capitol. Not too shabby.
I love this story:
Thomas U. Walter's 1859 cross-section drawing of the new Dome (constructed 1855-1863) shows a recessed belt atop the Rotunda walls with relief sculpture. Eventually it was painted in true fresco, a difficult and exacting technique in which the pigments are applied directly onto wet plaster. As the plaster cures the colors become part of the wall. Consequently, each section of plaster must be painted the day it is laid.
Long story short...Congress wanted a relief sculpture but couldn't afford it...so...for what I imagine to be the last time, they settled for what they could afford.
The Rotunda is being restored. It was still beautiful though.
Each state is allowed to have two statues in the Capitol and they can be changed out. The place is filthy with them. Oddly very few women or minorities represented. It is literally full of old white men.
An early Supreme Court Chamber
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