Statuary At Washington Runs Too Much On Two Subjects, Which
Are Repeated Perhaps Almost Ad Nauseam:
One is that of a stiff,
steady-looking, healthy, but ugly individual, with a square jaw and
big jowl, which represents the great general; he does not prepossess
the beholder, because he appears to be thoroughly ill natured.
And
the other represents a melancholy, weak figure without any hair, but
often covered with feathers, and is intended to typify the red
Indian. The red Indian is generally supposed to be receiving
comfort; but it is manifest that he never enjoys the comfort
ministered to him. There is a gigantic statue of Washington, by
Greenough, out in the grounds in front of the building. The figure
is seated and holding up one of its arms toward the city. There is
about it a kind of weighty magnificence; but it is stiff, ungainly,
and altogether without life.
But the front of the original building is certainly grand. The
architect who designed it must have had skill, taste, and nobility
of conception; but even this is spoiled, or rather wasted, by the
fact that the front is made to look upon nothing, and is turned from
the city. It is as though, the facade of the London Post-office had
been made to face the Goldsmiths' Hall. The Capitol stands upon the
side of a hill, the front occupying a much higher position than the
back; consequently they who enter it from the back - and everybody
does so enter it - are first called on to rise to the level of the
lower floor by a stiff ascent of exterior steps, which are in no way
grand or imposing, and then, having entered by a mean back door, are
instantly obliged to ascend again by another flight - by stairs
sufficiently appropriate to a back entrance, but altogether unfitted
for the chief approach to such a building. It may, of course, be
said that persons who are particular in such matters should go in at
the front door and not at the back; but one must take these things
as one finds them. The entrance by which the Capitol is approached
is such as I have described. There are mean little brick chimneys
at the left hand as one walks in, attached to modern bakeries, which
have been constructed in the basement for the use of the soldiers;
and there is on the other hand the road by which wagons find their
way to the underground region with fuel, stationery, and other
matters desired by Senators and Representatives, and at present by
bakers also.
In speaking of the front I have spoken of it as it was originally
designed and built. Since that period very heavy wings have been
added to the pile - wings so heavy that they are or seem to be much
larger than the original structure itself. This, to my thinking,
has destroyed the symmetry of the whole. The wings, which in
themselves are by no means devoid of beauty, are joined to the
center by passages so narrow that from exterior points of view the
light can be seen through them.
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