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It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov/semiq. That's usmint.gov/semiq. I turned off news altogether.
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So good, in fact, that some have dubbed him America's Michelangelo. Let's get into the story. It's an utterly unlikely union. America's Cincinnatus, George Washington, and America's Michelangelo painter, Constantino Brumidi, never met. Washington was born in 1732, third-generation Virginian.
Brumidi was born in Rome in 1805 and emigrated to America in 1849, becoming a naturalized citizen soon after. Washington left his mark on the nation like no other military and political leader before or after, earning the honorific America's indispensable man. Bramede, who honed his craft painting frescoes and murals in Rome, would leave his mark throughout the nation's most important building, earning the honorific the United States Capitol's indispensable artist. The Capitol Historical Society wrote in an essay on the man quote those beautiful hallways on the Senate side of the Capitol, Bramedy, the historic committee rooms and the fancy reception rooms, Bramedy, the decorative band wrapping around the rotunda with the scenes from American history, that would be Bramedy too. Romeyde's crowning achievement, among many throughout the Capitol, painted over a 25-year period, is the mural known as the Apotheosis of Washington.
Painted in 11 months, not long after the new Capitol dome was completed in 1864, the magnificent fresco is suspended 180 feet above the rotunda floor. And covers an area of four thousand six hundred and sixty-four square feet. How did this Italian immigrant earn this commission, and why was George Washington chosen as the main subject of his masterpiece? To understand the answer to the former question, it's best to answer the latter. There's no better American to describe Washington's importance than Abraham Lincoln.
Who said these words to an audience in Springfield, Illinois, in 1842? "Washington's is the mightiest name of earth. To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of Washington is alike impossible. Let none attempt it. And solemnly pronounce the name, and in its naked, deathless splendor, leave it shining on." Lincoln's words were not hyperbole, but rather an expression of well-earned reverence.
Washington not only led an upstart fighting force to victory over the mighty British army, he resigned his commission not long after the big win. When told by the American artist Benjamin West that Washington was walking away from power, King George III of England famously said, "Quote." If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world. Washington, the man who chose not to be king, returned to Mount Vernon to pursue civilian life. Duty called again when Washington was summoned to Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to serve as president of the Constitutional Convention. Washington was then unanimously called upon to be our first president.
Among his achievements, he signed into law the Northwest Ordinance of 1789, which, among other things, precluded slavery in the new territories of the United States. After serving just two terms, Washington once again walked away from power to return to Mount Vernon. But who was Bromedy? And how did he become the U.S. Capitol's most important painter?
Here's how the U.S. Capitol Historical Society described him: As a boy in Italy, he studied at a famous arts academy and learned how to fresco, painting on wet plaster so colors could become a permanent part of the wall. In Rome, he would paint frescoes in palaces and chapels. And at the Pope's residence at the Vatican, forced to flee the Italian Revolution in 1852, Bermejo came to America. Living in New York, he traveled extensively to paint private homes and churches, including a cathedral in Mexico City.
It was on his way back home that Bermejo stopped in Washington D.C. to visit the capital. That side trip would forever change his life. The timing couldn't have been better for Bermei and America. The Capitol had recently doubled in length to make room for larger chambers for the House and the Senate.
What was left after construction was a building filled with empty walls, walls beckoning for an artist to bring them to life. Bermei was determined to win the commission, demonstrating his talents with a small painting in a Capitol meeting room. He passed the audition and would paint in the Capitol for the next twenty-five years. Indeed, few people could remember a day when Burmitti was not painting at the Capitol. If Burmitti was a fixture there, so too was the scaffolding needed for his most memorable creation.
Here's more from the Capitol Historical Society. Quote. The enormous wooden scaffolding for the apotheosis of Washington mural raised Brambetti 180 feet into the eye of the dome. Often, Brambetti would lie down on that platform, working flat on his back as he painted on the curved surface, 17 stories above the rotunda's floor. It was dangerous work.
And people often gathered simply to watch him get up, all the way to the scaffolding's peak. One fall nearly cost him his life, but for a watchful security guard, who was able to save him. Injured, he would continue to paint for another year before his death in 1880. The most memorable creation of Bermeo's career is his effort to honor our nation's founding father. In the central group of the fresco, Bramedei depicted Washington rising to the heavens in glory, flanked by female figures representing liberty, and victory and fame.
A rainbow arches at his feet, and thirteen maidens symbolizing the original thirteen states flank the three central figures. The figures in the painting, up to fifteen feet tall, were painted to be intelligible from up close, as well as from 150 feet below. What was the significance of this godlike rendition of Washington? I quote author Naieli Riano quote: The fresco is less a deification of Washington than a creative recording of his achievements. And like any historical painting, it's telling us a story about how we understand our nation and its identity.
She added, "We might easily mistake such a work as blind reverence, but that's not the case. Remedy's fresco demonstrates instead the purpose of art: to lift our spirits and grant us something—an ideal worth striving for." End quote. One of our great historians, the late David McCullough, agreed. "Quote: This isn't ancestor worship. This is reality.
This is the truth. To be indifferent to people like Washington is a form of ingratitude. We ought to be down on our knees, thanking God we're a part of this country, and we ought to know about the people who made it possible." That's precisely what Remedi believed, expressing his reverence for Washington and the nation that adopted him, not with a pen, but paint and a paintbrush. Washington died at his home on December Fourteenth, seventeen ninety nine, to worldwide accolades. Remedi died more than eighty years later at his home in Washington D.C.
in near anonymity. And with another important work left unfinished, the capital's frieze of American history. Thus ended the mystical story of America's Cincinnati and America's Michelangelo, forever connected in a fresco adorning the dome of the U.S. Capitol, one the American people have admired for centuries and will be admiring for centuries to come. The story of America's Cincinnatus and America's Michelangelo here, on our American stories.
Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years, and now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 semi-quintennial coin and medal program from the United States Mint it celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new.
Official coins at usmint.gov/semiq. That's usmint.gov/semiq. The biggest game of the season, right here, right now, starts Saturday strong. It's Big News Saturday on Fox, and here we go. It all starts at ten Eastern with Big News kickoff live.
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From the biggest headlines and breaking news to the stories shaping the sport behind the scenes, Rushing the Field is your home for everything college football. Whether you're obsessed with rankings, rivalries, or game day drama, we've got you covered. Watch rushing the field on NBC Sports now.
