The Rotunda

The heart of the Capital Building.  The place that brings the Senate and House together.  The Rotunda.

It is an impressive room.  The Art is simply amazing.  On the tour we spent a lot of time in this room.  Huge paint adorned canvases depicting different scenes from our history.

As you continue moving your eyes up the walls there is a painting that circles the Rotunda.  It is done to make it look like tiny sculptures popping out.  It is called a Frieze of American History.  It was painted by 3 different painters in whites and browns.  The completion of the frieze took 75 years.  It is hard to believe, but when standing on the floor looking up, the frieze doesn't look very big.  But it is 8 feet 4 inches in height and is approximately 300 feet in circumference. 

Then you see the Beautiful windows that let in all that amazing light and then suspended 180 feet off the Rotunda floor is the Canopy Fresco.  It is called The Apotheosis of Washington.

The figures in this painting are 15 feet tall, but from the floor look normal sized.  It took 11 months to finish this work of art and was completed at the end of the Civil War.

Interesting bit of information...  This painting costed $40,000.

There is also many statues all around the Rotunda.  The newest and lightest of the statues is of Gerald R. Ford.

The Rotunda was spectacular to say the least...