Chapter 21

The U.S. Capitol Rotunda

Looking up into the Capitol dome, as it would appear to Langdon standing below. The top soars 180' overhead, more than 15 stories high; Langdon mentions that the Statue of Liberty could stand here (with 30' to spare). The catwalk (which Langdon has no desire to visit) can be seen here.

The distance to the mural at the very top makes it hard to grasp its enormous size: the painting is over 65' across, covers over 4,600 square feet, and each figure is up to 15' tall.

The Apotheosis of Washington Mural

The Apotheosis of Washington mural on the dome's canopy (larger image, high-resolution image).

Can you find George Washington? I couldn't.

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Close-up of the center of the mural. George Washington is at the bottom wearing a purple coat and, er, pink skirt, with a rainbow at his feet. By his side are the goddess Victory (in green), and the goddess Liberty. The other 13 maidens in the circle represent the 13 colonies (rather than vestal virgins) according to Wikipedia.

Click to see the detail and symbolism for the other figures in the mural: War, Science, Marine, Commerce, Mechanics, and Agriculture.

Saint John the Baptist

Leonardo da Vinci's Saint John the Baptist (~1514), who is clearly gesturing at something.

Enthroned Washington Statue

The fearsome Enthroned Washington statue (click image to enlarge). The status was modeled after the Zeus Olympios statue, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Zeus statue was destroyed in ancient times, so we don't know exactly what it looked like; but though all of the drawings do show Zeus seated and bare-chested like Washington, none show Zeus doing the hand thing.

Enthroned Washington was commissioned for the Capitol, but it was just too darn hot, and was removed.

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After being removed from the Capitol building, EW spent some time out of doors, before being relocated to a Smithsonian museum.

So many funny captions I could add here...