The United States Honors Constantino Brumidi, Artist of the Capitol

The United States Mint has issued bronze medals for 2012 that are duplicates of the Congressional Gold Medal awarded posthumously to Constantino Brumidi, the artist of the U.S. Capitol. 

Congress passed the commemorative coin act authorizing the Mint to strike the medal in 2008 and was signed into law by President George W. Bush.  The obverse of the medals features a portrait of Brumidi.  The central scene of his masterpiece, The Apotheosis of Washington, the fresco that adorns the eye of the rotunda of the Capitol, is engraved upon the reverse.

Brumidi immigrated in 1852 from Rome, which was united into Italy in 1870, and was naturalized a U.S. citizen in1857.  Known as the “Michelangelo of America,” he honored the new land of his citizenship by painting the Capitol from 1855 to 1880.  Brumidi’s frescoes cover the walls of the rotunda, both chambers and other important rooms.  His fresco of the Boston Massacre honors Crispus Attacks, the first such tribute to a black American in the Capitol. 

View images of the small version of the Brumidi medal here: http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=16037&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=10200.  The medal is also struck in a larger size.  

Several Italian-Americans have been engravers of circulating, commemorative or bullion U.S. coins, as well as medals, but the honoring of an Italian-American with a medal is rare.