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[Great Hall. Detail of putti (hunter and mechanic) on Grand staircase by Philip Martiny. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.]
Summary
Photo shows two putti (infants) on the south side of the staircase. They represent a hunter with a gun and a mechanic with a cogwheel. (Source: Cole and Reed, Library of Congress, 1997)
Exhibit caption: "The figures on the staircase are known as putti and represent the various occupations, habits, and pursuits of contemporary American life in the late nineteenth century, when the building was opened. The putto (plural putti) is a figure of a pudgy human baby, almost always male, often naked and having wings, found especially in Italian Renaissance art." (Source: MyLOC.gov Great Hall exhibit, 2008)
Forms part of the Library of Congress Series in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.
Founding fathers wanted the United States to be a complete break from the past and English influences. Jefferson saw architecture as an artistic declaration that the United States was unique and not European. The inspirations for his architectural views were the classic civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome. The “Age of Reason” architects were drawn to the symmetry, clean lines and mathematical preciseness of Greek and Roman buildings. Jefferson probably had the largest architectural library in the United States.
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