Comments on: Politicians and Personality Cults

By: Kris

Kris — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 06:26:05 +0000

There’s a masonic temple which acts basically as a shrine to him in Old Town Alexandria, right down the road from DC.

By: Link

Link — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:22:35 +0000

Obama is a lot like Peron, without the gold braid. He too had a cult of personality.

By: rob sama

rob sama — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:11:37 +0000

Yeah, but I always liked the image of “War” with the American Flag shield. Wikipedia has a good article explaining all the different aspects of the painting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apotheosis_of_Washington

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 15:47:37 +0000

The apotheosis theme dated back at least to the Romans, but it was still fairly current. Rubens had famously done one such scene for James I. (No doubt, it takes chutzpah.)

In Washington’s case, the man really was that loved and respected around the country. Even while he was alive, the two major parties fought over the control of his memory, sabotaging each others’ attempts at memorialization. This continued until the Federalist party collapsed after the War of 1812.

The Capitol fresco was painted in 1865, and I’m very curious about the decision to commission a painting during the Civil War. Usually in the 19th-century Congress, art commissions were horribly controversial acts even in peacetime,