David Michael Miller
“The Unveiling of the Resources of the State.”
After the second Capitol in Madison burned in 1904, the newly formed Wisconsin Capitol Commission hired consultant Daniel Burnham.
He had previously served as supervising architect for the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 — the Chicago World’s Fair. As a result, a host of World’s Fair architects, artists and artisans were brought to Madison to help create the new Capitol’s exterior.
In the Windy City they had built temporary exposition buildings from whitewashed “staff,” a mix of plaster, cement and jute. Here they would build and sculpt with Vermont white granite.
High above street level, their work is easily overlooked as mere ornamentation.
It is not. Each grouping is meant to engender values of the state.
On the end of each wing of the Capitol the roof line is a broad inverted V. Beneath these low gables, or pediments, are collections of statuary. Figures on the east and west pediments were sculpted by Karl Bitter. He was well-known for allegorical statues that he created for the Columbian Exposition’s Administration Building, the centerpiece of the fair.
David Michael Miller
“Faith” by Karl Bitter, faces Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
The pediment on the Capitol’s east wing, which contains the state Supreme Court, represents “Liberty Supported by Law.” The Magna Carta is represented on the left. Toward the right, a mother is teaching principles to her children.
The west wing pediment displays “The Unveiling of the Resources of the State,” featuring livestock, wheat, corn and fishermen. A Native American and his dog represent hunting.
Around the barrel shape supporting the dome, Bitter also created four massive statue groups, many of them 12 feet tall. Facing Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is “Faith.” Overlooking West Washington Avenue is “Strength” and on East Washington is “Knowledge.” On Wisconsin Avenue is “Prosperity and Abundance.”
Figures on the south pediment, “The Virtues and Traits of Character,” were sculpted by Adolph Alexander Weinman, a German native. He previously served as assistant to Daniel Chester French, who sculpted “Wisconsin,” the figure on top of the Capitol dome. Weinman also sculpted the figure of Abraham Lincoln on Bascom Hill. The woman in the center of his pediment group represents wisdom. Flanking figures represent rectitude, equity, power, meditation, prudence, success and progress.
Wisconsin Historical Society
Just how much sculptor Attilio Piccirilli and his brothers contributed to the Capitol is unknown.
The north pediment, “Learning of the World,” was sculpted by Attilio Piccirilli, who played a large role both at our Capitol and the Chicago World’s Fair. A woman in the middle holds a tablet with the inscription, “Sapientia,” which represents wisdom and enlightenment. Figures on the right represent agriculture and the home, and on the left, mechanics and physics. Smaller figures represent fines arts and the home.
Piccirilli and his sculptor brothers are mysterious figures in art history, and just how much they contributed to the Capitol is unknown. In the 1900s it was not unusual for artists to model their figures in clay, and then hire others to “translate” them into marble or other stone. Daniel Chester French created the figure inside the Lincoln Monument in Washington, D.C. But it was the Piccirillis who did the actual stone-carving.
Just where the border falls between creators and the artisans is debated, and almost certainly it was a collaboration. Certainly the Piccirillis were artists in their own right.
Records from the Italian immigrants’ New York studio were lost long ago. In the case of the Wisconsin Capitol, the Piccirillis may have been the uncredited sculptors of many exterior pieces. It’s certain that they “translated” the marble “Genius of Wisconsin” inside.
