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Entrance Hall
The Entrance Hall (also called the Grand Foyer) is the primary and formal entrance to the White House, the official residence of the president of the United States. The room is rectilinear in shape and measures approximately 31 by 44 feet. Located on the State Floor, the room is entered from outdoors through the North Portico, which faces the North Lawn and Pennsylvania Avenue. The south side of the room opens to the Cross Hall through a screen of paired Roman Doric columns. The east wall opens to the Grand Staircase. Hoban's 1792 and 1817 designs Architect James Hoban's original floor plans show a similar room, but with single columns separating the Entrance Hall and Cross Hall, and with the Grand Stair entering into the Cross Hall. Mid-19th century photographs show the room as rebuilt by Hoban following the 1814 White House fire. In these photographs two Ionic columns support a series of shallow arches, and a frieze of bas-relief anthemion encircling the room. The ...
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Piano In Entrance Hall
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a chromatic scale in equal temperament. A musician who specializes in piano is called a pianist. There are two main types of piano: the #Grand, grand piano and the #Upupright piano. The grand piano offers better sound and more precise key control, making it the preferred choice when space and budget allow. The grand piano is also considered a necessity in venues hosting skilled pianists. The upright piano is more commonly used because of its smaller size and lower cost. When a key is depressed, the strings inside are struck by felt-coated wooden hammers. The vibrations are transmitted through a Bridge (instrument), bridge to a Soundboard (music), soundboard that amplifies the sound by Coupling (physics), coupling the Sound, acoustic energy t ...
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Arch
An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but structural load-bearing arches became popular only after their adoption by the Ancient Romans in the 4th century BC. Arch-like structures can be horizontal, like an arch dam that withstands the horizontal hydrostatic pressure load. Arches are usually used as supports for many types of vaults, with the barrel vault in particular being a continuous arch. Extensive use of arches and vaults characterizes an arcuated construction, as opposed to the trabeated system, where, like in the architectures of ancient Greece, China, and Japan (as well as the modern steel-framed technique), posts and beams dominate. Arches had several advantages over the lintel, especially in the masonry construction: with the same amount of material it can have ...
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United States Capitol
The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the Seat of government, seat of the United States Congress, the United States Congress, legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, federal government. It is located on Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Although no longer at the geographic center of the Geography of Washington, D.C., national capital, the U.S. Capitol forms the origin point for the street-numbering system of the district as well as Quadrants of Washington, D.C., its four quadrants. Like the principal buildings of the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive and Federal judiciary of the United States, judicial branches, the Capitol is built in a neoclassical architecture, neoclassical style and has a white exterior. Central sections of the present building were completed in 1800. These were partly destroyed in the Burning of Washington, 1814 Burni ...
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United States Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the United States Constitution, Article One of the Constitution of the United States, U.S. Constitution to pass or defeat federal legislation. The Senate also has exclusive power to confirm President of the United States, U.S. presidential appointments, to approve or reject treaties, and to convict or exonerate Impeachment in the United States, impeachment cases brought by the House. The Senate and the House provide a Separation of powers under the United States Constitution, check and balance on the powers of the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive and Federal judiciary of the United States, judicial branches of government. The composition and powers of the Se ...
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United States Capitol Rotunda
The United States Capitol building features a central rotunda below the Capitol dome. Built between 1818 and 1824, the rotunda has been described as the Capitol's "symbolic and physical heart". The rotunda is connected by corridors leading south to the House of Representatives and north to the Senate chambers. To the immediate south is the semi-circular National Statuary Hall, which was the House of Representatives chamber until 1857. To the northeast is the Old Senate Chamber, used by the Senate until 1859 and by the Supreme Court until 1935. The rotunda is in diameter, rises to the top of its original walls and to the canopy of the dome, and is usually visited daily by thousands of people. The space is a national showcase of art, and includes numerous historical paintings and sculptures. It is also used for ceremonial or public events authorized by concurrent resolution of both houses of congress, including the lying in state of honored dead. Design and construction ...
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The Apotheosis Of Washington
''The Apotheosis of Washington'' is the fresco painted by Greek- Italian artist Constantino Brumidi in 1865 and visible through the oculus of the dome in the rotunda of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The fresco is suspended above the rotunda floor and covers an area of . The figures painted are up to tall and are visible from the floor below. The dome was completed in 1863, and Brumidi painted it over the course of eleven months at the end of the American Civil War. He was paid $40,000 ($ in today's funds) for the fresco. Brumidi had worked for three years in the Vatican under Pope Gregory XVI, and served several aristocrats as an artist for palaces and villas, including the prince Torlonia. He immigrated to the United States in 1852, and spent much of the last 25 years of his life working in the Capitol. In addition to ''The Apotheosis of Washington'', Brumidi designed the Brumidi Corridors, ornately decorated corridors on the first floor o ...
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Fresco
Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The word ''fresco'' () is derived from the Italian adjective ''fresco'' meaning "fresh", and may thus be contrasted with fresco-secco or secco mural painting techniques, which are applied to dried plaster, to supplement painting in fresco. The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting. The word ''fresco'' is commonly and inaccurately used in English to refer to any wall painting regardless of the plaster technology or binding medium. This, in part, contributes to a misconception that the most geographically and temporally common wall painting technology was the painting into wet lime plaster. Even in apparently '' buon fresco'' technology ...
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Constantino Brumidi
Constantino Brumidi (26 July 1805 – 19 February 1880) was a Greek-Italian painter and a Naturalization, naturalized American citizen, best known and honored for his fresco work, ''The Apotheosis of Washington, Apotheosis of Washington'', in the United States Capitol, Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Parentage and early life Brumidi was born in Rome, his father a Greeks, Greek from Filiatra in the province of Messenia, Greece, and his mother an Italian people, Italian. He showed his talent for fresco painting at an early age and underwent training in the fields of sculpture and painting, under the tutelage of artists such as Bertel Thorvaldsen, Antonio Canova, and Baron Vincenzo Camuccini. Brumidi painted in several Roman palaces, among them being that of Torlonia, Prince Torlonia. Under Gregory XVI he worked for three years in the Vatican City, Vatican. Immigration and following work The Military occupation, occupation of Rome by French forces in 1849 apparently persuaded ...
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Encaustic Tile
Encaustic or inlaid tiles are ceramic tiles in which the pattern or figure on the surface is not a product of the glaze but of different colors of clay. They are usually of two colours but a tile may be composed of as many as six. The pattern appears inlaid into the body of the tile, so that the design remains as the tile is worn down. Encaustic tiles may be glazed or unglazed and the inlay may be as shallow as , as is often the case with "printed" encaustic tile from the later medieval period, or as deep as . History The tiles known as 'encaustic tiles' in the Victorian period were, in the medieval period, known as 'inlaid tiles'. The use of the word ''encaustic'' to describe an inlaid tile of two or more colors is linguistically incorrect. The word ''encaustic'', from the , means 'burning in', from , and . The term ''encaustic'' originally described a process of painting with a beeswax-based paint that was then fixed with heat. It was also applied to a process of medieval ...
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Mintons
Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery, "Europe's leading ceramic factory during the Victorian era", an independent business from 1793 to 1968. It was a leader in ceramic design, working in a number of different ceramic bodies, decorative techniques, and "a glorious pot-pourri of styles - Rococo shapes with Oriental motifs, Classical shapes with Medieval designs and Art Nouveau borders were among the many wonderful concoctions". As well as pottery vessels and sculptures, the firm was a leading manufacturer of tiles and other architectural ceramics, producing work for both the Palace of Westminster, Houses of Parliament and United States Capitol. The family continued to control the business until the mid-20th century. Mintons had the usual Staffordshire variety of company and trading names over the years, and the products of all periods are generally referred to as either "Minton", as in "Minton china", or "Mintons", the mark used on many. Mintons Ltd was the co ...
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Thomas U
Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (other) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Apostle * Thomas (bishop of the East Angles) (fl. 640s–650s), medieval Bishop of the East Angles * Thomas (Archdeacon of Barnstaple) (fl. 1203), Archdeacon of Barnstaple * Thomas, Count of Perche (1195–1217), Count of Perche * Thomas (bishop of Finland) (1248), first known Bishop of Finland * Thomas, Earl of Mar (1330–1377), 14th-century Earl, Aberdeen, Scotland Geography Places in the United States * Thomas, Idaho * Thomas, Illinois * Thomas, Oklahoma * Thomas, Oregon * Thomas, South Dakota * Thomas, Virginia * Thomas, Washington * Thomas, West Virginia * Thomas County (other) * Thomas Township (other) Elsewhere * Thomas Glacier (Greenland) Arts and entertainment * ''Thomas'' (Burton novel), a 196 ...
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Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren ( ; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was the eighth president of the United States, serving from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as Attorney General of New York, New York's attorney general and United States Senator, U.S. senator, then briefly as the ninth governor of New York before joining Andrew Jackson's administration as the tenth United States secretary of state, minister to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom, and ultimately the eighth vice president of the United States, vice president from 1833 to 1837, after being elected on Jackson's ticket in 1832 United States presidential election, 1832. Van Buren won the presidency in 1836 United States presidential election, 1836 against divided Whig opponents. He lost re-election in 1840 United States presidential election, 1840, and failed to win the Democratic nomination in 1844 United States presidential el ...
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