Constantino Brumidi arrived in the United States in September 1852 as a refugee from turmoil in Europe. He had experienced the violence wrought from intractable political differences and the brutality of living under an oppressive rule. He had been imprisoned in part for his participation in a rebellion for freedom and reform.
Released by Pope Pius IX on the condition that he must leave Italy, the 47-year-old artist immigrated to a young nation of promise and possibility an ocean away. Before long, the Greek-Italian painter was a firm proponent of the virtues of American democracy and a staunch, proud advocate of the freedoms and foundations that made it such a hopeful contrast to the country that banished him.
