Yes, there is...
Our
tour guide showed us. She stood several yards away and whispered into
her hand, but we could actually hear her. As she walked towards us, we
couldn't hear her as clear. It was very interesting.
The half-dome shape of National Statuary Hall produces an acoustical effect like a whispering gallery.
National Statuary Hall, also known as the Old Hall of the House, is the large, two-story, semicircular room next to the Rotunda. It is built in the shape of an ancient amphitheater and is one of the earliest examples of Greek revival architecture in America. Around the room's perimeter stand colossal columns of variegated Breccia marble quarried along the Potomac River. The Corinthian capitals of white marble were carved in Carrara, Italy. The lantern in the ceiling admits natural light into the Hall.
Only two of the many statues presently in the room were commissioned for display in the original hall:
Enrico Causici's neocloassical plaster Liberty and the Eagle looks out over the Hall from a niche above the colonnade...
Carlo Franzoni's 1810 sculptural clock, Car of History. The sculpture depicts Clio, the Muse of History, riding in a chariot of Time and recording events in the book she holds as they unfold in the chamber below. The car rests on a marble globe on which signs of the zodiac are carved in relief. The wheel of the chariot contains the chamber clock installed in 1837.
All photos in this blog post were taken by my husband and me during our visit in September, 2013.
Only two of the many statues presently in the room were commissioned for display in the original hall:
Enrico Causici's neocloassical plaster Liberty and the Eagle looks out over the Hall from a niche above the colonnade...
Carlo Franzoni's 1810 sculptural clock, Car of History. The sculpture depicts Clio, the Muse of History, riding in a chariot of Time and recording events in the book she holds as they unfold in the chamber below. The car rests on a marble globe on which signs of the zodiac are carved in relief. The wheel of the chariot contains the chamber clock installed in 1837.
All photos in this blog post were taken by my husband and me during our visit in September, 2013.
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