Lee Rizzuto

It is an unlikely union. America’s Cincinnatus—George Washington—and America’s Michelangelo—the Italian painter Constantino Brumidi—never met. Washington was born in 1732, a third-generation Virginian. Brumidi was born in Rome in 1805 and emigrated to the United States in 1849, becoming a naturalized citizen soon after. Yet both left indelible marks on the American republic. Washington shaped…