The Transformative Power of Spaces

Abstract

Rembrandt Peale’s portrait of George Washington, “Patriae Pater,” painted for the Marquis de Lafayette’s 1824 visit to Philadelphia, was a key element in the celebratory decorations devised by architect William Strickland. Displayed in the old statehouse, now Independence Hall, Peale’s painting contributed to a potent illusion extending beyond the canvas itself. It created the sensation of a threshold between past and present, enacted also during the welcoming parade on Philadelphia’s streets and the farewell ball staged in Chestnut Street’s New Theater. These venues invited participants into liminal spaces in which references to the Roman empire symbolized an expanding nation.