The continued Trumptrashification of DC

*While doing research for this cartoon and looking for photos of the horse statues when first donated in 1949 by the Italian government, I was trying to figure out why the newly golden ones looked so different. Scroll through the photos of this link from the Ferdinando Marinelli Artistic Foundry in Florence website and while there’s no date on the post, one can clearly see the difference in the gilding application and how Trump’s has flattened out the detailing and depth of the artist’s work.

A Substack subscriber (“Lady Emsworth”) offered this helpful insight:

“I’m no expert - just like trump. But I did google “What was the original gilt on the statues ?” and got the answer “Fire Gilt”

So I googled that and got this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilding

Which led me to want to know more, and I found this:

https://nicholaswells.com/blogs/blog/ormolu-gilt-bronze-a-history-of-mercury-gilding-and-the-art-of-fire-gilding?srsltid=AfmBOor3F65syPDpWqRMDi6wlV9JXijZZSFvxTzIkaTGeVUThL53nzWm“

In addition to the tacky gold additions in the Oval Office, Trump has unveiled two of four golden horse statues on Memorial Bridge by the Lincoln Memorial.