Fabula
Location
Location

National Gallery

Bartlet and Mrs. Landingham select prints from its collections to adorn Oval Office walls, their debate revealing the gallery's role as lender of cultural treasures. Vast halls shelter historic artworks under soft lighting, prints awaiting transport from public display to presidential spaces. This exchange humanizes power amid looming crises, prints bridging institutional prestige with Oval intimacy.
2 events
2 rich involvements

Detailed Involvements

Events with rich location context

S4E5 · Debate Camp
Art, Orders, and a Political Landmine

The National Gallery is referenced as the source of potential prints for the Oval; its mention supplies cultural legitimacy and normal administrative options the President might tap to humanize the office.

Atmosphere

Evocative and cultured in imagination — conjures quiet galleries and prestigious loans.

Functional Role

Source/provider of artwork and institutional prestige invoked during the art-selection conversation.

Symbolic Significance

Represents continuity, national culture, and the softer instruments of presidential image-making.

Access Restrictions

Public institution with formal loan processes — implied constraints on what can be borrowed.

Referenced collection holdings (e.g., DaVinci print) Implied loan procedures and curatorial oversight
S4E5 · Debate Camp
Transcript as Landmine: C.J. Reveals Rooker's Racial Profiling Remarks

The National Gallery is referenced as the provenance for the offered prints, functioning narratively to emphasize the cultural legitimacy of Oval decorations and to contrast aesthetic concerns with the grubby realities of political scandal.

Atmosphere

Mentioned only as a reputable repository of art — lends a genteel, institutional aura to the early exchange.

Functional Role

Source of potential loaned artwork for the Oval Office; an origin point for the prints being discussed.

Symbolic Significance

Represents national culture and the softer side of statecraft that is threatened by political crises.

Access Restrictions

Implied institutional loan processes; not directly entered during the event.

Evokes museum authority and formal collections. Suggested proximity through Mrs. Landingham's ability to arrange loans.

Events at This Location

Everything that happens here

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