Archetypes and Responsive Smiles: Classical Statues and American Artists in Rome

The essay analyzes the ambivalent response of some major Anglo-American artists and writers to Roman cultural context, focusing, in particular, on their reaction classical neoclassical sculpture. In 18th 19th centuries, Rome was often interpreted as “the city statues,” an image that shared by visual (B. West, W. Allston, H. Greenough, T. Crawford, Story, G. Hosmer) novelists like Melville, Hawthorne, James. function archaeological background fruitful permanence dense images from past are investigated texts, terms updated archetypal criticism.