The Italian Presence in American Art, 1860-1920

This book is the second title based on a symposium organized by Irma Jaffe for Fordham University and Istituto della Encilopedia. The first volume covered Italian influences in American art from 1760-1860; this volume is a compilation of the papers given at the second symposium, covering the years 1860-1920. The essays gathered in this second volume examine the struggle of American artists of the period between the Civil War and World War I, a time when the nation fought for political unity and saw the end of the frontier and manifest destiny. This book explores how our political, economic and demographic expansion as a nation is often infused with efforts to reconcile our goals with our European past. The essays refer to this era as the American Renaissance and discuss how many American artists shifted their attention from Rome to Venice. During this important period of our cultural history, wealthy patrons sought to cultivate an American school of culture that would grow and flourish the soil of the New World.