William L. Vance
William L. Vance is emeritus professor of English and former director of the American Studies program at Boston University.
Vance, William L.
Vance, William L.
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Description: America's Rome: Volume II—Catholic and Contemporary Rome
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00014
This remarkable book, one of a two-volume set, discusses the impact of Rome on American artists and writers from the earliest days of the new republic. Vance presents examples of American painting, sculpture, and writings of many different kinds (novels, poetry, travel books, letters, cultural commentary, journalism) that have been inspired by American encounters with Roman places and people over the course of two centuries.

In this volume, Vance begins by examining the three foremost Roman Catholic symbols: the bambino, the madonna, and the pope. He traces for the first time the evolution of American writing on popes from the late eighteenth century to the election of Pope John Paul II, including fictional depictions of an American pope. Then, he explores the predominantly negative American reaction to Catholic baroque sculpture and architecture in the nineteenth century.

In the section on contemporary Rome, the author addresses American attitudes toward Rome’s earliest attempts at democratization, toward its aristocratic social structures, and toward the political changes that occurred after World War II.

*This eBook is available exclusively on the A&AePortal.*
Print publication date September 1989 (in print)
Print ISBN 9780300044539
EISBN 9780300243932
Illustrations 34
Print Status in print
Description: America’s Rome: Volume I—Classical Rome
https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00010
This remarkable book is one of a two-volume set that examines the impact of Rome on American artists and writers from the earliest days of the new republic. William L. Vance presents examples of American painting, sculpture, and writings of many different kinds (novels, poetry, travel books, letters, cultural commentary, journalism) that have been inspired by American encounters with Roman places and people over two centuries.

Volume I focuses on the influence of classical Rome, showing how the Forum and the Colosseum inspired American thoughts of ideal republics and powerful empires, how the Campagna was an ambiguous image of Arcadia or wasteland in the aftermath of empire, and how the Pantheon and the galleries of antique sculpture presented a pagan challenge to American ideas of divinity, beauty, and sexuality.

America's Rome: Volume II—Catholic and Contemporary Rome is also available on the A&AePortal.

*This eBook is available exclusively on the A&AePortal.*
Print publication date September 1989 (out of print)
Print ISBN 9789998004733
EISBN 9780300243925
Illustrations 173
Print Status out of print