Torre di Schiavi

Thomas Hiram Hotchkiss, Torre di Schiavi, 1865, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1977.52
Copied Thomas Hiram Hotchkiss, Torre di Schiavi, 1865, oil on canvas, 22 3⁄8 x 34 5⁄8 in. (56.9 x 88.1 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1977.52
Free to use

Artwork Details

Title
Torre di Schiavi
Artist
Date
1865
Location
Dimensions
22 3⁄8 x 34 5⁄8 in. (56.9 x 88.1 cm.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Architecture Exterior — civic — Torre di Schiavi
  • Architecture Exterior — ruins
  • Architecture Exterior — civic — tower
  • Landscape — mountain — Appenine Mountains
  • Landscape — Italy
  • Figure
Object Number
1977.52
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1977.52

Artwork Description

The landscape where this herdsman sleeps recalls a distant time and place. Thomas Hotchkiss heightened the mystery of this ancient site by including a mosaic of a winged boy on a dolphin from a recently excavated Roman bath as well as a skull and bones in the shadows at the far left. The Torre di Schiavi, or Tower of Slaves, was a popular subject for American artists visiting Italy. The site was associated with an uprising of Roman slaves, an event that would have been particularly meaningful for Americans in 1865, when the Civil War ended and the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery.

Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006