Torre di Schiavi

Thomas Hiram Hotchkiss, born near Hudson, NY ca. 1834-died Taormina, Italy 1869 · 1865

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