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111 chapter six “Something Has Come into Our Love” The 1860s were a volatile time for Harriet, marked by great success, stinging accusations, and disappointing failure.As the decade drew to a close, she found her life once again in flux.New relationships began,important friendships ended, and Rome changed forever. The artist attempted to adapt to the new world around her, shifting her attention from art to science and inventions. Even as she embraced scientific thought, however, her belief in spiritualism influenced her actions more than ever. Political developments in Italy had a dramatic effect on Harriet’s life. Soon after moving there, she had declared,“After one has lived in Rome two years, there is no place afterwards. It is a moral & physical and intellectual impossibility to live elsewhere.”1 The effect of the Italian unification movement , or Risorgimento, on that city drastically altered her opinion.The process of unification had unfolded over several decades,but it was not until the 1870s that it began to fundamentally change the lifestyle of American artists living in Rome.On September 20,1870,Italian troops entered the city; Pope Pius IX quickly condemned what he saw as an invasion, excommunicating Victor Emmanuel II, the king of Italy. In October Rome was officially annexed , and the following July it became the new capitol of the Kingdom of Italy, succeeding Florence. Harriet predicted disaster, confiding to Cornelia, “The place will be spoiled.”2 Harriet’s reaction was shaped by the complicated dual role Italy played in middle- and upper-class Americans’ views of themselves during the nineteenth century. On the one hand, they flocked to Rome as tourists, reveling in the glories of one of the great civilizations of antiquity; they saw themselves as the inheritors of that greatness and the United States as the new Roman Empire. On the other hand, this group reacted with growing horror to the Italian immigrants beginning to flood their cities back home. Chapter Six 112 These Catholic newcomers, often poor and with unfamiliar habits, became a primary symbol of what the Protestant middle class defined itself against. The Americans who lived in Italy adopted a similar attitude, treating Rome as a place where they could pick and choose the culture that they wished to absorb. They appreciated the museums, took endless inspiration from the ancient ruins, and welcomed the workmen who performed much of the physical labor on their sculptures; they avoided poverty-stricken beggars and the pope. This duality could occur only through their insistence on portraying Italy as either stuck in the ancient past or out of time altogether . Harriet’s description of Rome as a“sphere purely ideal,”a place where “the 19th century disappeared from view,” typified this approach.3 Thus elite Americans at home and abroad disregarded modern-day Italy, preferring to see themselves as both recipients of Roman culture and the antithesis of the Italian people. While Italy would continue to play an important role in the American imagination, the unification of Italy ultimately made it impossible for those living in Rome to keep up this illusion. Harriet and some of her contemporaries believed at first that they could continue to maintain the division between the past and the present as the political landscape changed. When the Italian army entered Rome, the adventurous artist admitted that she rushed out, “Spy Glass in hand—but I was soon brought to my senses for a shell burst within a stone’s throw of me & a piece fell not two yards from my feet.”4 Anne Whitney reported to her family that Americans draped their doors with their nation’s flag to declare themselves off-limits from violence or disturbance during the events.5 The expatriates’ actions suggest that they felt that the drama made up just another picturesque element of their stay—an element they could block out by asserting their nationality as soon as they grew tired of the excitement. The reports of adventure soon gave way to complaints about the changes in Rome. An 1872 article in the Art Journal asserted that the transfer of the capital would“promote rather than obstruct Art.” But it also listed a variety of grievances that suggested the city was no longer as friendly to foreign artists. These included higher taxes, “dearness of provisions,” and the fact that the Vatican Museum was now often closed—making it more difficult to create casts of its art.6 Harriet soon declared,“Of course we foreigners do not...

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