A sisterhood of sculptors : American artists in nineteenth-century Rome /

Between 1850 and 1876, a group of women left the United States for Italy in order to pursue careers as neoclassical sculptors. In this lavishly illustrated, well-researched, and highly readable book, Dabakis (Kenyon College) builds on and synthesizes recent scholarship that has treated these artists in monograph form. Her act of synthesis, however, is not one of reductionism. As she states, "This book takes differences between women artists as a central tenet, displacing the idea of a unitary category of woman artist envisioned by [Henry] James's characterization of them as a 'white, Marmorean flock.'" The author also fills an important gap by fleshing out the politically charged atmosphere of Italy in the 19th century, when it was in the midst of a revolution. Additionally she builds a vital context for how the work of these artists also served as pointed and particular responses to issues at home, such as the Civil War, abolitionism, Reconstruction, and suffrage. As Dabakis elucidates, their work and their careers served as inspiration and models for a younger generation of women artists at a time when "genius" was a quality reserved primarily for men. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers. --Kirsten Pai Buick, University of New Mexico