For all their artistic and philosophical brilliance, the Greeks were failures at politics; Hamilton, in the Federalist, expressed horror and disgust
at the distractions with which they were agitated.
The Romans captured the American imagination because they had done what the Americans themselves hoped to do — sustain an extensive republic over a course of centuries. So the society of Revolutionary War officers called themselves Cincinnati; president,
congress,
and senate
were all Roman terms. But the Roman example was also cautionary, for when they lost their virture, they slid into empire. When Franklin said, in response to a question from Eliza Powel, that the constitutional convention had produced a republic, if you can keep it,
he and she would have remembered that the Romans had failed to keep theirs.
William Rush (1756—1833)
North American white pine; 54.6 x 40 x 38.1 cm (21 1/2 x 15 3/4 x 15 in.) Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.
Terra cotta; 18 3/4 x 15 1/2 x 12 1/2 in. (47.625 x 39.37 x 31.75 cm). Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
Terracotta; 19 x 14 3/4 x 11 1/4 in. (48.26 x 37.465 x 28.575 cm). Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
Pine; painted white. Independence National Historical Park, Portrait Collection (Second Bank of the United States), Philadelphia, PA.
Terra cotta. Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia, PA.
Bronze, stone base; 22 x 17 x 11 in. (55.9 x 43.2 x 27.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY.
Terra cotta; painted white. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
Known as the Pine Knot Portrait.
Bronze; H: 60 m.; W: 47 m.; D: 26 m. Musée franco-américain du château de Blérancourt, Picardy, France.
Terra cotta; 21 x 18 3/4 x 11 1/4 in. (53.34 x 47.625 x 28.575 cm). Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
Wood with paint. The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA.