and repeated Freyre's arguments about the absence of local color in his production: "There is no light from the tropics for him. There is no human element, there is no woman, no mulatto, no black, the sun-tanned Brazilian, the simple men who shopped at his father's Daniel store". But he ended his article by saying that "if there was greatness in the empire of Dom Pedro II, Pedro Américo is one of the strongest, one of those that has the strength to overcome time". On the other hand, Sérgio Milliet, another intellectual, in his 1944 book Pintura quase sempre, did not even mention Américo's famous battles. Plagiarism accusations Américo was twice accused of plagiarism, in the works Batalha do Avaí and Independência ou Morte! The first, said to be copied from Giovanni Fattori's painting on the Battle of Montebello, and the second, from Ernest Meissonier's work on the Battle of Friedland. The issue caused controversy at the time. If there was imitation, its intentionality has never been proven, and if there are similar elements between the paintings, this is most likely due to the habit, common to all academic artists, of replicating or varying formal stereotyped models widely used within the visual repertoire of the academic style. About Independência ou Morte!, according to Pedro Américo, he only got to know the other work a year after he had finished his. Américo himself preferred to expose the problem in his Discourse on Plagiarism, where he defended the idea that what matters most in art is not the invention of new forms, but their constant improvement. In fact, the entire academic system was largely based on the authority of consecrated masters and on the perpetuation, both imitative and creative, of the foundations they left behind; the concept of plagiarism was just beginning to be articulated in the way it is known today. Decorations and homages While still alive, Pedro Américo received the honors of Historical Painter from the Imperial Chamber; Officer, Grand Dignitary and Commander of the Imperial Order of the Rose; Grand Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher and was decorated by king William I. He was a member of several European academies. He is the patron of chair number 24 of the Academy of Letters of Paraíba. His painting Fala do Trono was printed on a Telebrás system phone card. He gives his name to a square in