began to predominate. If the immediate antecedents of Brazilian historical painting were in neoclassicism, impersonal, rational and universal, romanticism, especially in its second and third generation, emphasized the note of the particular, the note of the self, the minority, the nation or of the clan in relation to the large group, seeking to integrate it with classical universalism, while preserving a sense of identity differentiation, internal cohesion and autonomy. Only when the Empire of Brazil was finally stabilized, from the maturity of Pedro II, the national forces in Brazil were engaged under a defined nationalist program, and all the favorable background was created, with an Imperial Academy already in stable operation, did historical painting have conditions to start a flowering, finding in Victor Meirelles and in Pedro Américo himself its pioneers and its two most illustrious representatives, manifesting itself in an unprecedented monumental scale. Even in Europe, the painting Batalha do Avaí was seen as an innovative contribution to an ancient and venerable genre, but already in decline, and which in Brazil had such an ephemeral life, soon discredited by the modernists. Pedro Américo acquires his greatest importance as a historical painter when he met a fundamental demand from the government: the reconstitution of ceremonies or historical events that signaled institutional autonomy, ensured the possession of the territory, affirmed Brazil as a military power in South America or exalted the virtues of the people and their leaders. With that, the elements were gathered for the construction of a nationalist iconography that would legitimize this recent country in the face of international powers and that still lacked its own symbology. In the first and most prominent phase of his career, the imperial one, Américo left historical works since his youth, such as Sócrates afastando Alcebíades dos braços do vício and some copies of works by other European authors, but his talent was consecrated with Batalha de Campo Grande, Fala do Trono, Batalha do Avaí and Independência ou Morte!, which fully met the needs of the state, of which Pedro Américo was undoubtedly one of the great interpreters. This interpretive capacity assured him a unique success among the sponsoring elites even after the republic was proclaimed in Brazil, when the appropriation of academic art by politics remained essentially the same as before, as evident by the paintings Libertação dos Escravos, Tiradentes Esquartejado and Honra e Pátria e Paz e Concórdia, the most