studied, remaining in the shadow of his historical paintings. This part of his work was severely criticized by the modernists as they thought it had an excess of sentimentality and intellectualism, which would have led Américo to affectation and artificiality. Such attacks left such a negative mark on him that to this day this production is largely forgotten or despised. Among the works of this theme that can be highlighted are David em seus últimos dias é aquecido pela jovem Abisag, a rare piece for its provocative sensualism, the second version of A Carioca, Abelardo e Heloísa, Judite rende graças a Jeová por ter conseguido livrar sua pátria dos horrores de Holofernes, O Voto de Heloísa, Os filhos de Eduardo IV, A rabequista árabe, Joana d'Arc ouve pela primeira vez a voz que lhe prediz o seu alto destino, Visão de Hamlet and Jocabed levando Moisés até o Nilo. Written works Essays and critical texts Pedro Américo also left several theoretical works in history, natural philosophy and fine arts, as well as poetry and novels. However, this production is much less known and studied than his paintings, and its value has been questioned, but it is important for revealing other facets of Américos's thinking. His first literary essays were poems written while he was studying at the Pedro II College, and his most relevant text is Science and Systems: Questions of Natural History and Philosophy, a thesis he defended at the Free University of Brussels. Considered the summary of his philosophical conception, he was well received and secured the position of adjunct professor at the University. The thesis dealt with the historical evolution of the arts, philosophy and science, seeking a Renaissance universality of thought, and handled a great number of erudite references from various areas of knowledge. Carolina Invernizio's analysis highlighted Américo's opposition to positivism, a very influential philosophy in France and Brazil at the time, and his more direct affiliation, according to Sílvio Romero and José de Carvalho, was the spiritualist strand of French eclecticism, approaching the thinking of Victor Cousin, Jules Michelet and Edgar Quinet. For Américo, science, as well as art, should be exempt from particular obligations, abolishing dogmas, arbitrary opinions and exclusivist systems, seeing as essential to their flourishing free investigation, free creation and free thought. In the thesis preface, Américo warned that: His other essays generally dealt with the same themes, pointing to education