and Na Cidade Eterna in 1901. Américo died in Florence on 7 October 1905, victim of "lead colic", a supposed intoxication by the paints he used. By order of the President of Brazil, Rodrigues Alves, and under the care of the Baron of Rio Branco, his body was embalmed and transferred to Rio de Janeiro, where it was exposed for a few days at the War Arsenal. He was then sent to João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba, where he received solemn obsequies between official mourning, the city's shops were closed and a crowd of admirers. On 29 April 1906, he was provisionally deposited in the São João Batista Cemetery, until the finishing of the mausoleum that the Historical and Geographical Institute of Brazil had ordered to be built it in Areia, Américo's hometown. The final burial in his hometown took place on 9 May 1906, also surrounded by great tributes. The house where he was born is now a museum dedicated to his memory, the Casa Museu Pedro Américo. Paintings Context and academicism In Américo's generation, the Empire of Brazil was internally entering a phase of reasonable stability, it asserted itself as the greatest South American power and its economy and culture were diversifying and expanding. There were many problems, certainly, but they were sought to be overcome in an atmosphere of liberalism and scientism, in which the influence of the Church declined and the secular sectors of society were strengthened. It was in the interest of the nation, as well as the current monarchy, for the country to favorably insert itself into a world economy undergoing rapid transformation and which was structured on a capitalist model. To achieve this goal, emperor Pedro II, a lover of the arts and sciences who in 1856 had written that the two great works he needed to accomplish were "to morally organize the nationality and form an elite", promoted a nationalist program of internal modernization and dissemination of Brazil abroad. Knowing the power of art as a formulator and consecration of symbols and values, within his program Pedro II reserved a special role for it, in charge of visually articulating the ideas of the new Empire. Activities focused on the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1816 and for many years in precarious operation, but since the 1850s it had been restructured and energized by a more consistent and enlightened state