Sketches of Rome, according to the modern biographer E.Mayorova, were highly important for Maykov's development as it demonstrated the enriched linguistic palette and opened for him some new artistic possibilities.
[3] In Sketches of Rome Maykov created the gallery of citizens of the ancient city, each expressing one feature of the national character or another, much in the tradition of Russian "natural school" movement.
Like the young Prince in Gogol's novel, Maykov's character sympathizes with the classical Rome, its pictures of nature as well as the people reminding him the images from poems of Hellas.
Another vaguely political piece, "Anachoret" (1846), has its hero envisaging the times when "the poor will tear off their shackles" and "some evil crook won't be honoured like he was God", but returning after 20 years spent in the desert finds the world not changed for the better.
The author not only doesn't try to conceal the fact that his impressions are secondary, he emphasizes this by introducing to the picture first the German artist who actually paints these girls, and then himself, a Russian poet dreaming of making a verbal sketch of the same.