Antonio Canova

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Antonio Canova (Template:IPA; 1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822) was an Italian Neoclassical sculptor,<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> famous for his marble sculptures. Often regarded as the greatest of the Neoclassical artists,<ref name="DoA-22">Template:Harvnb.</ref> his sculpture was inspired by the Baroque and the classical revival, and has been characterised as having avoided the melodramatics of the former, and the cold artificiality of the latter.<ref name="GoV">Jean Martineau & Andrew Robinson, The Glory of Venice: Art in the Eighteenth Century. Yale University Press, 1994. Print.</ref>

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Life

Possagno

File:Pinckney Marcius-Simons, The Child Canova Modeling a Lion Out of Butter, c 1885.png

Pinckney Marcius-Simons, The Child Canova Modeling a Lion Out of Butter, c. 1885

In 1757, Antonio Canova was born in the Venetian Republic city of Possagno to Pietro Canova, a stonecutter, and Angela Zardo Fantolin.<ref name="DoA-5">Template:Harvnb.</ref> In 1761, his father died. A year later, his mother remarried. As such, in 1762, he was put into the care of his paternal grandfather Pasino Canova, who was a stonemason, owner of a quarry,<ref name="GoV" /> and was a "sculptor who specialized in altars with statues and low reliefs in late Baroque style".<ref name="DoA-5" /> He led Antonio into the art of sculpting.

Before the age of ten, Canova began making models in clay, and carving marble.<ref name="CA">Template:Harvnb.</ref> Indeed, at the age of nine, he executed two small shrines of Carrara marble, which are still extant.<ref name="EB1911">Template:Harvnb.</ref> After these works, he appears to have been constantly employed under his grandfather.<ref name="EB1911" />

Venice

File:Antonio canova, orfeo, 1777, 01.JPG

Orpheus, 1777

In 1770,<ref name="DoA-5"/> he was an apprentice for two years<ref name="CA"/> to Giuseppe Bernardi, who was also known as 'Torretto'. Afterwards, he was under the tutelage of Giovanni Ferrari until he began his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia.<ref name="DoA-5"/> At the academy, he won several prizes.<ref name="EB1911"/> During this time, he was given his first workshop within a monastery by some local monks.<ref name="CA"/>

The Senator Giovanni Falier commissioned Canova to produce statues of Orpheus and Eurydice for his garden – the Villa Falier at Asolo.<ref name="wga.hu">Template:Cite web</ref> The statues were begun in 1775, and both were completed by 1777. The pieces exemplify the late Rococo style.<ref name="wga.hu"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On the year of their completion, both works were exhibited for the Feast of the Ascension in Piazza San Marco.<ref name="GoV"/> Widely praised, the works won Canova his first renown among the Venetian elite.<ref name="DoA-5"/> Another Venetian who is said to have commissioned early works from Canova was the abate Filippo Farsetti, whose collection at Ca' Farsetti on the Grand Canal he frequented.

In 1779, Canova opened his own studio at Calle Del Traghetto at S. Maurizio.<ref name="GoV"/> At this time, Procurator Pietro Vettor Pisani commissioned Canova's first marble statue: a depiction of Daedalus and Icarus.<ref name="GoV"/> The statue inspired great admiration for his work at the annual art fair;<ref name="wga.hu1">Template:Cite web</ref> Canova was paid 100 gold zecchini for the completed work.<ref name="GoV"/> At the base of the statue, Daedalus' tools are scattered about; these tools are also an allusion to Sculpture, of which the statue is a personification.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> With such an intention, there is suggestion that Daedalus is a portrait of Canova's grandfather Pasino.<ref name="wga.hu1"/>

Rome

Canova arrived in Rome, on 28 December 1780. Prior to his departure, his friends had applied to the Venetian Senate for a pension. Successful in the application, the stipend allotted amounted to three hundred ducats, limited to three years.<ref name="EB1911"/>

While in Rome, Canova spent time studying and sketching the works of Michelangelo.<ref name="DoA-5"/>

File:Canova - Theseus & Minotaur.jpg

Theseus and the Minotaur, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

In 1781, Girolamo Zulian – the Venetian ambassador to Rome – hired Canova to sculpt Theseus and the Minotaur.<ref name="wga.hu2">Template:Cite web</ref> Zulian played a fundamental role in Canova's rise to fame,<ref name="Gangemi">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Dandolo">Template:Cite book</ref> turning some rooms of his palace into a studio for the artist and placing his trust in him despite Canova's early critics in Rome.<ref name="Dandolo"/> The statue depicts the victorious Theseus seated on the lifeless body of a Minotaur. The initial spectators were certain that the work was a copy of a Greek original, and were shocked to learn it was a contemporary work.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The highly regarded work is now in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, in London.<ref name="wga.hu2"/>

Between 1783 and 1785, Canova arranged, composed, and designed a funerary monument dedicated to Clement XIV for the Church of Santi Apostoli.<ref name="CA"/> After another two years, the work met completion in 1787. The monument secured Canova's reputation as the pre-eminent living artist.<ref name="EB1911"/>

In 1792, he completed another cenotaph, this time commemorating Clement XIII for St. Peter's Basilica. Canova harmonized its design with the older Baroque funerary monuments in the basilica.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1790, he began to work on a funerary monument for Titian, which was eventually abandoned by 1795.<ref name="DoA-5"/> During the same year, he increased his activity as a painter.<ref name="GoV"/> Canova was notoriously disinclined<ref name="Gangemi"/> to restore sculptures. However, in 1794 he made an exception for his friend and early patron Zulian, restoring a few sculptures that Zulian had moved from Rome to Venice.<ref name="Gangemi"/>

The following decade was extremely productive,<ref name="EB1911"/> beginning works such as Hercules and Lichas, Cupid and Psyche, Hebe, Tomb of Duchess Maria Christina of Saxony-Teschen, and The Penitent Magdalene.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1797, he went to Vienna,<ref name="auto" /> but only a year later, in 1798, he returned to Possagno for a year.<ref name="EB1911" />Template:NoteTag

France and England

By 1800, Canova was the most celebrated artist in Europe.<ref name="DoA-5" /> He systematically promoted his reputation by publishing engravings of his works and having marble versions of plaster casts made in his workshop.<ref name="Batschmann">Oskar Batschmann, The Artist in the Modern World: A Conflict Between Market and Self-Expression. DuMont Bunchverlag, 1997. Print.</ref> He became so successful that he had acquired patrons from across Europe including France, England, Russia, Austria and Holland, as well as several members from different royal lineages, and prominent individuals.<ref name="GoV" /> Among his patrons were Napoleon and his family, for whom Canova produced much work, including several depictions between 1803 and 1809.<ref name="DoA-22" /> The most notable representations were that of Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker, and Venus Victrix which was portrayal of Pauline Bonaparte.

Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker had its inception after Canova was hired to make a bust of Napoleon in 1802. The statue was begun in 1803, with Napoleon requesting to be shown in a French General's uniform, Canova rejected this, insisting on an allusion to Mars, the Roman god of War.<ref name="wga.hu3">Template:Cite web</ref> It was completed in 1806.<ref name="wga.hu4">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1811, the statue arrived in Paris, but not installed; neither was its bronze copy in the Foro Napoleonico in Milan.<ref name="wga.hu3"/> In 1815, the original went to the Duke of Wellington, after his victory at Waterloo against Napoleon.<ref name="wga.hu4"/>

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File:John Jackson - Antonio Canova - Google Art Project.jpg

Portrait of Antonio Canova by John Jackson, 1820

Venus Victrix was originally conceived as a robed and recumbent sculpture of Pauline Borghese in the guise of Diana. Instead, Pauline ordered Canova to make the statue a nude Venus.<ref name="wga.hu5">Template:Cite web</ref> The work was not intended for public viewing.<ref name="wga.hu5"/>

Other works for the Napoleon family include, a bust of Napoleon, a statue of Napoleon's mother, and Marie Louise as Concordia.<ref name="CA"/>

In 1802, Canova was assigned the post of 'Inspector-General of Antiquities and Fine Art of the Papal State', a position formerly held by Raphael.<ref name="GoV"/> One of his activities in this capacity was to pioneer the restoration of the Appian Way by restoring the tomb of Servilius Quartus.<ref>Paris, Rita, "Appia, una questione non risolta" in "La via Appia, il bianco e il nero di un patrimonio italiano." Electa. 2011</ref> In 1808 Canova became an associated member of the Royal Institute of Sciences, Literature and Fine Arts of the Kingdom of Holland.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1814, he began his The Three Graces.<ref name="CA"/>

In 1815, he was named 'Minister Plenipotentiary of the Pope,'<ref name="GoV"/> and was tasked by Pope Pius VI with recovering various works of art that were taken to Paris by Napoleon under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1815).<ref name="EB1911"/> At the Louvre, he faced resistance to restitution from Director Vivant Denon and, due to the works' large size or unclear location, was forced to leave behind major pieces, such as Paolo Veronese's painting The Wedding at Cana.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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Also in 1815, he visited London, and met with Benjamin Haydon. It was after the advice of Canova that the Elgin Marbles were acquired by the British Museum, with plaster copies sent to Florence, according to Canova's request.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Returning to Italy

In 1816, Canova returned to Rome with some of the art Napoleon had taken. He was rewarded with several marks of distinction: he was appointed President of the Accademia di San Luca, inscribed into the "Golden Book of Roman Nobles" by the Pope's own hands,<ref name="CA"/> and given the title of Marquis of Ischia, alongside an annual pension of 3,000 crowns.<ref name="EB1911"/>

In 1819, he commenced and completed his commissioned work Venus Italica as a replacement for the Venus de' Medici.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

After his 1814 proposal to build a personified statue of Religion for St. Peter's Basilica was rejected, Canova sought to build his own temple to house it.<ref name="DoA-5"/> This project came to be the Tempio Canoviano. Canova designed, financed, and partly built the structure himself.<ref name="GoV"/> The structure was to be a testament to Canova's piety.<ref name="Batschmann"/> The building's design was inspired by combining the Parthenon and the Pantheon together.<ref name="GoV"/><ref name="CA"/> On 11 July 1819, Canova laid the foundation stone dressed in red Papal uniform and decorated with all his medals.<ref name="Batschmann"/> It first opened in 1830, and was finally completed in 1836.<ref name="Batschmann"/> After the foundation-stone of this edifice had been laid, Canova returned to Rome; but every succeeding autumn he continued to visit Possagno to direct the workmen and encourage them with rewards.<ref name="EB1911"/>

During the period that intervened between commencing operations at Possagno and his death, he executed or finished some of his most striking works. Among these were the group Mars and Venus, the colossal figure of Pius VI, the Pietà, the St John, and a colossal bust of his friend, the Count Leopoldo Cicognara.<ref name="EB1911"/>

File:Canova-Washington.JPG

George Washington, plaster replica on display at the North Carolina Museum of History

In 1820, he made a statue of George Washington for the state of North Carolina.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</ref> As recommended by Thomas Jefferson, the sculptor used the marble bust of Washington by Giuseppe Ceracchi as a model.<ref name=gwunc>Template:Cite web</ref> It was delivered on 24 December 1821. The statue and the North Carolina State House where it was displayed were later destroyed by fire in 1831. A plaster replica was sent by King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy in 1910, now on view at the North Carolina Museum of History. A marble copy was sculpted by Romano Vio in 1970, now on view in the rotunda of the capitol building.<ref name=gwunc/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1822, he journeyed to Naples, to superintend the construction of wax moulds for an equestrian statue of Ferdinand VII. The adventure was disastrous to his health, but soon became healthy enough to return to Rome. From there, he voyaged to Venice; however, on 13 October 1822, he died there at the age of 64.<ref name="EB1911"/> As he never married, the name became extinct, except through his stepbrothers' lineage of Satori-Canova.<ref name="CA"/>

On 12 October 1822, Canova instructed his brother to use his entire estate to complete the Tempio in Possagno.<ref name="Batschmann"/>

On 25 October 1822, his body was placed in the Tempio Canoviano.<ref name="EB1911"/> His heart was interred at the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice, and his right hand preserved in a vase at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia.<ref name="DoA-5"/><ref name="Batschmann"/>

His memorial service was so grand that it rivaled the ceremony that the city of Florence held for Michelangelo in 1564.<ref name="Batschmann"/>

In 1826, Giovanni Battista Sartori sold Canova's Roman studio and took every plaster model and sculpture to Possagno, where they were installed in the gypsotheque of the Tempio Canoviano.<ref name="Batschmann"/>

File:(Venice) Commemorative plaque at the place of death of Antonio Canova.jpg

Commemorative plaque at the place of life and death of Antonio Canova, in Rio Orseolo o del Corval

Works

Among Canova's most notable works are:Template:Citation needed

Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss (1787)

File:Amore e psiche (1).jpg

Detail of Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss

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Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss was commissioned in 1787 by Colonel John Campbell.<ref name=Johns>Johns, C.M.S. (1998) Antonio Canova and the Politics of Patronage in Revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, p. 149.</ref> It is regarded as a masterpiece of Neoclassical sculpture, but shows the mythological lovers at a moment of great emotion, characteristic of the emerging movement of Romanticism. It represents the god Cupid in the height of love and tenderness, immediately after awakening the lifeless Psyche with a kiss.

Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker (1802–1806)

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Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker had its inception after Canova was hired to make a bust of Napoleon in 1802. The statue was begun in 1802, with Napoleon requesting to be shown in a French General's uniform, Canova rejected this, insisting on an allusion to Mars, the Roman god of War.<ref name="wga.hu3"/> It was completed in 1806.<ref name="wga.hu4"/> In 1811, the statue arrived in Paris, but not installed; neither was its bronze copy in the Foro Napoleonico in Milan.<ref name="wga.hu3"/> In 1815, the original went to the Duke of Wellington, after his victory at Waterloo against Napoleon<ref name="wga.hu4"/> and is on display at Apsley House.

Perseus Triumphant (1804–1806)

File:Canova - perseu - 39b.jpg

Detail of Perseus with the Head of Medusa

Perseus Triumphant, sometimes called Perseus with the Head of Medusa, was a statue commissioned by tribune Onorato Duveyriez.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It depicts the Greek hero Perseus after his victory over the Gorgon Medusa.

The statue was based freely on the Apollo Belvedere and the Medusa Rondanini.<ref name="metmuseum.org">Template:Cite web</ref>

Napoleon, after his 1796 Italian Campaign, took the Apollo Belvedere to Paris. In the statue's absence, Pope Pius VII acquired Canova's Perseus Triumphant and placed the work upon the Apollo's pedestal.<ref> Christopher M. S. Johns, Antonia Canova and the Politics of Patronage in Revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe. University of California Press, 1998. Web. – p. 25</ref> The statue was so successful that when the Apollo was returned, Perseus remained as a companion piece.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

One replica of the statue was commissioned from Canova by the Polish countess Waleria Tarnowska; it's now displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.<ref name="metmuseum.org"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Karl Ludwig Fernow said of the statue that "every eye must rest with pleasure on the beautiful surface, even when the mind finds its hopes of high and pure enjoyment disappointed."<ref name="Padiyar"/>

Venus Victrix (1805–1808)

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Venus Victrix ranks among the most famous of Canova's works. Originally, Canova wished the depiction to be of a robed Diana, but Pauline Borghese insisted to appear as a nude Venus.<ref name="wga.hu5"/> The work was not intended for public viewing.<ref name="wga.hu5"/>

The Three Graces (1814–1817)

File:Le tre Grazie.jpg

The Three Graces

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John Russell, the 6th Duke of Bedford, commissioned a version of the now famous work.<ref>The Three Graces. Victoria & Albert Museum, 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2013.</ref> He had previously visited Canova in his studio in Rome in 1814 and had been immensely impressed by a carving of the Graces the sculptor had made for the Empress Joséphine. When the Empress died in May of the same year he immediately offered to purchase the completed piece, but was unsuccessful as Josephine's son Eugène de Beauharnais claimed it (his son Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg brought it to St. Petersburg, where it can now be found in the Hermitage Museum). Undeterred, the Duke commissioned another version for himself.

The sculpting process began in 1814 and was completed in 1817. Finally in 1819 it was installed at the Duke's residence in Woburn Abbey. Canova even made the trip over to England to supervise its installation, choosing for it to be displayed on a pedestal adapted from a marble plinth with a rotating top. This version is now owned jointly by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Galleries of Scotland, and is alternately displayed at each.

Artistic process

Canova had a distinct, signature style in which he combined Greek and Roman art practices with early stirrings of romanticism to delve into a new path of Neoclassicism.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Canova's sculptures fall into three categories: Heroic compositions, compositions of grace, and sepulchral monuments.<ref name="EB1911"/> In each of these, Canova's underlying artistic motivations were to challenge, if not compete, with classical statues.<ref name="GoV"/>

Canova refused to take in pupils and students,<ref name="DoA-5"/> but would hire workers to carve the initial figure from the marble. According to art historian Giuseppe Pavanello, "Canova's system of work concentrated on the initial idea, and on the final carving of the marble".<ref name="DoA-5"/> He had an elaborate system of comparative pointing so that the workers were able to reproduce the plaster form in the selected block of marble.<ref name="Padiyar">Satish Padiyar, Chains: David, Canova, and the Fall of the Public Hero in Postrevolutionary France. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007.</ref> These workers would leave a thin veil over the entire statue so Canova's could focus on the surface of the statue.<ref name="Padiyar"/>

While he worked, he had people read to him select literary and historical texts.<ref name="DoA-5"/>

Last touch

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During the last quarter of the eighteenth century, it became fashionable to view art galleries at night by torchlight. Canova was an artist that leapt on the fad and displayed his works of art in his studio by candlelight.<ref name="Batschmann"/> As such, Canova would begin to finalize the statue with special tools by candlelight,<ref name="DoA-5"/> to soften the transitions between the various parts of the nude.<ref name="Padiyar"/> After a little recarving, he began to rub the statue down with pumice stone, sometimes for periods longer than weeks or months.<ref name="Padiyar"/> If that was not enough, he would use tripoli (rottenstone) and lead.<ref name="Padiyar"/>

He then applied a now unknown chemical-composition of patina onto the flesh of the figure to lighten the skin tone.<ref name="DoA-5"/> Importantly, his friends also denied any usage of acids in his process.<ref name="CA"/>

Criticisms

Conversations revolving around the justification of art as superfluous usually invoked the name of Canova.<ref name="Batschmann"/> Karl Ludwig Fernow believed that Canova was not Kantian enough in his aesthetic, because emphasis seemed to have been placed on agreeableness rather than Beauty.<ref name="Padiyar" /> Canova was faulted for creating works that were artificial in complexity.<ref name="GoV" />

Legacy

File:Facade of Tempio Canoviano - Possagno - Province of Treviso, Veneto, Italy - 28 Dec. 2014.jpg

Facade of Tempio Canoviano

Although the Romantic period artists buried Canova's name soon after he died, he is slowly being rediscovered.<ref name="DoA-5"/> Giuseppe Pavanello wrote in 1996 that "the importance and value of Canova's art is now recognized as holding in balance the last echo of the Ancients and the first symptom of the restless experimentation of the modern age".<ref name="DoA-5"/>

Canova spent large parts of his fortune helping young students and sending patrons to struggling sculptors,<ref name="auto"/> including Sir Richard Westmacott and John Gibson.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He was introduced into various orders of chivalry.<ref name="CA"/>

A number of his works, sketches, and writings are collected in the Sala Canoviana of the Museo Civico of Bassano del Grappa. Other works, including plaster casts are the Museo Canoviano in Asolo.

In 2018, a crater on Mercury was named in his honor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Literary inspirations

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Two of Canova's works appear as engravings in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1834, with poetical illustrations by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. These are of The Dancing Girl<ref>Template:Cite book Template:Cite book</ref> and Hebe.<ref>Template:Cite book Template:Cite book</ref>