Antonio Canova

Italian Sculptor

Born: November 1, 1757 - Possagno, Veneto, Italy

Died: October 13, 1822 - Venice, Italy
Movements and Styles: Neoclassicism, Romanticism

Summary of Antonio Canova

Antonio Canova was the most famous and sought-after artist in Europe during his
lifetime. Although he came from humble beginnings near Venice, his talent soon propelled him
to Rome, where he drew inspiration from Classical Greek and Roman art, Italian
Renaissance painting, and the careful study of human form to become one of the leaders of the
emerging Neoclassical style, alongside Jacques-Louis David. His sculptures, whether of
mythological figures or illustrious contemporaries, quickly became iconic images, and his busy
workshop was a must-see sight in Rome. As a favorite artist of popes, emperors, kings, and
noblemen, Canova also served in a diplomatic role, particularly after the fall of Napoleon, thanks
to his connections across Europe. His graceful compositions and ability to carve and finish
marble to resemble mobile, living flesh established his reputation as an artist of both heroic and
exquisitely beautiful works.

Accomplishments
 Canova believed that mythological subjects and the idealized proportions and balanced forms of
Classical sculpture were the highest forms of art to which an artist could aspire. Like other artists,
he absorbed these ideas in part from the influential German art critic Johann Joachim
Winkelmann, who had earlier written that Greek art displayed "a noble simplicity and calm
grandeur in gesture and expression."

 Canova's Neoclassical style helped to suggest a visual and ideological connection to what
contemporaries believed were the ideals of Classical antiquity, which made his work popular with
rulers and aristocrats across Europe who wished to bolster their own claims to power and
prestige; the renown that resulted from his popularity also allowed Canova to work diplomatically
for a wide range of different and sometimes opposed patrons.

 Canova was highly skilled at carving and finishing marble, and although he ran a busy workshop
of assistants, he insisted on finishing every one of his works himself. His balanced, graceful
forms, treatment of nude or lightly draped bodies, and smooth, finely polished, and sometimes
tinted or waxed surfaces, produced sculptures that had lifelike presences.
  In his effort to create "modern classic" works, Canova combined his knowledge of Greek and
Roman antiquities with careful study of the human figure and synthesized these components
through the process of sketching and modeling to develop highly original, imaginative
compositions.

Important Art by Antonio Canova

PROGRESSION OF ART
1777-79

Daedalus and Icarus

In this early work, Canova drew from a story in Greek

mythology, retold by the Greek poet Ovid
in Metamorphoses, to depict the architect and inventor
Daedalus and his son, Icarus. According to the story,
Daedalus created the Labyrinth to contain King Minos of
Crete's stepson, the Minotaur, who was half man and half bull. But after Daedalus helped the
warrior Theseus slay the Minotaur, King Minos trapped Daedalus and his son in the maze. To
escape, Daedalus crafted wings made of wax and feathers, and the two successfully flew off the
island. Unfortunately, Icarus became too confident in his skill and, despite his father's warning,
flew too close to the sun, melting the wings and causing him to crash into the sea and drown.

Canova depicted Daedalus in the process of affixing wings to his son's shoulders. In the manner
of Classical sculptures, the figures are shown partially or fully nude, but Canova gave his figures
more detailed realism and pronounced expressions than Classical works. Daedalus's thinning hair
and furrowed brow emphasize his age, while his tight-lipped expression reveals his concentration
on the task, as well as concern for his son's welfare. In contrast, Icarus is a slender adolescent,
smiling and leaning back lightly into his father's protective embrace. Compositionally, the work
also employs an approach Canova would often return to, in which the figure's limbs form an
interlaced shape that encloses a dynamic negative space. The work was praised for its originality
and naturalism when it was shown at the Fiera della Sensa (Ascension Fair) exhibition in Venice
in 1779, and it also earned him the commission for one of his next major works, Theseus and the
Minotaur.
Theseus and the Minotaur
For the first major commission made in his newly
established Roman studio, Canova again turned to
Ovid's Metamorphoses and Greek mythology, depicting the
hero Theseus after his battle with the Minotaur. According
to the tale, Queen Pasiphae of Crete had been made to fall
in love with a bull, and the result was the monstrous
Minotaur, who had the body of a man and the head of a
bull. Sent as one of the humans who were regularly sacrificed to feed the Minotaur, Theseus
instead killed the monster, and found his way back out of the labyrinth in which he had been held
with the help of Ariadne, Pasiphae's daughter. The thread Ariadne gave Theseus to help him
escape is visible here, coiled under the Minotaur's leg.

Canova's initial idea had been to choose a dramatic moment with the figures in active conflict, as
often seen in Classical Greek vase painting of this subject. However, on the advice of Gavin
Hamilton, a Scottish artist and archaeologist living in Rome who had seen Canova's
expressive Daedalus and Icarus, he chose instead to depict the aftermath of the struggle. By
showing Theseus contemplating the fate of the monster who might have killed him had he not
conquered it, Canova embodied the concepts of calm and restraint that were considered key
principles of antiquity and came to characterize Neoclassical art of the period, particularly in
contrast to the energetic and dramatic style of Baroque art that had preceded it. The figures'
interlocking arms and legs, and the complementary curves of their torsos and inclined or thrown-
back heads are also typical of the sculptor's balanced and graceful style.

The work was commissioned in 1781 by Girolamo Zulian, the Venetian ambassador in Rome,
who gave the massive block of marble (one of the largest in the Victoria and Albert's collection)
to the artist and let him choose the subject. The support of this influential patron and the critical
success of the resulting work established Canova as one of the leading artists in Rome of the
time.

Marble - Victoria and Albert Museum, London

1787-93
Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss
Having made independent depictions of the mythological
figures Cupid and Psyche, Canova devised this pair in
response to the commission of Colonel John Campbell, a
Scottish collector who visited the artist in Rome in 1787.
The narrative, as Canova noted in a letter, was drawn
from The Golden Ass, a 2nd century AD text by Lucius
Apuleius, who recounts the story of the beautiful mortal
Psyche and the god Cupid, son of Venus, who fell in love
with her. Angered, Venus put Psyche through a series of
ordeals, the last of which was to retrieve a flask from the
Underworld but not to open it. When she could not resist opening the container, Psyche was
overcome by deadly fumes, but was revived from near-death by Cupid's touch. This is the
moment Canova depicted, as Cupid raises his love from the ground and she returns to life in his
embrace.

Canova spent considerable effort on the complex composition of this work, making numerous
drawings and clay and plaster models. He seems to have been inspired in part by an image found
in the ancient city of Herculaneum, whose rediscovery and excavation (along with Pompeii) a
few decades earlier catalyzed the Neoclassical movement across Europe. The image, reproduced
in an engraving published in 1757, shows a faun and a bacchante embracing, in poses echoed by
Canova's couple. But the sculptor refined and idealized such source material, giving his figures
the slim forms and serene features of the Classical sculptures he was emulating. The pair's
entwined and counterbalanced arms, legs, and wings create a dynamic composition that spirals
upward and that cannot be fully appreciated from a single vantage point; indeed, the sculpture
was initially installed on a base that could be turned so the work could be seen from different
angles. The varied physical qualities and surface textures Canova created, from soft skin to filmy
drapery to Cupid's powerful yet partially translucent wings, are testament to his remarkable skill
at handling marble.

The original patron of this work, Colonel Campbell, could not pay for it, but it was soon acquired
by Joachim Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law, and installed at his estate near Paris where it was
widely admired. The Russian Prince Nicholas Youssoupov also saw this work and requested a
second version (now in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg), in which Psyche's legs are more fully
draped. The exquisite grace and beauty of this work set the standard for Canova's refined and
elegant style, a part of his output that at times overshadowed his depictions of heroic figures and
monuments to significant people.

Marble - Musée du Louvre, Paris

1795-1815
Hercules and Lichas
Like many of Canova's major works, this sculpture developed
over a long period of time, in part thanks to its colossal size - it
stands nearly eleven feet tall - and in part due to the turbulent
times in which it was made. The Neapolitan nobleman Onorato
Gaetani commissioned the work from the sculptor and proposed
the subject, drawn from Greek mythology and literature. As
Sophocles' play The Women of Trachis recounts, the wife of the
hero Hercules sent his herald Lichas to give him a cloak which
she had dipped in a magical fluid, hoping it would cause her
husband to remain faithful to her. Instead, it poisoned him, and
driven to madness by pain and anger, he flung Lichas into the
sea. In Canova's interpretation, the deadly cloak appears as a thin, filmy garment draped across
Hercules's chest, while the lion skin he usually wore lies at his feet. The patron had promised
Canova a large sum for this work, of which he had produced a large-scale model by the
following year, but when the French army invaded Naples, Gaetani was forced into exile and
could no longer accept the sculpture. After leaving Rome himself and then struggling to find
another buyer, Canova finally completed the work in 1815 for a Roman banker.

In depicting the height of the story's dramatic action, Canova combined a moment of extreme
effort and terror with the almost balletic grace of his figures' innovative poses. Hercules, a demi-
god renowned for his strength, is shown at a larger scale than the mortal messenger Lichas, his
powerful body straining in a backward arc as he prepares to hurl the innocent servant. Both
figures are grimacing open-mouthed in their terror and anguish. In working through numerous
compositional possibilities in his drawings, Canova settled on a configuration that is self-
contained and harmoniously balanced, but also filled with immanent, explosive motion. The
contrasts of beautiful and terrifying captured in this work embody the concept of the sublime, an
idea that artists and writers had already begun to explore in the late eighteenth century and would
continue to express in the Romantic movement of the following years. As scholar Christopher M.
S. Johns has noted, this work exemplifies Canova's achievement, as he based his work on
classical models updated with naturalistically described figures, combined in inventively original
compositions.

Marble - Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome

1798-1805
Monument to Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria
In 1798, when Canova was traveling in Austria
after leaving behind his Roman studio, Duke
Albert of Saxony-Teschen commissioned the
sculptor to create a memorial in the Church of
Saint Augustine in Vienna for his wife,
Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria, who
had just died. Canova decided to base the
monument on a design he had earlier developed
as a memorial to the artist Titian but had never
completed. The work consists of a large pyramid
inspired by the ancient Roman Pyramid of Caius Cestius, into which a line of mourners enters
through a dark, open doorway. In the center, a woman carries the Archduchess's urn,
accompanied by two children, at the left another woman helps an old man up the steps, and at the
right, a melancholy angel leans on a sleeping lion, the symbol of the Hapsburg family to which
Maria Christina belonged.

Canova's design was startlingly innovative in combining an ancient architectural form with more
modern imagery, and in representing Maria Christina herself only in a small portrait medallion
over the pyramid's door. This contrasts with traditional funerary monuments, such
as Michelangelo's tombs of the Medici in Florence, which center on full-length sculptures
personifying the deceased. Instead, the subject of Canova's memorial is death itself, embodied in
the universal idea of the dark and unknowable space beyond the open door, a threshold people of
all ages may cross. The groundbreaking nature of this conception was recognized by one of
Canova's earliest patrons, Girolamo Zulian, who commented on a model of the Monument to
Titian that "your idea appeals to me immensely, by virtue of its innovative qualities, simplicity,
and expression."

Marble - Church of Saint Augustine, Vienna

1803-6
Colossal Head of Napoleon Bonaparte
Canova did not often make straightforward portraits, as he felt the genre required the artist
merely to imitate nature rather than to create a work of his own imagination. Nonetheless,
despite his distaste for the military commander who had overthrown the Venetian Republic and
stolen masterpieces of Italian art, Canova could not turn down the commission from Napoleon
when he was still First Consul of France, near the height of his meteoric rise to leader of the
country. When Canova arrived in Paris in October 1802, he had several sittings with Napoleon,
resulting in a bust-length clay model for a work that he intended to incorporate into a
monumental depiction of the leader in the mythological guise of Mars, the Greek god of war, as
a peacemaker. Although the clay original is now lost, there are two plaster versions that Canova
probably made from the model, both showing the sitter wearing a high-collared jacket. In order
to portray Napoleon as a heroic Greek god, however, the artist insisted that he appear nude, as
subsequent marble versions of the bust indicate. This version, measuring over two feet high, was
probably executed entirely by Canova, and is said to have remained in his possession until his
death. Indeed, this portrayal of Napoleon became so popular that over forty copies of the bust
were made during Canova's lifetime, many of them without the artist's involvement.

With its tousled hair and resolute, brooding expression, this portrait captures a sense of both the
real and the legendary Napoleon, both the conquering warrior and the self-made Romantic hero,
as scholar Fred Licht noted. The full-length monumental sculpture was rejected by Napoleon
when it was delivered to him in 1810, not only because he disliked the work's nudity (not to
mention its overly idealized, tall, athletic figure), but also because, in a changed political climate,
he could no longer accept the complex implications of appearing as a god-like hero. Canova's
bust, however, was simpler and more evocative, and it became one of the iconic, official images
of the Emperor.

Marble - Devonshire Collections, Chatsworth

1804-08
Pauline Bonaparte as Venus Victorious
This semi-nude sculpture depicts Pauline Bonaparte
Borghese as Venus, the Greek goddess of love, beauty,
and fertility. She holds an apple in her left hand, a small
narrative element that links this depiction to the
mythological tale of the Judgment of Paris, in which
Trojan prince Paris found Venus to be the most
beautiful of three goddesses, rather than Minerva or
Juno. He then gave her a golden apple to indicate her
victory.

Pauline was the sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, who had, in 1803, helped engineer her marriage to
the Roman nobleman Camillo Borghese, a member of the prominent Italian family, with hopes
that it would help consolidate French power over the newly conquered regions of Italy. The
couple commissioned a portrait from Canova the following year. Canova initially proposed
depicting Borghese in the guise of the virginal Diana, goddess of the moon and hunting, but
Borghese, well known for her extramarital affairs and proud of her own powers of attraction,
insisted on appearing as Venus. While the artist might have been reluctant to highlight the sitter's
physical charms quite so openly, his portrayal, as scholar Fred Licht has suggested, implies that
Borghese has taken on the attributes of the goddess thanks only to her social position and her
self-regard - qualities she was happy to acknowledge - rather than her moral virtue or historical
significance.

The subject of Venus Victorious appears very rarely in Classical sculpture; instead, Canova's
composition clearly echoes Italian Renaissance paintings such as Titian's Venus of Urbino, which
similarly shows the nude figure reclining on a bed. The composition also emphasizes the
negative space toward which Borghese gazes confidently, allowing the viewer to imagine him or
herself filling that space alongside the alluring figure. This sense of being in the presence of the
sitter is enhanced by Canova's innovative use of a carved and gilded marble bed rather than a
neutral pedestal, further blurring the line between the illusionistically sculpted work and the real
space around it. Given its intimate and potentially scandalous nature, the sculpture was kept (and
remains) in Borghese's private residence, where only selected guests were invited to view it by
candlelight, further heightening its allure.

Marble - Galleria Borghese, Rome

1814-17
The Three Graces
According to Greek myth, the three Graces were the daughters
of Zeus and a sea nymph. Their names (viewing the sculpture
from left to right, as Canova identified them) were
Euphrosyne, Aglaia, and Thalia. Rather than conveying a
narrative, the sisters have been depicted since antiquity to
embody numerous positive attributes such as youth, beauty,
sensuality, and love, and collectively as representing
friendship, affection, or kindness. Canova was probably
familiar with at least one Roman sculptural group as well as
numerous Renaissance paintings depicting the Graces; in his
interpretation, however, the central figure is facing forward
rather than back, as in the Classical prototypes, and the figures stand in a closer, more intimate
embrace, emphasizing the sensual quality of the group. This quality is underscored by the
figures' own light touch on each other's waist or shoulders, as well as the glowing, smoothly
finished surface, demonstrating Canova's consummate skill at creating "that look of living
softness given to the surface of the marble, which appears as if it would yield to the touch," as
one writer described it.

While Canova had made an earlier painting of the Three Graces, the idea for this sculpture came
initially in 1812 from Josephine de Beauharnais, first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte; she was
already an enthusiastic patron of the sculptor (the first version is now in the State Hermitage
Museum in Russia). In 1814, upon seeing the work in progress in the artist's studio, the
Englishman John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, asked Canova to make a second version,
remarking, "I frankly declare that I have seen nothing in ancient or modern sculpture that has
given me more pleasure." As he usually did, Canova made certain modifications to the work -
most noticeably changing a square pedestal behind the figures in the first version into a rounded
column in the present work - and considered the second version to be an improvement. Russell
was so excited to acquire the sculpture that he persuaded Canova to visit his estate outside
London when the artist was visiting the city in 1815, and then followed Canova's advice about
placement and lighting to construct a rotunda specifically for the work, which he named the
Temple of the Graces.

As with most of Canova's work, the Three Graces was widely acclaimed; the Italian poet Ugo
Foscolo dedicated one of his most famous poems, "The Graces," to the artist before the sculpture
was even finished, and the French author Stendhal, who visited Canova's studio, commented that
each new work of his was an event in Rome, and a step toward a new type of beauty. It also
further reinforced Canova's reputation as the consummate sculptor of beautiful, elegant subjects.