Canova
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ANTONIO (ka-nõ'va), an Italian sculptor, born in Possagno, Nov. 1, 1757. He was first an apprentice to a statuary in Bassano, from whom he went to the Academy of Venice, where he had a brilliant career. In 1779 he was sent by the senate of Venice to Rome, and there produced his Theseus and the Slain Minotaur. In 1783 Canova undertook the execution of the tomb of Pope Clement XIV. in the Church of the Apostles, a work in the Bernini manner, and inferior to his second public monument, the tomb of Pope Clement XIII. (1792), in St. Peter's. From 1783 his fame rapidly increased. He established a school for the benefit of young Venetians, and among other works produced his group of "Venus and Adonis," the "Psyche and Butterfly," a "Repentant Magdalene," the well-known "Hebe," the colossal "Hercules hurling Lichas into the Sea," the "Pugilists," and the group of "Cupid and Psyche." In 1796 and 1797 Canova finished the model of the cele- Ca brated tomb of the Archduchess Christina of Austria, and in 1797 made the colossal model of a statue of the King of Naples executed in marble in 1803. He afterward executed in Rome his "Perseus with the Head of Medusa," which, when the "Belvidere Apollo" was carried to France, was thought not unworthy of its place and pedestal. In 1802 he was invited by Bonaparte to Paris to make the model of his colossal statue. Among the later works of the artist are a colossal Washington, the tombs of the Cardinal of York and of Pius VII.; a "Venus Rising from the Bath"; the colossal group of "Theseus Killing the Minotaur"; the tomb of Alfieri; the "Graces Rising from the Bath"; a "Dancing Girl"; a colossal "Hector"; a "Paris"; a "Mars and Ve- "He us," etc. After the second fall of Napo nus leon, in 1815, Canova was commissioned by the Pope to demand the restoration of the works of art carried from Rome. He went from Paris to London, and returned to Rome in 1816, where he was made Marquis of Ischia, with a pension of 3,000 scudi. He died in Venice, Oct. 13, 1822.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The biography Collier's set down in 1921 still stands in almost every particular, but the critical temperature has swung right around. Collier's already hints at the era's condescension "a work in the Bernini manner, and inferior to his second public monument" and by 1921 Canova's polished marbles were widely dismissed as cold and academic; since the 1950s, and especially after the large Venice and Possagno exhibitions of the 1990s, he has been restored to the front rank of European sculptors, with his plaster models at the Gipsoteca in Possagno (extended by the architect Carlo Scarpa) treated as works in their own right. One item on Collier's list no longer exists: the "colossal Washington", made for the North Carolina State House, was destroyed when that building burned in 1831, and a marble replica was installed in Raleigh only in 1970. Canova's colossal Napoleon, meanwhile, has stood since 1816 in Wellington's London house, Apsley House, a gift from the state to the man who beat the sitter.
Written for this edition, 2026.