Antonio CANOVA - Lot 238

Lot n° 238
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Estimation :
3400 - 3800 EUR
Antonio CANOVA - Lot 238
Antonio CANOVA BEAUTIFUL MARBLE SCULPTURE REPRESENTING THE VENUS ITALICA AFTER A MODEL BY Antonio CANOVA (1757-1821) Italian work of the 19th century H : 62 cm Condition of use and maintenance The original Venus (1804-1812) which measured 172 cm was sculpted to replace the Venus of the Medici that Napoleon had stolen from the Florentines. The artist made a second version of this Venus, more bare and classical. Born in Possagno, a possession of the Republic of Venice, into a family of stone cutters for generations, he learned the art of marble cutting from an early age. In 1768, on the recommendation of the senator Giovanni Falier, he was placed as an apprentice with the sculptor Giuseppe Bernardi, in Pagnano, before joining the Santa Marina school in Venice. After winning several prizes at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, he successively produced several works that soon put him at the forefront of modern sculptors, and in which he knew how to combine the imitation of nature with the ideal beauties of antiquity. He studied ancient art and sculpted, throughout his life, various statues inspired by Greek and Roman mythology, as well as cenotaphs, busts and full-length statues of various famous people of the time. He is renowned for the delicacy of his marble sculptures. His work is considered the archetype of neoclassical sculpture and has been the subject of several studies by Mario Praz. He devoted much of his fortune from his art to charitable activities or to support young artists or artists in need. He also practiced painting with success. Called to Paris several times by Napoleon, he returned in 1815, charged by the pope with presiding over the recognition and translation of the monuments taken from Rome and demanded by the papal government in application of the clauses of the Congress of Vienna. He was charged with negotiating with Dominique Vivant Denon the restitution by France of the Italian works of art stolen by Napoleon's army. He was ennobled and received a number of honours. When he died in 1822, his heart was placed in the Venetian church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, in a funerary monument of his own creation, although he had originally dedicated it to the painter Titian. His remains are buried in Possagno, in the Tempio Canoviano.
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