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Italian Neoclassical Alabaster Sculpture of Dancer after Antonio Canova

$7,751List Price

About the Item

Antonio Canova was one of the most important Italian Neoclassical sculptor, famous for his marble sculptures. Often regarded as the greatest of the neoclassical artists, his artwork was inspired by the Baroque and the classical revival, but avoided the melodramatics of the former, and the cold artificiality of the latter. Antonio Canova was born in Possagno to Pietro Canova, a stonecutter, In 1761, his father died and a year later, his mother remarried so Antonio was put into the care of his paternal grandfather Pasino Canova a stonemason, and a sculptor owner of a quarry; he led Antonio into the art of sculpting. Before the age of ten, Canova began making models in clay, and carving marble, at the age of nine, he executed two small shrines of Carrara marble, which are still extant. He moves to Venice and become an apprentice of Giuseppe Bernardi, who was also known as 'Torretto', then he was under the tutelage of Giovanni Ferrari until he began his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia. The Senator Giovanni Falier commissioned Canova to produce statues of Orpheus and Eurydice for his garden – the Villa Falier at Asolo The statues were begun in 1775, and both were completed by 1777. The pieces explify the late Rococo style. On the year of its completion, both works were exhibited for the Feast of the Ascension in Piazza S. Marco. Widely praised, the works won Canova his first renown among the Venetian elite. In 1779, he opened his own studio at Calle Del Traghetto at S. Maurizio,At this time, Procurator Pietro Vettor Pisani commissioned Canova's first marble statue: a depiction of Daedalus and Icarus. The statue inspired great admiration for his work at the annual art fair; Canova was paid for 100 gold zecchini for the completed work. 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.With such an intention, there is suggestion that Daedalus is a portrait of Canova's grandfather Pasino. Then he arrived in Rome, in 1780, and he spent time studying and sketching the works of Michelangelo. In 1781, Girolamo Zulian – the Venetian ambassador to Rome – hired Canova to sculpt Theseus and the Minotaur. 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. The highly regarded work is now in the collection of the Victoria Albert Museum, in London. Between 1783-1785, Canova arranged, composed, and designed a funerary monument dedicated to Clement XIV for the Church of Santi Apostoli. After another two years, the work met completion in 1787. The monument secured Canova's reputation as the pre-eminent living artist. 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. The following decade was extremely productive, beginning works such as Hercules and Lichas, Cupid and Psyche, Hebe, Tomb of Duchess Maria Christina of Saxony-Teschen, and The Penitent Magdalene. By 1800, Canova was the most celebrated artist in Europe. He systematically promoted his reputation by publishing engravings of his works and having marble versions of plaster casts made in his workshop. He became so successful that he had acquired patrons from across Europe including France, England, Russia, Poland, Austria and Holland, as well as several members from different royal lineages, and prominent individuals. Among his patrons were Napoleon and his family, for whom Canova produced much work, including several depictions between 1803 and 1809. 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. It was completed in 1806 in 1811, the statue arrived in Paris, but not installed; neither was its bronze copy in the Foro Napoleonico in Milan. In 1815, the original went to the Duke of Wellington, after his victory at Waterloo against Napoleon. 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. One of his activities in this capacity was to pioneer the restoration of the Appian Way by restoring the tomb of Servilius Quartus. In 1808 Canova became an associated member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands. In 1814, he began his The Three Graces.[6] In 1815, he was named 'Minister Plenipotentiary of the Pope, and was tasked with recovering various works of art that were taken to Paris by Napoleon. 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, and given the title of Marquis of Ischia, alongside an annual pension of 3000 crowns. In 1819, he commenced and completed his commissioned work Venus Italica as a replacement for the Venus de' Medici. Canova's numerous drawings served as a broad artistic foundation for his tempera works, individual paintings and marble sculptures from the last decade of the 18th century and the early 19th century and he studied the art of dance and the body and the soul of the dancer; he representing the art with three life-size statues of Dancers thet can be considered the climax of his engagement with dance: Dancer with Hands on Hips, created for Napoleon's first wife Josephine de Beauharnais, which arrived at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg in 1815; Dancer with Finger on Chin, the model of which is kept at the Museo Canova; and Dancer with Cymbals from the Berlin Skulpturensammlung, which was created in 1809-1812, as commissioned by Count Andreas K. Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador in Vienna. These three compositions can be seen together for the first time in this exhibition. The three Dancers embody Canova's ideal of feminine grace. Canova's passion for dance and his predilection for sculpting the human form with the appearance of weightlessness were already evident in his 1796 sculpture of Hebe, a work from the National gallerie's collection that was acquired for the Berlin museums in 1825 by King Frederick William III. According to Canova himself, he was inspired by works of ancient art, paintings on Greek vases and frescoes from Herculaneum. Classical statues like the Dancing Maenad from Berlin's Antikensammlung were also inspiring when it came to sculpting marble. But with the subtlety and sensitivity of his surface treatment, Canova surpassed the classical models, and was widely and greatly admired by his contemporaries for doing so.

Similar to:
Antonio Canova (Sculptor)
Dimensions:
Height: 31.5 in (80 cm)Width: 14.18 in (36 cm)Depth: 7.88 in (20 cm)
Style:
Neoclassical (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Alabaster,Hand-Carved
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
Late 19th Century
Date of Manufacture:
Late 19th-Early 20th Century
Condition:
Seller Location:
Roma, IT
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU2433310194341