33 Facts About Antonio Canova

1.

Antonio Canova was an Italian Neoclassical sculptor, famous for his marble sculptures.

2.

In 1757, Antonio Canova was born in the Venetian Republic city of Possagno to Pietro Canova, a stonecutter, and Maria Angela Zardo Fantolini.

3.

In 1779, Canova opened his own studio at Calle Del Traghetto at S Maurizio,.

4.

The statue inspired great admiration for his work at the annual art fair; Antonio Canova was paid for 100 gold zecchini for the completed work.

5.

Zulian played a fundamental role in Antonio Canova's rise to fame, turning some rooms of his palace into a studio for the artist and placing his trust in him despite Antonio Canova's early critics in Rome.

6.

Between 1783 and 1785, Antonio Canova arranged, composed, and designed a funerary monument dedicated to Clement XIV for the Church of Santi Apostoli.

7.

Antonio Canova systematically promoted his reputation by publishing engravings of his works and having marble versions of plaster casts made in his workshop.

8.

Antonio Canova 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.

9.

Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker had its inception after Antonio Canova was hired to make a bust of Napoleon in 1802.

10.

The statue was begun in 1803, with Napoleon requesting to be shown in a French General's uniform, Antonio Canova rejected this, insisting on an allusion to Mars, the Roman god of War.

11.

In 1808 Antonio Canova became an associated member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands.

12.

In 1816, Antonio Canova returned to Rome with some of the art Napoleon had taken.

13.

Antonio Canova 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 3,000 crowns.

14.

On 11 July 1819, Antonio Canova laid the foundation stone dressed in red Papal uniform and decorated with all his medals.

15.

On 12 October 1822, Antonio Canova instructed his brother to use his entire estate to complete the Tempio in Possagno.

16.

Antonio Canova's 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.

17.

Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker had its inception after Antonio Canova was hired to make a bust of Napoleon in 1802.

18.

The statue was begun in 1802, with Napoleon requesting to be shown in a French General's uniform, Antonio Canova rejected this, insisting on an allusion to Mars, the Roman god of War.

19.

Originally, Antonio Canova wished the depictation to be of a robed Diana, but Pauline Borghese insisted to appear as a nude Venus.

20.

Antonio Canova 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 Josephine.

21.

Antonio 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.

22.

Antonio 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.

23.

Antonio Canova's sculptures fall into three categories: Heroic compositions, compositions of grace, and sepulchral monuments.

24.

In each of these, Antonio Canova's underlying artistic motivations were to challenge, if not compete, with classical statues.

25.

Antonio Canova refused to take in pupils and students, but would hire workers to carve the initial figure from the marble.

26.

Antonio Canova had an elaborate system of comparative pointing so that the workers were able to reproduce the plaster form in the selected block of marble.

27.

Antonio Canova was an artist that leapt on the fad and displayed his works of art in his studio by candlelight.

28.

Antonio Canova then applied a now unknown chemical-composition of patina onto the flesh of the figure to lighten the skin tone.

29.

Karl Ludwig Fernow believed that Antonio Canova was not Kantian enough in his aesthetic, because emphasis seemed to have been placed on agreeableness rather than Beauty.

30.

Antonio Canova was faulted for creating works that were artificial in complexity.

31.

Giuseppe Pavanello wrote in 1996 that "the importance and value of Antonio Canova's art is recognized as holding in balance the last echo of the Ancients and the first symptom of the restless experimentation of the modern age".

32.

Antonio Canova spent large parts of his fortune helping young students and sending patrons to struggling sculptors, including Sir Richard Westmacott and John Gibson.

33.

Two of Antonio Canova's works appear as engravings in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1834, with poetical illustrations by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.