Antonia Canova Research Paper

Antonia Canova pictured above from a self portrait was born in 1757 in a small Italian town called Possagno. “…Canova was the son of Pietro Canova (1735–61), a stonecutter of Possagno.”(Oxford Art Online) After his father passed away when he was three “He was brought up by his grandfather, Pasino Canova (1714–94), a mediocre sculptor who specialized in altars with statues and low reliefs in late Baroque style.” (Oxford Art Online) Then Canova became apprenticed to the sculptor Giuseppe Bernardi where he later went with him to Venice. When in Venice he studied nude work at the Accademia then plaster casts of famous antique sculptures in Filippo Farsetti’s collection. Then during 1780s he used a development of a new style with”revolutionary severity

Napoleon was his most influential benefactor in France, “Though the actual number of French commissions remained small, the benevolence of Napoleon and of his satellites was of enormous importance on giving Canova the base of support that he needed in a Europe enthralled by Napoleon’s almost mystic power.”(P.22 Licht) During his life he was an “Italian sculptor, painter, draughtsman and architect. He was the most innovative and widely acclaimed sculptor of neoclassicism”(Oxford Art Online). Due to time period he was able to create civic and funeral monuments, portraits, mythology, sketches, and reliefs thanks to conflict going on in Europe. He is considered a neoclassic artist, however early signs of romanticism came into play. “Only the works of his early period in Venice, and a few isolated sculptures, such as the papal monuments to Clement XIV and Clement XIII and the statue of Paolina Borghese Bonaparte were exempt from this blanket judgment, because they were considered free of Neo-classical traits.”(Oxford Art Online) The Paolina Borghese Bonaparte Venus Victrix statue can be seen on lower right of page