The Canova exhibition in the Palazzo Braschi in Rome for the first time shows 170 sculptures by the famous neo-classical sculptor on display. The exhibition will run from 9 October 2019 to 15 March 2020. The title of the exhibition is “Canova. Eternal Beauty”.
Canova Exhibition Rome (Palazzo Braschi 2019)
“Canova. Eternal Beauty.”
The title of the exhibition, which is spread out over 13 sections, is “Eternal Beauty”. In addition to works by Canova himself, there are also pieces by a number of contemporary artists. Of course there are many marble sculptures, but also plaster casts, drawings and sketches.
Highlights of the exhibition are “Cupid and Psyche”, “Hercules and Lychas”, “Penitent Magdalene” and “Triumphant Perseus”. There are also two enormous busts of Pope Clement XIII and Pius VII.
Canova himself thought that his works were best displayed in artificial light. He sometimes invited his guests to his studio late at night. For the exhibition, one of the rooms is filled with burning candles.
A small part is devoted to the relationship between Canova and the writer Vittorio Amedeo Alfieri.
In the last two rooms the contemporary Italian photographer Mimmo Jodice reinterprets Canova‘s marble sculptures using 30 photographs.
Antonio Canova
Born in 1757 in Possagno, Canova himself came to Rome at the age of 22. HisHe came from a family of stone cutters. He became one of the most important exponents of neoclassical art. This movement was very popular at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. Followers pursued the purity of Greek and Roman classical architecture in particular. His most famous works are the “Paolina Borghese” and the “Amore e Psyche”.
On Loan
The exhibited sculptures are on loan from a number of museums around the world. The most famous of these are the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Vatican Museums and the Capitoline Museums in Rome itself and the Archaeological Museum in Naples. The Correr Museum in Venice and the Museo Antonio Canova in Possagno are also represented, as well as the Roman National Academy of San Luca.
