Beatrice, C.1820-1830
Workshop of Antonio Canova (1757-1822)
Rome, circa 1820-1830
Height: 62cm Width: 31cm Depth: 23cm
This elegant marble bust of Beatrice belongs to the poetic tradition of taste ideals - Canova's series of idealised heads, produced in the final decade of his life and celebrated for their abstracted beauty and sculptural purity. Rather than portraying identifiable sitters, these works represented Canova's own vision of universal feminine perfection, distilled through classical ideals and infused with his distinctly Italian sensibility.
The present composition was first recorded in 1817 by Count Leopoldo Cicognara, Canova's biographer and close confidant, who described it alongside the sculptor's Laura (now at Chatsworth). Canova chose the muses of Dante and Petrarch - the two great architects of the Italian poetic tradition - as embodiments of national, rather than Grecian, beauty. His Beatrice, like Laura, was conceived in a state of what Cicognara called amore caldissimo (heated passion), as an expression not of portraiture but of sculptural idealism. The original plaster was gifted by Canova to Count Cigognara and his wife Lucia Fantinati in gratitude for their work on his biography; it is now preserved in Possagno.
Intriguingly, several marble versions of Beatrice are known to have been executed between 1819 and 1822. A now lost example was made for Count István Széchenyi in 1819, reportedly once at his family seat at Nagycenk. Others were cited in period sources as being in collections in Ravenna and the former Yusupov Palace, though their current whereabouts remain unknown. The fate of both the Cicognara and Széchenyi marbles is uncertain and it has long been speculated that surviving works from Canova's Roman circle may represent these lost busts.
While it is not possible at this time to determine whether the present sculpture is one of these undocumented originals, its high quality, luminous polish and balanced proportions mark it as the product of a highly skilled hand - almost certainly within Canova's immediate orbit,
There can be little doubt that it would have been carved circa 1820-1830. The execution and surface polish are worthy of Canova's studio students, including Adamo Tadolini, Rinaldo Rinaldi and Cincinnato Baruzzi who were known to produce works of this calibre under the master's guidance in the 1820's.
In 1817, Antonio Canova wrote to his friend Count Cicognara with uncharacteristic excitement: he had just completed a new type of ideal head, he said - one unlike anything he had done before. That sculpture was Beatrice, inspired not by a goddess of antiquity but by Dante's celestial muse, whose purity and grace had haunted Italian literature for centuries. Canova poured into her features a uniquely Italian ideal of beauty, softened by emotion and veiled in mystery. So pleased was he with the result that he kept revisiting the composition, and gifted the first version to Cicognara and his wide in heartfelt thanks for their devotion to his legacy. The bust became a deeply personal symbol - not only of poetic love =, but of friendship, national pride, and Canova's final version of perfection in marble.
Rome, circa 1820-1830
Height: 62cm Width: 31cm Depth: 23cm
This elegant marble bust of Beatrice belongs to the poetic tradition of taste ideals - Canova's series of idealised heads, produced in the final decade of his life and celebrated for their abstracted beauty and sculptural purity. Rather than portraying identifiable sitters, these works represented Canova's own vision of universal feminine perfection, distilled through classical ideals and infused with his distinctly Italian sensibility.
The present composition was first recorded in 1817 by Count Leopoldo Cicognara, Canova's biographer and close confidant, who described it alongside the sculptor's Laura (now at Chatsworth). Canova chose the muses of Dante and Petrarch - the two great architects of the Italian poetic tradition - as embodiments of national, rather than Grecian, beauty. His Beatrice, like Laura, was conceived in a state of what Cicognara called amore caldissimo (heated passion), as an expression not of portraiture but of sculptural idealism. The original plaster was gifted by Canova to Count Cigognara and his wife Lucia Fantinati in gratitude for their work on his biography; it is now preserved in Possagno.
Intriguingly, several marble versions of Beatrice are known to have been executed between 1819 and 1822. A now lost example was made for Count István Széchenyi in 1819, reportedly once at his family seat at Nagycenk. Others were cited in period sources as being in collections in Ravenna and the former Yusupov Palace, though their current whereabouts remain unknown. The fate of both the Cicognara and Széchenyi marbles is uncertain and it has long been speculated that surviving works from Canova's Roman circle may represent these lost busts.
While it is not possible at this time to determine whether the present sculpture is one of these undocumented originals, its high quality, luminous polish and balanced proportions mark it as the product of a highly skilled hand - almost certainly within Canova's immediate orbit,
There can be little doubt that it would have been carved circa 1820-1830. The execution and surface polish are worthy of Canova's studio students, including Adamo Tadolini, Rinaldo Rinaldi and Cincinnato Baruzzi who were known to produce works of this calibre under the master's guidance in the 1820's.
In 1817, Antonio Canova wrote to his friend Count Cicognara with uncharacteristic excitement: he had just completed a new type of ideal head, he said - one unlike anything he had done before. That sculpture was Beatrice, inspired not by a goddess of antiquity but by Dante's celestial muse, whose purity and grace had haunted Italian literature for centuries. Canova poured into her features a uniquely Italian ideal of beauty, softened by emotion and veiled in mystery. So pleased was he with the result that he kept revisiting the composition, and gifted the first version to Cicognara and his wide in heartfelt thanks for their devotion to his legacy. The bust became a deeply personal symbol - not only of poetic love =, but of friendship, national pride, and Canova's final version of perfection in marble.
Further images
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 1
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 2
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 3
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 4
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 5
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 6
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 7
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 8
)
