The Venus Italica
after Antonio Canova (Possagno 1757 - Venice 1822)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1820 - 1880
Materials
Alabaster
Measurements
1015 mm (Height); 292 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Volterra (Italy)
Order this imageCollection
Ardress House, County Armagh
NT 247724
Summary
Sculpture, alabaster; the Venus Italica; after Antonio Canova (1757-1822); c. 1820-1880. A reduced copy of the celebrated statue of Venus, goddess of love, made by Antonio Canova between 1802 and 1811, now in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence. For a few years, until the original statue was returned from Paris in 1816, Canova’s sculpture took the place of the Medici Venus in the Tribuna of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Full description
Sculpture in alabaster, a reproduction on a reduced scale of the ‘Venus Italica’ (‘Italian Venus’) in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, by Antonio Canova (1757-1822). Venus, goddess of love, is depicted naked and as if she has just emerged from her bath. Her hair is carefully made up, gathered at the back into a bunch from which descend ringlets, other curls and ringlets towards the front. She seems to move forward, her head turned sharply to her left, and she holds up in front of her a large towel or piece of drapery, part of which she uses to cover her right breast. More of the drapery is wrapped round her right arm, whilst yet more falls over her right leg and behind her, the end falling to the ground by her left foot. Behind Venus’s right foot, on the ground, is a rectangular casket with decorated side panels and lion’s paw feet. The sculpture is mounted on a circular base. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Europe was wracked by wars that had emerged from the chaos of the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte’s attempts to subjugate the remainder of the Continent. In 1802 Napoleon, who had conquered most of Italy, succeeded in his long-held design to have the celebrated antique statue of Venus known as the Venus de’Medici or the Medici Venus brought to Paris, where for a few years it would become one of the star exhibits in the Musée Napoléon. At thus time, Antonio Canova was regarded as certainly the greatest sculptor of his day and arguably the most living artist of his time. When he passed through Florence on his return from Paris later in 1802, Antonio Canova was asked if he would be prepared to make a copy of the famous statue, that might to some extent compensate for its loss. Generally Canova disliked the making of copies of the ancient Greek and Roman masterpieces of sculpture so, in fact, although he agreed to make a copy, the sculpture that he eventually completed in 1811 (Honour 1972, fig. 4; Pavanello 1976, no. 168) was quite different from the Medici Venus. It shows a more modest figure, who largely covers her nakedness with a large swag of drapery, whilst it also lacks the dolphin and the figure of Cupid that accompany Venus in the Uffizi statue. Canova in fact made not just one, but four versions of the figure, the others in the Residenzmuseum in Munich and Hearst Castle, San Simeon, California, formerly in the Lansdowne Collection (Honour 1972, figs. 6 and 14; Pavanello 1976, nos. 170-71; Costarelli 2022, cat. no. 8). A fourth version was sold from the Londonderry collection in 1962 and is today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Costarelli 2022, cat. no. 9). A few years later he made a further quite different version, completed in 1820 and sold to the banker Thomas Hope (1769-1831). This version, which Canova in fact liked best of all those he had made, was rather closer in appearance than the others to the Venus de’Medici. It is now in Leeds City Art Galleries (Honour 1972, fig. 2; Pavanello 1976, no. 309; Costarelli 2022, cat. no. 10). There are small differences between the three first versions of the model. The reduced copy at Ardress is, like almost all the copies of this model, based on the version Canova made for Florence, which was moved to the Palazzo Pitti after the return of the Venus de’Medici from Paris in 1816. From the time that it was placed in the Uffizi in 1812, Canova’s statue was however at once seen not only as a great artistic achievement in its own right, but as a patriotic gesture by Canova, the greatest living sculptor and a proud Italian, a partial righting of the wrongs caused by Napoleon’s removal of famous works of art from Italy and elsewhere in Europe. Hence the sculpture’s popular name of the Venus Italica. It has since remained one of Antonio Canova’s most admired and popular works, with numerous copies having been at full size and as reduced-scale reproductions. Examples in National Trust collections include those at Felbrigg (NT 1401984), Monk’s House (NT 768473) and Attingham Park (NT 609428). The copy at Ardress is about half the size of Canova’s original sculpture. Made of alabaster rather than marble, it was probably produced in Volterra, the centre for alabaster carving in Italy in the nineteenth century. Jeremy Warren November 2022
Makers and roles
after Antonio Canova (Possagno 1757 - Venice 1822), sculptor
References
Honour 1972: Hugh Honour, 'Canova's Statues of Venus', The Burlington Magazine , Oct., 1972, Vol. 114, No. 835 (Oct., 1972), pp. 658-671 Pavanello 1976: Giuseppe Pavanello, L’opera completa del Canova, Milan 1976 Costarelli 2022: Alessio Costarelli, Canova e gli inglesi, Milan 2022