Atelier d’Antonio CANOVA. 1757-1822.
Colossal bust of Napoleon. Between 1803 and 1806.
Marble
Dimensions : 90 x 45 x 31 cm
Antonio CANOVA:
Antonio Canova was born in 1757 in Possagno, in the province of Treviso, the son of an architect. He lost his father at a young age and it was his grandfather, a stonemason, who taught him the basics of sculpture. He subsequently became a student of Torreto, whom he followed in 1769 to Venice. There he created his first sculptures: Orpheus and Eurydice, Apollo and Daphne, then Daedalus and Icarus. Admitted to the Academy in 1779, he went to Rome which would become the center of his brilliant career. In 1783, Canova became friends with Quatremère de Quincy, the most severe theoretician of the return to antiquity, who would become his friend and mentor. He then trains himself to achieve Greek purity and perfection in his achievements. After multiple negotiations, he finally accepted Napoleon's proposal to come to Paris at the end of 1802. It was on the occasion of this visit that he designed the statue representing Napoleon as the peacemaker Mars and that he model after numerous pose sessions a clay bust of the Emperor from which he made a plaster which will serve as a working basis for the final statue. The most recognized sculptor of his time in Italy, he became one of the Emperor's favorite artists. He died on October 13, 1922 in Venice.
The colossal bust of Napoleon I:
Antonio Canova,
Statue of Napoleon as peacemaker Mars,
Marble,
1806,
340 cm,
Apsley House, London
© Artstor
This bust was made by Antonio Canova on the occasion of a commission he received in 1801 from the provisional government of the Cisalpine Republic expressed by Giovanni Battista Sommariva to adorn the Bonaparte forum. It was then a question of sculpting a Napoleon crowned by Victory, as desired by Antolini, the architect of the forum. However, Canova quickly imposed his idea of adorning the whole with a colossal statue of Napoleon as an unarmed and peacemaking Mars. Despite the abandonment of the Bonaparte forum project, Canova continued to create this work for Napoleon. Although the latter assigned a political role to artistic productions, he limited his directives when ordering Canova by asserting “we do not impose laws on genius”. Concerned, however, by the total nudity of the statue, the artist reassures him by explaining that a heroic statue cannot be presented otherwise. Particular work was done on Napoleon's head, which Canova worked to improve, he tilted slightly to the right and accentuated a little more the antique aesthetic of Bonaparte. Magnifying the features of the first consul, he made him an ancient hero already approaching the figure of the Roman emperor. Completed in the spring of 1803, the sculpture of the head was the subject of numerous copies by Canova, which he entrusted to sculptors such as Callamard and Labourreur but also to figures of the regime such as Dominique-Vivant Denon.
The statue was completed in 1806 but was presented for the first time to the Emperor in 1811 in the Hall of Illustrious Men of the Napoleon Museum. The complete nudity of the sculpture opposes the principle of decency advocated by the sovereign, dissatisfied with the representation, he orders that it be hidden behind a partition and that no comments be made by the press.
On the other hand, the busts made after the statue did not pose this pitfall, they were widely distributed throughout the Empire in the manner of Augustus.
Against oblivion the eternity of marble,
This bust is an idealized, even deified, image of Napoleon. Fitting perfectly into the codes of ancient statuary, the bust corresponds to Greek and Roman canons of beauty.
A heroic beauty reminiscent of the classic style of Greek statuary emerges from the sublimated features, the slightly furrowed forehead is marked with a wrinkle evoking Roman gravitas and thus presaging future representations as a Roman emperor. The carefully sculpted eyes look towards the distance, towards conquests, towards the future. The raised cheekbones, finishing with a square jaw, give the face this ancient virile beauty. The future imperial power emerges from this bust magnifying Napoleon, and already granting him his titles of conqueror and sovereign.
Related works:
- Antonio Canova, Statue of Napoleon as Peacemaker Mars, Marble, 1806, 340 cm, Apsley House, London
- Antonio Canova, Colossal bust of Napoleon, Marble, between 1803 and 1806, 340 cm, Devonshire collection, Chatsworth
- Antonio Canova, Colossal bust of Napoleon, Marble, between 1803 and 1806, 340 cm, Palazzo Pitti, Florence
- Workshop of Antonio Canova, Colossal bust of Napoleon, Marble, early 19th century, 100 x 55 cm, Château de Malmaison