Antonio Canova’s “Ideal Head”
Derek Turner
I enjoyed Ricky Hitching’s blog about the huge statue of Napoleon which dominates the stairwell at Apsley House.
While the Napoleon statue is certainly impressive, given the choice I would prefer to take our other Canova home — not least because it would fit nicely in our living room and there would be no need to strengthen the floor. Our other Canova is of course the “Ideal Head”.
This exquisite bust is one of my favourite artworks in Apsley, I see something fresh at each encounter. Canova can deliver a powerful emotional charge while retaining the intimacy of a relatively small-scale work. The quality of the carving is extraordinary — particularly in the locks of hair crowned with a garland of flowers, the satin sheen of the skin seeming to conjure life and warmth from the cold marble.
Canova’s early work reflected his training in Venice in the late Baroque style, on moving to Rome he was greatly influenced by the “noble simplicity and
quiet grandeur” of Neo -Classicism, but he never forgot his roots. His mature style therefore synthesises the “linear purity of ancient reliefs with the smouldering eroticism of the Venetian Renaissance”. He fashioned the “Ideal Head” in 1815 when he was at the height of his powers, his successful studio in Rome employed twenty assistants and became a major tourist attraction. His sculptures, many on turntables to facilitate viewing, he thought were best illuminated through amber glass from a sky light or by candlelight. Indeed, he arranged candlelit tours for special clients. He worked accompanied by readings from classical literature. Small souvenirs were on sale for those not ready to make a big purchase.
His working methods followed an established pattern. Upon receiving a commission, he would make sketches and bozzetti (small clay models) to show the client, the speed and spontaneity with which these were created encouraged an immediacy which persisted in the finished work. The bozzetto for the Ideal Head is lost, so I have used that for Psyche revived by Cupids Kiss (1787) to illustrate their general appearance.
He then made a full-size plaster model which his assistants transferred to marble taking measurements using a system of pins inserted in the plaster.
Canova himself returned to complete the details of sculpture as “The final hand,” including his trademark finish for the skin, the formula for which was a closely guarded secret.
He retained the plaster model so he could reproduce slightly different versions later. For example, he used the head of the “Dancer with her hands on her hips” (commissioned by Josephine Bonaparte, now in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg) to create our “Ideal Head”
The plaster version of the dancer can still be seen in the Canova Museum in Possagno, his birthplace.
Our Ideal Head is one of four made to celebrate the end of the Napoleonic Wars, each representing female beauty as an allegory for Peace, and subsequently presented by Canova to those Britons (William Hamilton, Baron Cawdor, Viscount Castlereagh and Wellington) who had helped in the restitution of artworks looted by Napoleon. The Ideal Head given to William Hamilton is now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and represents Calliope the Muse of Poetry.
The French Revolutionary armies from the very beginning of the war pursued a deliberate policy of looting artworks obtained by conquest and this policy was enthusiastically continued by Napoleon.
French artists justified this in the following terms in a letter to the Directory in 1796 “The French Republic by its strength and superiority of its Enlightenment and its artists is the only country in the world which can give a haven to these masterpieces. All other nations must come to honour our art as they once imitated our frivolity”.
Iconic Classical sculptures such as the Apollo Belvedere, the Laocoon and the Medici Venus were taken from Rome and installed in the Louvre -renamed the Musee Napoleon. But the looting was not confined to such important works — in Venice almost every church was stripped of its paintings, altarpieces were broken up, and those deemed to be of lesser importance sold to help fund Napoleon`s campaigns.
Although Canova completed many commissions for the Napoleon family after Bonaparte`s conquest of Italy, he strongly opposed the looting of art works, particularly those classical sculptures that had so influenced his own practice. On the two occasions when he met Napoleon, he did not hesitate to express
his outrage. It is also worth mentioning that Canova was generous in giving money to Italian artists whose commissions had dried up because of Napoleon`s invasion.
In 1814 when Louis XVIII was restored to the French throne by the Allies, he nevertheless resisted the restitution of looted items, claiming either that they were included in the Treaty of Tolentino (1797) signed when the French subjugation of Italy was complete or not specified in the Treaty of Paris (1814). which had ended the war. The victorious Allies did not want to press the issue too strongly so as not to undermine Louis` rather tenuous position. However, after Napoleon`s return and final defeat in 1815 the Allies mood hardened.
Canova was appointed by Pope Pius VII to negotiate the restoration of looted artworks to Italy. Canova`s view was that “neither Pope nor King had the right to remove these works from the soil of Italy” Louis VIII appeared willing to annul the treaty of Tolentino but prolonged the negotiations while Vivant Denon — once Napoleon`s artistic adviser, now Director of the Louvre did his best to prevent their removal and spirited many works away to French provincial galleries. Canova continued in the work of cataloguing and preparing to remove the works from what he termed “this great cave of stolen art”.
Eventually Wellington, commanding the Army of Occupation, lost patience and sent his troops into the Louvre making it possible to restore artworks to their rightful owners, escorting them at night past the French National Guard amid crowds of weeping women. Even now it has been estimated that only just over half the looted works have been restored some being too large or too fragile to be moved, some incorporated into the building and some of course concealed,
The Prince Regent (Later George IV) deserves a mention as he funded the restitution to the tune of 500,000 francs and presented Canova with a snuff box containing a folded £500 note!
Looting by victorious armies has been a feature of war since ancient times and persists to this day — but Napoleon`s looting was so egregious and Canova`s stance so consistently principled that the practice was now seriously questioned. It remains a complex issue and Canova himself was not entirely consistent. As a proud Venetian he was particularly keen to return the bronze horses of St Mark to Venice although they had themselves been looted from Constantinople by Venetian Crusaders in 1204.
His work in Paris completed, he was invited to advise the British Parliament as to whether they should purchase the Elgin Marbles (or Parthenon Frieze) which had recently arrived in London. Although he must have been aware that their acquisition was controversial, he had no doubts that they should be purchased. He enthused that the figures on the frieze “breathed animation” they were “real flesh in its native beauty”. Their naturalism is far removed from the idealised Neoclassical style that influenced his own work, but that did not prevent him from admiring them very much. He also warned against attempts to clean them — a farsighted view given the damage that has been caused by ill-advised cleaning over the years.
So, what are we to make of Canova — I admire him for his courage in standing up to Napoleon and his determination to restore looted art, his generosity to his fellow artists, and his open mindedness when confronted by the true nature of ancient Greek sculpture when he saw the Elgin Marbles. Most of all I admire his art. His technical ability is without parallel and beyond that he was ahead of his time in evoking movement, exploiting contrasting textures and exploring negative space around the sculpture. The way he presented his work to the public as a performance was innovative. There is a good argument that he is the first modern sculptor.
Sources and further reading:
Ricky’s blog about the Napoleon statue is at Napoleon as the Peacemaker. Ricky Hitching by Apsley House and Wellington Arch Blog | Feb 2021 | Medium.
Shannon Selin has more on Napoleons looted art at Napoleon’s Looted Art | Shannon Selin.
Katherine Eustace in the Art Newspaper June 2015 relates how the art found its way home The fruits of war how Napoleons looted art found its way home — Bing.
Two books which I read in the National Art Library at the V&A — a great place — get a reader’s ticket online — its free (let’s hope it opens again soon)
The quotations I used came from one or the other.
Napoleon and his artists, Tim Wilson Smith,1998, Constable, ISBN-13 9780094790506
Antonio Canova and the politics of patronage in revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe Christopher Johns, 1998, University of California Press, ISBN -10 0520212010
