An exhibition in Rome on Antonio Canova prince of the Academy of St. Luke

Canova. The Last Prince is the title of the exhibition in Rome that theAccademia Nazionale di San Luca, as part of the celebrations for the two hundredth anniversary of the death of Antonio Canova ( Possagno, 1757 - Venice, 1822), is dedicating to the sculptor and the indissoluble bond he had with the Roman institution, in which he was received as an academician of merit, then prince and finally as perpetual prince. The exhibition runs from December 17, 2022 to June 28, 2023 at the Palazzo Carpegna venue and bears witness to Canova’s presence within the Academy. Elected academician of merit in 1800, acclaimed prince in 1810, and perpetual prince in 1814, Canova imprinted the Roman institution with a new direction, which affected all cultural sectors: from the reform of art education, to excavation, restoration, and protection of ancient monumental heritage, to the promotion of contemporary art, and the urban redevelopment of Rome.

Antonio Canova, born in Possagno in 1757, had arrived in Rome in November 1779 after an initial training in Venice, where he had studied the great examples of the Venetian tradition and plaster copies of masterpieces of antiquity in the Farsetti collection. In Rome, the sculptor was soon able to establish himself through important commissions, such as the marble group Theseus Winning on the Minotaur for the Venetian ambassador Girolamo Zulian (1781) and the pontifical sepulchral monuments of Clement XIV (1788), for the Church of the Holy Apostles, and Clement XIII (1792) for St. Peter’s Basilica.

After an initial period of work in Zulian’s residence at Palazzo Venezia, Canova moved his studio to Via delle Colonnette, near the hospital of San Giacomo degli Incurabili, where he produced all his masterpieces. The atelier also soon became a sought-after meeting place, frequented by sovereigns, princes, aristocrats, collectors, antiquarians and intellectuals from all over Europe. In January 1800 Canova was unanimously elected to the Academy of St. Luke, for which he spent the rest of his life trying to restore to it the centrality and primacy that had always distinguished it, in a vision now reformed by the new values resulting from the French Revolution. The wound inflicted by Napoleon’s requisitions led Canova to ever greater institutional commitment. In 1802 he became Inspector General of the Antiquities of the Papal State, Superintendent of the Vatican Museums and of the Campidoglio, welding into a single figure, as had happened centuries earlier with Raphael, the activities of art, heritage protection and the preservation of ancient monuments.

In 1810, the sculptor was awarded the office of prince and obtained from Napoleon numerous concessions for the revitalization of the Academy, beginning with the allocation of 100,000 francs, in which, in addition to teaching, were included restorations and the protection of the monumental heritage. His action immediately turned to the training of young people, for whom he reorganized the educational system, updating its models and study tools. Added to this was the creation of new competitions that he personally financed: the Anonymous Competition and the Canova Competition. In 1814, when the French were ousted, Canova was acclaimed perpetual prince of the Academy, and on the return to Rome of Pope Pius VII he was charged with the delicate diplomatic mission to Paris to recover the works requisitioned in 1797. The success of the operation entailed the return of the most significant masterpieces and projected the image of Canova into the Pantheon of Italy’s illustrious men, protagonists of a nascent nation and a new sense of identity, in which the Accademia participated by educating the younger generations in the reinterpretation of the classical tradition and its own historical-artistic heritage in a modern, secular key. Canova died Venice on October 13, 1822, and the Accademia paid tribute to its last perpetual prince with a solemn celebration in the Church of the Holy Apostles on January 31, 1823.

The exhibition is divided into eight sections tracing Canova’s years, from his entry into the Accademia in 1800 to his death in 1822. The first section-Canova in the Academy-documents Canova’s entry into the Accademia di San Luca, with the significant plaster relief, Socrates Defending Alcibiades at the Battle of Potidea (1797), offered by the sculptor as an entrance gift. The second section-Canova ’ s competitions: painting and sculpture-addresses the theme of the artistic training of young people to whom Canova directed all his attentions, promoting two new competitions, which he himself financed. The important series of large paintings of nudes, restored for the occasion and exhibited for the first time, gives the measure of the reform of the models of study, implemented also in the wake of the influence of the French revolutions of the time. Painters such as Francesco Hayez, Francesco Podesti, Domenico Pellegrini, and Victor Schnetz, and sculptors such as Rinaldo Rinaldi in this context took the first steps of shining careers. The third section - Canova and Thorvaldsen - along the gallery, presents the Possagno master’s plaster casts preserved in the academic collection: the Self-Portrait, the colossal head of Clement XIII and the Portrait of Napoleon. They are placed in dialogue with those of the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, who, younger and counted in the academic body thanks to Canova, would soon become a co-protagonist of the Roman art scene. The fourth section - The Religion - aims to explore the story of Canova’s immense plaster cast of the Religion , donated by his brother Giovanni Battista Sartori in 1830, originally placed in the gallery of San Luca and later placed in the academic church of SS. Luca e Martina at the Roman Forum before returning to its current location.

In the fifth section - The Academy at the Time of Canova - the aim was to recreate in images the Roman context experienced by Canova since his entry into the Academy in 1800. Portraits of the many actors in his appointment, such as Vincenzo Pacetti, Agostino Penna, and Pietro Camporese, are interwoven with sculptures and paintings made by friends and colleagues, such as Pietro Benvenuti, Vincenzo Camuccini, Filippo Albacini, Agostino Tofanelli, and Andrea Pozzi. There are also works documenting some salient moments of Canova’s action in the Academy, such as the affair of the Balestra Competition dispute of 1801, which saw him in the role of judge, and the issue of the recognition of engravers as a defined artistic discipline. The section closes with two case studies: the Penitent Magdalene, the only possible pictorial evidence of Canova in the Academy, and the model of Triumphal Arch, dedicated to Francis II of Habsburg Lorraine, recovered, analyzed and exhibited for the first time. In the sixth section - De’ Monumenti Antichi (Of Ancient Mon uments) - the works in the exhibition refer to Canova’s role as guarantor of restoration actions on the ancient monuments of the city of Rome, fully consistent with his own commitment against the dispersion of artistic heritage, which he had undertaken since 1802. It will then be the very delicate role he played in 1815 for the return to Italy of the works taken by the French that will confirm Canova as a fundamental figure in the formation of a consciousness relating to the protection and conservation of cultural heritage. The seventh section - The Canova Competitions: architecture - complements the theme of the artistic education of young people with the architectural projects drawn up for the two editions of the Canova Competition in 1817 and 1820: in both cases the theme chosen for the first admission tests concerned the design of a building for “an academy of fine arts for the benefit of public education” (1817) or a “Factory to be adapted in suitable premises for the Academy of St. Luke” (1820). This section concludes with a “case study”: the Competition for the Moncenisio Monument of 1813.In theeighth section - The School of the Nude 1801-1812 - drawings elaborated by young students of the Capitoline School of the Nude, run by the Academy, are exhibited for the first time. Canova from the time he joined the Academy devoted himself to the Scuola del Nudo; in 1802 he was appointed ge neral Inspector of Antiquities and Academies of Fine Arts; in 1804 the awarding of a new seat in the former convent of the Convertite nuns on the Corso and new projects for the School were linked to Canova’s prestige, grants and specific responsibilities.

The exhibition is curated by a committee composed of Claudio Strinati, Serenita Papaldo, Francesco Cellini, Laura Bertolaccini, Carolina Brook, Elisa Camboni, Fabrizio Carinci, Giulia De Marchi, and Fabio Porzio. Hours: Tuesday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., last admission 4 p.m., according to the following shifts: first shift 10 a.m.; second shift 11:30 a.m.; third shift 2 p.m.; fourth shift 4 p.m. From March 6 to March 31, 2023, visiting hours will be reduced according to the following shifts: Tuesday to Saturday 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Closed Sundays and Mondays, December 24, 2022 to January 2, 2023, and January 6 to 8, 2023. Free admission with reservations by writing to prenotazioni@accademiasanluca.it. Reservations can also be made at the Academy’s concierge desk on the day, subject to availability. Information: www.accademiasanluca.it; tel. 06 6798848 - 06 6798850 by selecting the inside of the gatehouse

An exhibition in Rome on Antonio Canova prince of the Academy of St. Luke

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