Canova and antiquity on display at the MANN in Naples. Major exhibition presented

The exhibition Canova and Antiquity, which will be held from March 28 to June 30, 2019 at the Archaeological Museum of Naples, has been unveiled. The exhibition will display 12 large marbles by Antonio Canova, and other works (110 in all) including large plaster models and casts, bas-reliefs, models and drawings. “Canova is a great artist,” said Cultural Heritage Minister Alberto Bonisoli during the presentation, "but there is a little-known aspect of his activity: his work to recover many works that Napoleon had taken to France, a sign that cultural diplomacy gives us back pieces of heritage."In fact, the works that will be exhibited have been loaned by theHermitage in St. Petersburg, the museum with the largest collection of Antonio Canova in the world: these include the Three Graces and Cupid and Psyche, some of his most famous works.

Paolo Giulierini, director of the MANN, said, "The Mann, where the great Canova statue of Ferdinand IV of Bourbon is located, was the ideal place to build an exhibition to account for this prolonged dialogue between the great Canova and classical art." Among the works on display will be the plaster casts Theseus Victor of the Minotaur andSleeping Endymion, on loan from the Gypsotheca in Possagno (Canova’s birthplace), and Perseus Triumphant, restored for the occasion. The exhibition will compare Canova’s works with those of classical art that inspired him, such as, for example, the Pugilatori depicting Creugante and Damosseno made after the model of theFarnese Hercules to the Tyrannicides or the Canova-inspired Par ide da Capua, a Roman marble from the late second century AD.

Canova and antiquity on display at the MANN in Naples. Major exhibition presented

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