46 
tended forcompetitions. He afterwards 
executed the statue of the Marquis Po- 
lent, of the natural size, and of marble, 
tor the city of Padua. Atthe age of 
twenty-one he finished his group of De- 
dalus ond Icarus, of Carrara marble. To 
his work-shop at Rome, he keeps a plas- 
ter copy of this group. Deedalus is. re- 
presented as an old man, whose counte- 
mance exhibits all the marks of decay 
which attend advanced age; but for this 
very reason, it produces a_ disagreea- 
ble effeet. I¢arus forms the most com- 
plete contrast. Heis looking with a sim- 
pering air and an affected complaisanee 
at his father, whois m the act of fasten- 
ane on his wings. In this group we do 
nut discover the first traces of the career 
which the artist has since followed. 
This group, which belongs to the Cheva- 
her Pisani, procur:d its author a reward 
which did bonour to him, as well as to 
the magistrates who conterred it. The 
senate of Venice granted him a pension 
of three hundred ducats a-year, and sent 
him to Rome. _He went m the suite of 
the Venetian ambassador Zuliani, who 
was sent to that city about the end of 
the year 1779. 
Canova assiduously applied himself, 
during the first years of lnsresidence at 
Rome, to the study of the antique. He 
executed an Apollo crowned with laurel, 
for his illustrious patron, the Prince Rez- 
zonico. ‘the character of this statue is 
not above mediocrity ; but some marks 
of ideal beauty may be perceived in it; 
and it shews, in some sort, the transition 
from the servile imitation of nature to 
the union of the beauties which are scat- 
tered taroughott It. 
The group of Theseus sitting on the 
Afinotaur, which he has just killed, is the 
first work by which Canova made himself 
known at Rome. This group, executed 
in 1783, is of Carrara marble, and as 
large as life; but though there 1s nothing 
striking in the idea itself, this work pos- 
sesses several species of beanty, and 1s 
worthy of being classed among the most 
celebrated performances of this artist. 
The countenance of Theseus exhibits all 
the characteristics of a hero. It were, 
indeed, to be wished that it had more 
energy and grandeur ; : but on examining 
the details of this statue, the anti rque 
taste and style which Canova then strove 
to attain, mav be discovered. tfe, how- 
ever, all at once abandoned the track 
which he had-hitberto pursued, and his 
genius bursting every kind of shackles, re- 
solved toe trace out for itself new career, 
Account of the Life and Works of Canova. 
[Aug. I, 
If the study of the antique developed 
and formed his taste, he did not find in 
it slight traces of the new model which 
his genius was to compose. His dispo- 
sition led him to prefer tender and af- 
fecting sentiments, - and he feared that, 
in the. expression of those sentiments the 
ancients ‘had not attained to that high 
perfection which they display in many 
Other subjects. M. Quatremere de 
Quincy, who was at Rome at the time 
when the artist was stiil undecided what 
ceurse to parsue, advised him, neverthe- 
less, to apply himself exclusively to the 
study of the ancients, to identify himself 
with their taste and their style, and to 
vie with them in the observance of treir 
own principles. This was certainly the 
most prudent advice that could be given, 
ata time when the art, plunged into a 
kind of sleep, bad still ieft to the ancients 
all their pre- eminence, and. when it re~- 
quired a genius like Canova’s to attempt 
a new flight. 
This artist resolved te emulate the 
ancients, but without submitting to the 
conditions that were imposed upon him. 
A favourable circumstance presented 
him with the means of acquiring a new 
and original reputation. In 1783 he was 
appointed to execute the monument erect- 
ed in the church of the Apostles at Rome 
to the memory of Pope Clement XIV. 
Here the artist found himself in a field 
which had not yet been trodden before 
him, and in which he could yield to the 
full impulse of his genius in the course 
he had to pursue. [tis well known that, 
for a century, the sculpture intended for 
the embellishment of churches had forme - 
ed for itself a particular style, which was 
totally different from that ‘of the models 
left by prophane antiquity. The monv- 
ment erected to the memory of Benedict 
XIV.in the church of St, Peter, was the 
last in which this ecclesiastical style was 
preserved; and this mausoleum, which 
perpetuated the memory of Clement’ 
XIV. was destined to commence a new 
era. But how couid our artist, who had 
not yet come to a final arrangement with 
his own genius; who hadas yet advanced 
only the first steps im his career; who 
after having exalted himself above the! 
erroneous taste of the school of Bernini, 
had not had time to acquire sufticient 
knowledge and experience to form his 
own, stamp a character of perfection on 
a monument in which he only essayed his 
means, and in which he had no other 
models to follow than these of an imagi-— 
nation rich, indeed, but still destitute of+ 
guides 
