18th century Italian sculpture

1. Italian sculpture of the XVIII century

Until mid-century, Bernini continued to dominate in Italy, giving way to classicism in the second half of the century. The development went faster in certain areas, in particular in group sculptural portraits.

Michelangelo's style reigned in Italian sculpture for one century, but Bernini’s art enslaved her for a full one and a half century. Before Canova, only a few sculptors made efforts to break free from the bonds of this exaggerated, partly pompous, partly over-fashioned, modern art. The idea and transmission of the forms of the human body became more and more superficial, their movements became more and more excited, their clothes more and more spread. All with greater unpleasant obtrusiveness protrude from the surface of the walls above the tombs and altars of plastically sculptured clouds on which the inhabitants of the sky stand unstable, or marble veils blown up by the wind; more and more blurred the boundaries between painting, relief art and statuary plastic. The unconstrained and easy overcoming of the greatest difficulties was an indispensable condition for the approval of artists and experts. It should be pointed out, however, the works of Roman Pietro Bracci (1700–1773). His marble tomb of Benedict XIV in the Cathedral of St. Peter, presenting this simple and reasonable father in a theatrical pathetic pose, with developing clothing, in the midst of allegorical figures of Wisdom and Selflessness, makes an even more depressing impression than the magnificent monument of Maria Clementine Sobesky-Stewart (1735) in the same cathedral, yet eloquently reflecting love to luxury and technical craftsmanship of the time. His statue of the Ocean, crowning the Trevi Fountain, despite the theatricality of the pose, complements the ensemble so well that without it the impression would not have been complete.

How far the technical sophistication in the processing of clothes, clouds and other details went so far shows a huge monument of Doge Bertucci and Silvestro Vallière in the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, whose sculptures, according to Magni, were carved by Giovanni Bonazza, later executed by Girolamo Ticcati Apotheosis of John the Cavan on the main altar of the Florentine Baptistery (1732), branded by Burgardt "the lowest degree of degeneration"; The sculptures in the church of Santa Maria della Pieta dei Sangri in Naples, which are considered to be a miracle of a kind, are also clearly shown in Naples: “Dead Christ” by Giuseppe Sammartino (1720–1793), “Chastity” by Antonio Corradini (died in 1752), the body forms of which shine through transparent clothes, and “Dezignano”, that is, the release of Raimondo di Sangro from the network that entangles him (the marble), by Quirerolo.

Along with such tricks, painted wood and plaster bands, performed around 1700 by the Genoese Maragliano for altars in the churches of Santa Annunziata, San Stefano and Santa Maria della Pace in Genoa, are full of fresh life and immediate feeling.

The classicism of the second half of the 18th century made its way in Italian sculpture against the dominant current only extremely slowly and indecisively. It should be mentioned, except as the predecessor of Canova, Giuseppe Franca from Cararra (1730-1800), who became the head of the Academy of Fine Arts founded by Maria Theresia in 1776 in Milan and gave a number of students whose works are very cool and academic.

Creativity Antonio Canova

Almost alone, at the top of this transitional time, Canova stands, whose art is still Chikonyara in his “History of Italian Sculpture” depicts as its highest level. Canova is one of the most gifted sculptors in the world, no doubt about it. However, his deliberate imitation of antiques, and he is not as clear as the Thorvaldsen school later, distinguished Greek from Roman, makes him too dependent on aesthetic theories of time, so that he could make a place among the greatest masters of all time. Most of his works lack true freshness and spontaneity. All of them are amazing, but only a few deliver real artistic joy.

Antonio Canova was born (1757–1822; the best book about him was written by Alfred Gotthold Meyer) in Possanio near Bassano; he studied the sculptural technique mainly under the direction of Giuseppe Torretti, a very busy dozens master of decay time, who took him with him to Venice. He himself owed almost everything. His first major work, the Daedalus and Icarus marble group, exhibited in Venice in 1779, is now in the local academy there. Already in this work, there is a complete break with the Berninian style and a turn more to the side of nature than to the side of the antic. The young master uncontrollably pulled to Rome, where the German painter Anton Raphael Mengs (1728–1779) and the German archaeologist Johan Joachim Winkelmann (1717–1768) had long since prepared the ground for neoclassicism. In the spirit of the Winkelmann essay on the imitation of the Greek works, Canova sculpted his “Theseus, the winner of the Minotaur” (1785), now in the Vienna Court Museum. This marble group then caused a real sensation, and, indeed, it is cleaner in form and stricter in proportions than any earlier sculpture of the XVIII century.

This work delivered an order for Canova to the tomb of Pope Clement XIV for the church of Sts. Apostles in Rome (1787); Dad sits at the top of the throne with his right hand outstretched for blessing, while on the left, Temperance leans over the coffin, and on the right, Meekness sits opposite her. The monument shows a complete revolution in the traditions of Italian sculpture sculpture of the time. The novelty lies in the simplicity and naturalness of the entire composition and each individual figure. Even more successful Kanove tombstone of Clement XIII in the Cathedral of St. Peter in Rome, completed in 1792. The pope is depicted praying on his knees above the capcophagus, beside which on the left stands a straight, chaste but severe figure of “Faith”, and on the right, at the feet of the sarcophagus, sits a flexible youthful figure dreamily leaning on his lowered torch of the genius of death. Two magnificent lying lions guard the entrance to the gates of death. Full of monumental calm, as if carved from one piece, this monument seemed like a new artistic revelation.

Of the individual sculptures made by Canova between 1785 and 1795, the famous Amur and Psyche marble group, with a strong external and spiritual revival, represents the winged god of love at a time when he, bending down from behind over Psychee who had fallen back, kisses her lips . The only one of its kind in beauty is the movement of both pairs of hands, with which slender young figures encircle each other. One copy of this beautiful group is located in the Louvre, the other in Villa Carlotta, in Cadenabbia, on Lake Como. Once again, but in a more relaxed way, Canova portrayed Amur and Psyche standing nearby, leaning shoulder to shoulder, looking at a caught butterfly. And this marble group belongs to the Louvre. In 1796, followed by the blooming Hebe of the Berlin National Gallery. These images of youthful tenderness and feminine grace lay, obviously, the artist closer to the heart than the images of courageous strength and intense passion, what are his turbulent movement of the Hercules and Lichas marble group in the Palazzo Torlonia in Rome or the inflated and stilted figures of the athletes Kregg and Damoxen of the Vatican Museum. On the contrary, the magnificent marble statue of Perseus, holding a sword in his lowered right hand, and a jellyfish head (1800) in the raised left, in the same museum, belongs, despite the obvious imitation of Apollo Belvedere, to the most attractive works of Canova. A special place is occupied by his heroic ideal portraits, which appeared in the first decade of the XIX century in Paris, where Napoleon attracted Canova. They are already under the sign of the "Empire style". Napoleon himself in the form of a nude hero of the "Achilles" type! The marble statue, which did not win the approval of the emperor, disappeared, its bronze replica of 1810 adorns the courtyard of the Milan Brera. Napoleon's sister, Polina Borghese, in the form of Venus! This reclining strict, cold figure is not as classical as falsely classical beauty, belongs to the Borghese Gallery in Rome.

The monument to the Archduchess Maria Cristina, erected in 1805 at the Augustinian Church in Vienna, does not quite organically connect the tomb pyramid with the figures approaching it, though masterfully sculptured and beautiful in its movements. Simple, majestic and expressive, finally, a monument to the poet Alfieri with sad Italy in the church of Santa Croce in Florence.

The late ideal figures of Canova, the famous “Italian Venus” (1805) in the Pitti Palace, the femininely tender Paris of the Gliptotek of Munich and portraits: Maria Louise, depicted as Juno, sitting on a throne in a forced-stretched pose, in Parma Pinakothek, or deeply inspired Pius VI in the cathedral of st. Peter in Rome does not indicate further steps in the development of his talent. Among the last works of Canova belongs a rather weak bronze group “Pieta” in the church of Sts. Trinity in his hometown of Possagno, where a large number of his models are kept in the “Canova Museum”.

No matter how boldly the innovator Canova was for his age, he was still largely bound by the old tradition; and although he rather only instinctively felt, rather than fully comprehended the eternal beauty of ancient art, he still knew how to even with his pale likeness satisfy the taste of the best connoisseurs of his time.