Antonio Canova and the politics of patronage in revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe

626 Pages·1998·6.16 MB·English

by  Christopher M. S. Johns

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Page ii
THE AHMANSON FOUNDATION
has endowed this imprint
to honor the memory of
FRANKLIN D. MURPHY
who for half a century
served arts and letters,
beauty and learning, in
equal measure by shaping
with a brilliant devotion
those institutions upon
which they rely.
Page iii
Antonio Canova and the Politics of Patronage in
Revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe
Page iv
THE PUBLISHER GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE
CONTRIBUTION OF THE SAMUEL H. KRESS FOUNDATION IN
SUPPORT OF THIS BOOK.
Page v
Antonio Canova and the Politics of Patronage in
Revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe
Christopher M. S. Johns
Page vi
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 1998 by
The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Johns, Christopher M. S.
Antonio Canova and the politics of patronage in
revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe / Christopher
M. S. Johns.
p. cm.
Includes bibhographical references and index.
0-520-21201-0 (cloth :alk. paper)
ISBN
1. Canova, Antonio, 17571822Criticism and
interpretation. 2. Art patronageEuropeHistory
18th century. 3. Art patronageEuropeHistory
19th century. 4. Neoclassicism (Art)Europe. I. Title.
623.c2J64 1998
NB
709'.2dc21 97-43755
Printed in the United States of America
987654321
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, 39.48-1984.
ANSIZ
Page vii
FOR FRED LICHT
WITH GRATITUDE AND AFFECTION
Page viii
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
List of Illustrations xi
Introduction 1
1. Canova's Background, Religious Views, and Cultural 15
Formation
2. Canova's Italianità and a Tale of Two Cities: Venice and 39
Rome
3. Canova and the French from the Ancien Régime to the 69
Restoration
4. Canova, Napoleon, and the Bonapartes 88
5. Canova and the Austrian Habsburgs 123
6. "That Illustrious and Generous Nation": Canova and the145
British
7. "This Great Cavern of Stolen Goods": Canova and the 171
Repatriation of the Papal Collections from Paris in 1815
Conclusion: Canova's Political Afterlife 195
Notes 201
Selected Bibliography 237
Index 261

Page ix
Acknowledgments
My interest in the art of Antonio Canova began when I was an
undergraduate at Florida State University's study center in Florence.
In that great city of Renaissance splendor I often contemplated the
neoclassical restraint of the Alfieri monument in Santa Croce and the
Venus Italica in the Palazzo Pitti. In doing so I was greatly encouraged
by Fred Licht and Patricia Rose, to whom I owe an enormous debt of
personal and professional gratitude. While occupied by other projects
as a graduate student and assistant professor, I planned to return to the
study of Canova, which I did in 1989. Since then, I have incurred
numerous debts of gratitude to institutions and individuals that I am
pleased to acknowledge.
For financial support at various stages of research and writing I thank
Dean Raymond Nelson of the University of Virginia, who granted me
leave at a very opportune time and who generously defrayed much of
the expense of the photographs. I also thank the Fellowship of
Downing College, University of Cambridge, for the Thomas Jefferson
Visiting Fellowship, which I held in 1996, when much of the writing
was completed in a highly intellectual and sympathetic setting. In
particular I would like to thank the Bursar, David Blackadder, for his
interest in my work. Peter Gray, Jonathan Hall, Martin Maiden, and
Paul Millet also shared their expertise and helped to make my time at
Cambridge memorable. I would also like to express my gratitude to
the University of Memphis, where I was the Hohenberg professor of
art history in 1997-98, for financial and technical support. I am
especially grateful to my colleague Melinda Parsons at the University
of Memphis for several informative discussions of Canova and early-
nineteenth-century art.
Assistance from several Italian institutions has also been vital in the