Descrizione
CANOVA, ANTONIO, and Piroli, Tommaso – “All’Illustre Academia delle Scienze e Belle Lettere di Padova, Antonio d’Este, e Pietro Vitali. Il primo nostro scopo nel rendere pubblici per mezzo dell’incisione questi Bassi Rilievi del Celebre Sig. Antonio Canova è stato di accrescere un nuovo lustro alle glorie della Nazione Veneta nelle belle arti … [Basreliefs by Antonio Canova, sign. on the copperplate] Antonio Canova inventò; Vincenzo Camoccini delin.; Tomasso (sic) Piroli incise”.
[Rome: Calcografia Camerale, 1794-1795]
Folio (415×575 mm.), 7 engraved plates (frontispiece and 6 plates of bas-reliefs), contemporary grey wrappers, stitched as issued. A complete series of plates depicting classical subjects taken from Iliad, Odyssey, Plato: 1: Ulisse spettatore della danza dei figli di Alcinoo Re dè Feaci / 2 : Pirro, dopo trafitto Polite, uccide Priamo in presenza della famiglia / 3: Achille dolente mentre Patroclo consegna Briseide agli Araldi / 4: Telemaco ritornando nella sua regia s’incontra colla Madre Penelope / 5: Socrate vicino a morte allontana da sè la sua famiglia, ritornando agl’amici / 6: Socrate riceve alla presenza dè suoi amici la tazza del veleno.
First and sole edition, very rare. The copy described by the Italian Sbn online catalogue doesn’t retain the engraved dedicatory frontispiece. Bibl.: Canova e l’incisione, Bassano del Grappa 1993; Sbn IT\ICCU\RML\0200002.
Canova, Antonio (Possagno 1757- Venice 1822) was the most famous Italian Neoclassical sculptor, worldwide celebrated for his exceptional marble sculptures, often regarded as the greatest of the Neoclassical artists. In 1779 he went to Rome for the first time, coming in contact with the cosmopolitan environment of the Grand Tour which was a great encouragement for his intellectual formation. Here he met and became a friend of Gavin Hamilton, a painter, as well as a passionate collector of antiquities, whose influence was crucial to the maturation of the artist’s style, aiming at that classical formal perfection that led him to embody the neoclassical theories elaborated by Winckelmann and Mengs. Thanks to the esteem of foreign artists and men of letters, Canova obtained prestigious commissions abroad, like the famous funeral monument of Maria Cristina of Austria, now kept in the Church of Saint Augustine in Wien. His mythological sculptures consecrated his international fame and made him one of the favourite artists among foreign travellers in Italy.
