Antonio Canova

Antonio Canova (1757–1822) was the leading sculptor of the Neoclassical era and the most celebrated European sculptor of his generation. Born in Possagno, northern Italy, to a family of stonecutters, he was carving marble by his early teens. By 20, his first major works had earned him membership in Venice's Academy of Fine Arts.

Canova settled in Rome in 1781 and quickly became the sculptor everyone wanted. His Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss (1793), now at the Louvre, captures the exact moment of awakening with a tenderness that still stops visitors in their tracks. He sculpted popes, emperors, and royalty. Napoleon commissioned him multiple times, including the provocative Pauline Borghese as Venus Victrix at the Borghese Gallery. He also carved Napoleon himself as a nude Mars, 11 feet tall. Napoleon reportedly hated the result.

What set Canova apart was his surface finish. He treated marble with a light wax that gave skin an almost translucent glow, a technique his rivals couldn't replicate. The Three Graces (1817) demonstrates this perfectly, with three figures whose flesh seems warm to the touch. After Napoleon's defeat, Canova personally negotiated the return of looted Italian artworks from Paris, a diplomatic triumph that earned him the title Marquis of Ischia.