Antonio Canova valuation
Italian sculptor of smooth, idealised marble figures, and the leading sculptor of Neoclassicism.
Antonio Canova (1757–1822) was born in Possagno in the Veneto, trained in Venice and settled in Rome in 1781.
What a work by Antonio Canova is worth
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation is free, made online from the photographs you send, and it commits you to nothing. We act for sellers across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.
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Bio
Antonio Canova (1757–1822) was born in Possagno in the Veneto, trained in Venice and settled in Rome in 1781. His marble groups, including Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss in the Louvre and The Three Graces, shared between the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the National Galleries of Scotland, made him the most sought-after sculptor in Europe. He portrayed Pauline Bonaparte as Venus at the Galleria Borghese and Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker, a colossal nude now at Apsley House in London. After 1815 he helped to bring back works of art taken from Italy by the French.
Marbles by his own hand are very rare. Plaster casts, clay models, drawings and the many marble copies and reductions made after his works in Italy in the nineteenth century are what the market mostly sees. A buyer will need to establish whether a marble is an autograph work or a later copy, and comparison with the plasters in his museum at Possagno helps. Marble should be checked for repairs, surface cleaning and losses to fingers and drapery.
At a glance
- Born
- 1 November 1757, Possagno
- Died
- 13 October 1822, Venice
- Movement
- Neoclassicism
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.
