- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (Oct 1 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0520212010
- ISBN-13: 978-0520212015
- Product Dimensions: 25.7 x 17.3 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1 Kg
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
The Venetian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822) was Europe's most celebrated artist from the end of the ancien régime to the early years of the Restoration, an era when the traditional relationship between patrons and artists changed drastically. Christopher M. S. Johns's refreshingly original study explores a neglected facet of Canova's career: the effects of patrons, patronage, and politics on his choice of subjects and manner of working. While other artists produced art in the service of the state, Canova resisted the blandishments of the political powers that commissioned his works.
Johns uses letters, diaries, and biographies to establish a political personality for Canova as an individual and an artist of international reputation. Though he had patrons as diverse as the pope, Napoleon, the Austrian Hapsburgs, the Prince Regent of Great Britain, and the Republic of Venice, Canova remained steadily employed and did so without controversy. A conservative and a Catholic, he devised a strategy that enabled him to work for patrons who were avowed enemies while remaining true to the cultural and artistic heritage of his Italian homeland. Using myth and funerary images and avoiding portraiture, he disguised the meanings behind his works and thus avoided their being identified with any political purpose.
Johns greatly enhances our understanding of Canova's place in European art and political history, and in showing the influence of censorship, display, visual narrative, and propaganda, he highlights issues as contentious today as they were in Canova's time.
Johns uses letters, diaries, and biographies to establish a political personality for Canova as an individual and an artist of international reputation. Though he had patrons as diverse as the pope, Napoleon, the Austrian Hapsburgs, the Prince Regent of Great Britain, and the Republic of Venice, Canova remained steadily employed and did so without controversy. A conservative and a Catholic, he devised a strategy that enabled him to work for patrons who were avowed enemies while remaining true to the cultural and artistic heritage of his Italian homeland. Using myth and funerary images and avoiding portraiture, he disguised the meanings behind his works and thus avoided their being identified with any political purpose.
Johns greatly enhances our understanding of Canova's place in European art and political history, and in showing the influence of censorship, display, visual narrative, and propaganda, he highlights issues as contentious today as they were in Canova's time.
About the Author
Christopher M.S. Johns is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Virginia and the author of Papal Art and Cultural Politics: Rome in the Age of Clement XI (1993).
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First Sentence
THE CHARACTER OF THE MOST CELEBRATED ARTIST OF HIS ERA, frequently described as "divine" by his contemporaries, was largely formed in the rural Veneto. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
THE CHARACTER OF THE MOST CELEBRATED ARTIST OF HIS ERA, frequently described as "divine" by his contemporaries, was largely formed in the rural Veneto. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
6 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
an excellent and courageous review of Canova's art, Jun 21 2001
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Antonio Canova and the Politics of Patronage in Revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe (Hardcover)
This book is by far the most outstanding book written on the subject of Antonio Canova. Clear, concise, and masterly.
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