This fascinating book tells the story of a little-known masterpiece by the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova (1757–1822)—the statue of George Washington for the North Carolina State House, delivered in 1821 and destroyed by fire ten years later. It brings together, for the first time, Canova’s full-sized preparatory plaster model, sketches, engravings, drawings, and a selection of letters about the commission, some of them to or from Thomas Jefferson.
This is a major addition to the current body of published knowledge on the work of Antonio Canova, as well as on the classical revivalist sculpture of the early nineteenth century on both sides of the Atlantic.
Price: $45.00
Pages: 188
Publisher: D Giles Limited
Imprint: GILES
Publication Date:
05 June 2018
Trim Size: 11.00 X 9.75 in
ISBN: 9781911282174
Format: Hardcover
"The complex history of the work is clearly summarized...and placed in aesthetic context in the masterly catalog."—Barrymore Laurence Scherer, The Wall Street Journal
"A two-century-old statue of the nation’s father, in the buff, is coming to the United States for the first time. And, no, he didn’t pose for it."—James Barron, The New York Times, April 23, 2017
"Italian Art Rarities Will Make American Debut at the Frick"—Joshua Barone, The New York Times, April 7, 2017
Xavier F. Salomon is Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator of The Frick Collection. He is a noted scholar of Paolo Veronese and curated the monographic exhibition on the artist at the National Gallery, London (March-June 2014). At the Frick, he has recently curated Cagnacci's Repentant Magdalene: An Italian Baroque Masterpiece from the Norton Simon Museum (2016-17). Salomon received his Ph.D. on the patronage of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini from the Courtauld Institute of Art. He has published in Apollo, The Burlington Magazine, Master Drawings, The Medal, The Art Newspaper, Journal of the History of Collections, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art Journal. Guido Beltramini is the director of the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio, Vicenza. Mario Guderzo is the director of the Antonio Canova Museum, Possagno.
Director’s Foreword
Preface and Acknowledgments“The Boast and Pride of North America”—Antonio Canova’s George Washington by Xavier F. SalomonThe Classical Conception of Antonio Canova by Mario GuderzoJefferson, Italy, and Palladio by Guido BeltraminiAppendixBibliographyIndexPhotography Credits
