RCEWA – Bust of Peace, Antonio Canova

Statement of the Expert Adviser to the Secretary of State that the bust meets Waverley criteria one and two.

Further Information

The ‘Note of Case History’ is available on the Arts Council Website: www.artscouncil.org.uk/reviewing-committee-case-hearings

Bust of Peace by Antonio Canova. Rome; 1814.

In my opinion this sculpture satisfies the first and second of the Waverley criteria, and I am therefore objecting to its export.

Provenance

The sculpture was sold at Sotheby’s, London, on 4 July 2018, lot 25, as part of the Treasures auction. It had been given by the sculptor to John Campbell, 1st Baron Cawdor (1753-1821) in 1815, and descended through the Campbell family until it was sold by John Duncan Vaughan Campbell, 5th Earl Cawdor (1900-1970) in November 1962 (Strutt and Parker, Lofts and Warner, 19-21 November 1962, lot 556); it was subsequently sold at Bonham’s, Knightsbridge, 20 March 2012, lot 395; since then it has been in a private UK collection.

Description of the Sculpture

This white marble bust of a woman on a contemporary marble socle (ht. 53 cm, including socle), described simply as ‘a lady wearing a diadem’ in the 1962 sale, is one of Canova’s celebrated Ideal Heads. The ringleted hair is elaborately looped up into the back of the diadem, a curl falls on each of her cheeks and tendrils over her neck. She looks serenely straight ahead with her lips slightly open and the gentle hint of a smile.

The Ideal Heads

Canova produced his Ideal Heads (female heads carved in marble, just under life size) to be presented as gifts to those who had helped him. The first two, Helen and Clio, date from 1811. The present Bust of Peace, given to Lord Cawdor in 1815, was the first such Head to reach Britain, where it was displayed at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1817. It was also the first to be presented to a British patron after Napoleon’s defeat. The great Canova scholar Hugh Honour noted that none of the Heads was commissioned, and for that reason the artist was able to ‘escape the restrictions of portraiture or of mythological and historical subject-matter to realize his elusive aesthetic ideal’.

Canova recognized the fundamental role Lord Cawdor had played in the negotiations for the repatriation of works of art to Italy in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. He also valued him as a friend and patron. Lord Cawdor was a steadfast admirer of the sculptor’s work, writing to him in December 1815 that his sculptures ‘should render your name famous as long as a remainder of good taste endures in the world.’

The Bust of Peace symbolised the return of peace to Europe after years of struggle and unrest. After Napoleon had been defeated at the battle of Waterloo Canova was sent to Paris by Pope Pius VII to negotiate the return of works of art looted by the French from Italy. In this he was assisted by Lord Cawdor, as well as Charles Long, art adviser to the Prince Regent, and Richard William Hamilton, Under-Secretary of State to Lord Castlereagh, the British Foreign Secretary, who were all in Paris in September 1815. Canova put the case for the repatriation of the looted Italian works of art to King Louis XVIII, and, with the support of the Duke of Wellington and the Prince Regent, the French were persuaded to return these artworks to Rome.

Following the Paris meetings in autumn 1815, in addition to the Bust of Peace presented to Lord Cawdor, Canova presented an Ideal Head to each of the four British dignitaries present to record his thanks for the support they had given him during the negotiations with the French. These were: a Bust of Helen to Viscount Castlereagh (Londonderry Collection), an Ideal Head to Sir Charles Long (now at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth), the Head of a Dancer to the Duke of Wellington (Apsley House, London) and an Ideal Head to William Richard Hamilton (now at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford).

The Bust of Peace was produced before the full-length figure of Peace which Canova was to make for the Russian Foreign Minister and Chancellor Count Nikolai P. Rumyantsev (1754- 1826), who had commissioned it in 1811. This full-length figure was not in fact finished until 1815, and was delivered to St Petersburg in November 1816. It is now in the Varvara and Bogdan Chanenko Museum, Kiev. The present Bust of Peace therefore pre-dates this full- length statue, although the heads are comparable.

Antonio Canova

Canova was recognized throughout Europe as the greatest artist of his day, perhaps one of the greatest sculptors of the post-classical era. He was born in Possagno, part of the Venetian Republic, and initially trained under his paternal grandfather, Pasino Canova, a stone mason. He went to study in Venice under Giuseppe Bernardi and then Giovanni Ferrari, before moving to Rome in 1780. His first major commission there, the Theseus and the Minotaur (now at the Victoria and Albert Museum), was given him by the Venetian ambassador in Rome. This established his reputation, and he was subsequently commissioned to execute two papal funerary monuments: for Clement XIV, and for Clement XIII. Canova’s two versions of The Three Graces (one now at the Hermitage, St Petersburg, the other owned jointly by the V&A and the National Galleries of Scotland; currently at the V&A) made in 1814 and 1815-17 respectively count amongst the masterpieces of European statuary.

Above all Canova is revered for his harmonious and subtle compositions, and for his exceptional handling of marble. The master himself worked out the initial designs in sketches and terracotta modelli, which were then transferred to plaster models, from which the finished marbles would be carved. Although he had assistants to rough out the marble blocks, Canova finished the sculptures himself, sensitively working the surface of the marble, and thereby giving his works a texture unparalleled in the work of any of his contemporaries, notably the sensuous rendering of flesh.

The Waverley Criteria

The bust and the first of the Waverley criteria: Is the object so closely connected with our history and national life that its departure would be a misfortune?

The coming of peace to Europe after years of turmoil is embodied in this small bust. Until the twentieth century it was continuously owned by the family whose ancestor, 1st Baron Cawdor, had been given it personally by the artist soon after it was made. It indubitably forms part of the history of this country.

The bust and the second of the Waverley criteria: Is the object of outstanding aesthetic importance?

Canova’s technique was unsurpassed. His carving of marble is seen to perfection in this sculpture, whose surface reveals at one and the same time his subtle artistry and the pure mineral qualities of the quarried Carrara marble. The bust is in prime condition, with no evidence of damage, weathering, or overcleaning.

The bust and the third of the Waverley criteria: Is the object of outstanding significance for the study of some particular branch of art, learning or history?

The third of the Waverley criteria is more difficult to argue than the first two. Because of the longstanding admiration for Canova in Britain we can enjoy a number of his works in public collections, not least the Ideal Head at the Ashmolean Museum, saved from export in 1996. I would therefore not object to the export of the bust using this criterion.

Bibliography

K. Eustace (ed.), Canova. Ideal Heads (exh. cat.), Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1997

A.Weston-Lewis (ed.), The Three Graces. Antonio Canova (exh. cat.), National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1995

Sotheby’s Sale Catalogue for the Treasures auction, London, 4 July 2018, lot 25 (contributions by M. Guderzo, John E. Davies and C. Mason), with further bibliography