(by Francesca De Lucia) An exhibit on Antonio Canova, the foremost neo-Classical sculptor of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, opens on Friday at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples (MANN).
The show 'Canova e l'Antico', which runs through June 30, will display for the first time in the port city over 110 masterworks by the sculptor, including masterpieces on loan from the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
Canova's works, including The Three Graces and Hebe, from the Hermitage, as well as the three-meter-high Peace from Kiev, will be on display beside the permanent collection of the museum.
The group of six statues from St Petersburg are being loaned together for the first time by the Hermitage museum to the MANN thanks to a protocol of collaboration.
"If the discoveries in Herculaneum and Pompeii are fundamental for the birth of neo-Classicism, the figure of Canova is, perhaps, its most important artistic expression", said Paolo Giulerini, the director of the archaeological museum, explaining why Naples is the best place to pay homage to the Veneto master.
Curated by Giuseppe Pavanello and organized at the city's Global International Village, the show displays masterpieces that inspired the imagination of literature greats such as Stendhal and Ugo Foscolo such as the Repentant Magdalene from Genoa; the Paris from the Museo Civico in Asolo; and the Apollo Crowning Himself from the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, among others.
Naples was described by Canova as "paradise" and the MANN hosts masterpieces which he saw for the first time during his first visit to the port city in 1780 such as the Farnesiani marbles which he studied in Rome before they were moved to Naples by King Ferdinand IV and that inspired him profoundly.
Among other masterworks, the exhibit also showcases several chalks and, as part of the collaboration of the Museum of Possagno, which loaned a number of works along with the Museum of Bassano del Grappa, 34 tempera on paper preserved at the home in Possagno where the artist was born and restored by the MANN for the occasion.
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