Canova

"The most celebrated sculptor of the neoclassical age, Antonio Canova (1757-1822) established himself as the preeminent artist of his time with his funerary monuments and meticulously carved marbles on classical themes. Although his idealized and sensual sculptures in marble are widely known, this is the first book devoted entirely to the brilliantly expressive clay models that he made in preparation for them. Only sixty-five of his terracotta models survive today. Extraordinarily modern in their boldness, they retain the touch of the artist's hand and yield a revelatory glimpse into Canova's imaginative and technical process. The authors, with expertise in art history and conservation, focus on Canova's terracotta works, examining his techniques in modeling and in scaling them up to full-size copies that his assistants could reproduce in marble, as well as his practice of gifting them to friends. Canova: Sketching in Clay is curated by C. D. Dickerson III, senior curator of European and American art at the National Gallery of Art, and Emerson Bowyer, Searle Curator, Painting and Sculpture of Europe at the Art Institute of Chicago"--