Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/298

 268 Sculpture in the Seventeenth Canova was born of peasant parents at Possagno ; near Venice, and is said to have revealed his vocation by a model of a cow in butter which he made for the table of Count Faliero, who sent him to the Academy of Venice. In a few years he gained the first prize for sculpture, and in 1774 was sent to Rome with a pension of 300 ducats. In 1802 he visited Paris, and in 1815 he travelled through France on a mission from the Pope, and came to England, where he executed several fine works, and confirmed the opinion of Flaxman and others as to the great value of the Elgin marbles. On his return to Italy he became a convert to the advanced religious views of the day, and spent much time and money on the erec- tion and decoration of a church in his native village ; and was made Marquis of Ischia by the Pope. He after- wards executed a colossal statue of Religion for St. Peter's at Rome, but the cardinals objected to its being placed there, and the sculptor in high wrath left the Papal States for Venice, where he died in 1822. Canova' s works are remarkable for the purity and beauty of the figures, the simplicity of the composition, and the finished execution of every detail. To him and to Flaxman — full details of whose life and works will be given in a future chapter — is due the honour of raising the public taste, and teaching it what to admire. No other sculptors of the day so fully entered into the spirit of antique art, or realised the beauty of the simplicity and truth to nature of the best artists of the Renaissance. It is impossible to enumerate Canova' s numerous works. Casts of many of them may be studied at the Crystal Palace : amongst others, of the Three Graces, in the pos- session of the Duke of Bedford ; the Endymion, in the