Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/346

 CANOSA

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CANOVA

d'archeologie eacree, s. v. Baldaquin (Paris, 1851); Kraus, Geschichte der chrisllichen Kunsst (Freiburg lm Br., 189b), 1, 372 etc. „

Patrick Morrisroe. Canosa, Diocese of. See Bari. Canossa, a former castle of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, in the foothills of the Apennines, about eighteen miles from Parma, where took place the dramatic penance of King Henry IV of Germany in presence of Pope Gregory VII. The king, ex- communicated 22 February, 1076, would have been utterly aban- doned by the in- imical German princes unless within a year he made peace with the pope. Early in January, 1077, the latter was on his way to the diet called to meet at Augs- burg, 2 Feb- ruary, when he heard that Henry had crossed Mont Cenis. Fearing for his person, he took refuge in the impregnable and almost inaccessi- ble burg of Ca- nossa, the hered- itary stronghold of his friend and protectress, Ma- tilda. The king, however, was really intent on performing the penance necessary to lift the excommunication, by which diplo- matic step the plans of his enemies in Germany would be nullified. For three days (25-27 January) he stood constantly before the castle gate, in the dress of a peni- tent, beseeching wit h many tears the pope's forgiveness. Gregory finally yielded, moved by the royal compunc- tion and by the importunities of his royal entourage, among them Matilda. He received Henry back into the communion of t he Church, and promised t o promote his reconciliation with the German princes. But the king soon violated his solemn oath to comply with the pope's conditions, and renewed the conflict. The story, as narrated above, is told by Gregory himself (Reg. Ep., IV, 12), in a letter to the princes of Ger- many explanatory of the event of Canossa. The con- temporary chronicler, Lambert of Hersfeld, asserts that at the Mass of reconciliation the pope, when about to give communion to Henry, took himself one half of the Sacred Host and challenged the king to take the other as an ordeal. Modern historians deny the truth of this assertion.

The penance of Henry was, in reality, only a per- sonal humiliation, and not a degradation of the royal office; nor was it in that form imposed by the pope, nor did the king spend three days and nights in his bare shirt without food and without shelter (Hergen- rother, " Kirchengeschichte", ed. Kirsch, II, 361). The ruins of Canossa are now within the Commune of Ciano d'F.nza, some shapeless fragments of broken walls that rise on rocky buttresses above a sea of hardened brown mud, "twisted and tossed and con- torted into the most hideous of crevasses" (Hare). The castle- well and "gate of penance" alone remain. Huie. Ctiiet nl Northern Iml; (London, 1896). II. 24. r >-49; BuCHBERgeh. Kirchliches llandlerikon (Munich, 1906\ I. 830; Knopfler. Dm Tone ran Tribur und Canossa, in Hist. Poht. Blatter (1884), XCIV, 209. 381; Gossei.in, Temporal Power of the Pope in tin >/ \dh Iget (Baltimore, 1868), II; Hergen- nuTHER, Church and State (tr., London. 1872).

Thomas J. Shah an.

Canova, A.vtonio, the greatest Italian sculptor of modern times, b. at Possagno, in the province of Treviso, 1 November, 1757; d. at Venice 13 October, 1822. Educated by his grandfather. Pasino Canova, a stone-cutter of unusual ability, the boy could model in clay and carve little marble shrines before he was ten. The attention of Senator Giovanni Falieri was attracted to the child, whom he placed with the sculptor Torretto at Bassano, where he worked for two years. Canova then went back to his grand- father; but Falieri's sons interceded for their playmate, and the boy-artist was invited to the palace in Venice. After one year under Torretto's nephew, he spent the next four years in independent efforts. He owed his first workshop to the kindness of certain monks who gave him a vacant cell for a studio. In his sixteenth year he modelled his first statue, "Eurydice"; three years later he produced the "Orpheus", both now in the Villa Falieri at Asolo. Then came the " Da?dalus and Icarus", a remarkable group, dramatic and full of movement (Venice Academy). In 17S0 Canova went to Rome, where he came into contact with the antique from which his talent received fresh energy, and he applied himself earnestly to its study. "The- seus and the Mino- taur" (1782) is one of his best works (Volksgarten, Vien- na). In 1787 the young sculptor ex- ecuted the monu- ment to Clement XIV in the church of the Santi Apos- toli at Rome. The noble figure of the pontiff is seated, the right hand stretched forth in benediction. His next work was the elaborate tomb of Clement XIII in St. Peter's, with the admirable "Lions of Antonio Canova

Canova" at the base.

In 1793 he did the Cadenabbia " Psyche and Cupid ", a graceful composition of exquisite lines; and in 1796 the life-size "Kneeling Magdalen" (Cadenabbia) and the "Hebe" (Berlin). The year following saw the " Psyche and Cupid" of the Louvre. In 1S00 Canova made the "Perseus" which stands grouped with his two boxers, "Kreugas and Damoxenus", in the Gabinetto Canova of the Vatican Gallery.

In 1S02, by special request of Napoleon I, he went to Paris and modelled a colossal figure of the emperor, holding a Victory in his hand (Apsley House, London). His "Bust of Napoleon" is in the Corcoran Gallery. Washington. Some years later Canova modelled a noble statue of Napoleon's mother in antique garb; one of Marie Louise as "Concord" (Parma) and the reclining portrait of Pauline Bonaparte, wife of Prince Borghese, as " Venus Victrix " I Villa Borghese, Rome). The colossal, boyish "Palamedes" for the Villa Carlotta, Cadenabbia" (1804). was followed next year by the "Venus from the Bath" (Pitti Palace, Florence). At the same time Canova was engaged upon the monument for the Archduchess Maria Christina, a group of nine mourning figures entering a mausoleum (church of the Augustinians, Vienna), and travelled to Austria to superintend the Betting up of the work. In 1S07 heexeeuted the "Bust ot Pius VII", one of his most notable achievements in por- traiture. The number of his productions is so large that it is impossible to mention minor ones. Some of his lighter subjects, "his leisures" he called them, are well known, e. g. the "Dancing Girls" he produced the "Three Graces".

In 1814