Page:EB1911 - Volume 24.djvu/543

MODERN AUSTRIAN] in his time, he applied himself to the study of actual life. Instead of the expressionless faces of the pseudo-classic, he gave vitality and energy.

A sculptor who was much talked of in his day was Pietro Tenerani (1789–1869), a native of Torano near Carrara. He worked for some time as assistant to Thorwaldsen. Later these two sculptors jointly accepted a commission for the monument of Eugene Beauharnais, and as Thorwaldsen wished to suppress the younger man’s name, they quarrelled and finally separated. Tenerani visited Munich and Berlin, where he enjoyed the patronage of Frederick William IV. During the disturbances of 1848 and 1849 he was obliged to leave Rome with his family, in consequence of his sympathy with the Papists and his friendship for Count Pellegrino Rossi, who was assassinated in 1848. Amongst Tenerani’s works are a statue of Count Rossi, a monument to Pius VIII. in the sacristy of St Peter’s, “The Angel of Resurrection” in the Friedenskirche at Potsdam, a low relief in the church at Castle-Ashby, Northamptonshire, and “The Descent from the Cross,” in the Torlonia chapel in St John Lateran. The last-named reveals the close study of nature so characteristic of his work.

The most distinguished Piedmontese sculptor of this period was Marochetti, who is referred to above in connexion with the British school.

Although Vincenzio Vela (1820–1891) was Swiss by birth, he was Italian both by adoption and in his sympathies. In 1838 he won the prize offered by the government to the students of the Lombard-Venetian provinces of Austria, and became known by his statue of Spartacus. His chief works are a statue of Bishop Luinl at Lugano; Desolation, at the Villa Gabrina, Lugano; William Tell, at Lugano; the Alfieri and statues of Dr Gallo at the university, and of Cesare Balbo, all at Turin; the statues of Tommaso Grossi and Gabrio Piola at the Brera, Milan; Dante and Giotto at Padua; Joachim Murat at the Certosa, Bologna; and Cavour at Genoa. His masterpiece is the seated figure of Napoleon at Versailles.

As everywhere in western and central Europe, national sculpture in Austria during the first half of the 19th century was altogether influenced by the classicism of the Italian Canova—in Austria perhaps more than in other countries, since two of Canova’s most important works came to Vienna in the early years of the century:

the famous tomb of Marie Christine in the Augustinerkirche,