CANOVA, ANTONIO marquis of Ischia, Italian sculptor, was born at Possagno, a little village near Treviso, on Nov. 1, 1757, of a family of stonemasons. He worked in his grandfather's shop until he was when one of the Falieri family in Venice noted his talent and sent him to study under Bernardo (generally known as Torretto), and then under a nephew of Torretto's at Venice. According to tradition, the boy's genius was discovered through a lion he had modelled in butter. In Venice he occupied a monk's cell, which served as workshop, and worked at sculpture, languages and the study of antiquities. There he exe cuted several groups, among them one of Daedalus and Icarus, and at 23 he went with a pension from the Venetian Senate, to Rome, where he found many patrons, among them Pope Clement XIV. He opened a studio in the Via del Babuino, and there spent two years on a monument to the Pope in the church of the Holy Apostles, completed in 1787. Then followed the cenotaph of Clement XIII. in St. Peter's, on which he was engaged for five years. In 1798 he visited Vienna and Berlin; in 1802 he went to Paris, to make studies for a statue of Napoleon, and he visited London in 1815. He received from the Pope the titles of marquis of Ischia, and "prefect of the fine arts." From time to time he returned to his native village in the hills, and there he was buried, in a temple designed by himself. He died in Venice on Oct. 13, 1822. The most distinguished funeral honours were paid to his remains, which were deposited in the temple at Passagno.
Among Canova's more celebrated works, in addition to those mentioned above, may be mentioned "Amor and Psyche" (Louvre, Paris) ; "Perseus with the head of Medusa" (Vatican) ; "Napoleon I." (Brera Palace, Milan) ; the cenotaph of Alfieri (Santa Croce, Florence) ; "Venus," modelled from the princess Pauline Borghese (Villa Borghese, Rome) ; "The Three Graces" (Hermitage Gallery, Leningrad) ; and others. Canova's work marks the reaction towards classicism from the school of Bernini; it was placed by his contemporaries on a footing with the great works of antiquity on which, in externals, it was modelled. His reputation since that date has declined. For a general appreciation of his work (see