Antonio Canova

Born in Possagno, near Venice, in 1757^[3], into a family of stonecutters, Canova showed such early talent that a Venetian senator arranged his education. He arrived in Rome in 1779^[3], financed by the Venetian senate, and within a few years had become the most discussed sculptor in the city. His Theseus Vanquishing the Minotaur (1781–83, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, h. 145.4 cm) looked like a newly excavated classical piece while being entirely his own invention, indebted to no single antique source. His Theseus and the Centaur (1804–19, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, h. 340 cm) was compared by contemporaries to the Laocoön in its expression of pathos.

By the 1790s he was the most celebrated sculptor in Europe, receiving commissions from Napoleon, from Napoleon's sister Pauline Borghese (depicted as Venus Victrix, 1805^[3]–08), and from the Pope, who granted him the title of Marquis of Ischia in 1807. After the Napoleonic Wars, Canova worked as a papal envoy across Europe, demanding the restitution of looted artworks. He was also consulted in 1815, alongside painter Benjamin West, on the purchase of the Parthenon marbles for the British Museum.

He established a school for young artists in Venice and died there in 1822^[3].