Lot 173 | ANTONIO CANOVA (1757-1822) Recto: STUDY FOR THE FUNERARY MONUMENT OF ADMIRAL LORD NELSON; verso: STUDY OF A HEAD.
Estimated Price:
$Realized Price:
$
What is this symbol? This symbol indicates that this auction hose has verified this price result.
Bears number recto: No.4. Pen and brown ink (recto and verso). 216 by 267 mm. Exhibited: Paris, Heim Gallery, Le dessin venitien au xviii siecle, 1971, no.170, illus.; London, Heim Gallery, Venetian drawings of the eighteenth century, 1972, no.136, illus. This is a preliminary study for a funerary monument which was to have been erected in St. Paul's Cathedral in honour of Nelson. Canova received the commission in 1807, two years after Nelson's death, but although the project was still under discussion as late as 1816 it was never finally executed. A gesso model in the Gipsoteca in Possagno and a number of related drawings show that Canova planned the monument as a sarcophagus with carved reliefs supported by four statues (see G. Pavanello, L'opera completa del Canova, Milan 1976, cat. 192). Two drawings in the Museo Civico di Bassano are studies for the same relief depicted here, and are relatively close to the present work (see Elena Bassi, I Disegni di Antonio Canova, Venice 1959, pp.224-225, illus.).
Additional Upcoming Lots
Catalog Information
Auction House
Sotheby's
We're Hiring!
