NAPLES.- For the first time, an exhibition focuses on the continuous, intense and fruitful relationship that tied Canova to the classical world, making him not only a "new Fidia” in the eyes of his contemporaries, but also an artist capable of to dismantle and renew the Ancient by looking at nature.

"To imitate, not to copy the ancients" to "become inimitable" was the warning of Winckelmann, the father of neoclassicism: a warning followed by Canova throughout all the course of his artistic activity.

From the juvenile Theseus and the Minotaur to the Sleeping Endymion, accomplished shortly before his death, the Ancient / Modern dialogue is an indispensable constant of its work; up to the point of touching, in this path, tips that worth a paradigma: one above all, the creation of the Triumphant Perseus, the new "Apollo del Belvedere".

"The National Archaeological Museum of Naples, where the great Canovian statue of Ferdinand IV of Bourbon is located, seemed to be – in the words of Director Paolo Giulierini – the ideal place to build an exhibition that took into account such a prolonged dialogue between the great Canova and classical art".

Here, masterpieces admired by the Venetian master are hosted: "herculeanensis" paintings and sculptures he had the chance to see during his first stay in the city in 1780; and also, the Farnese marbles, that he already studied when they still were in Rome, at Palazzo Farnese and later transferred in Naples following the will King Ferdinand IV : very well-known marbles that served as an inspiration for Canova's capital works such as the Eros Farnese, the prototype for the Jusupov Winged Cupid, and that the public will be able to compare on this extraordinary occasion.

Curated by Giuseppe Pavanello, one of the greatest Canova scholars and organized by Villaggio Globale International, the exhibition gathers at the Archaeological National Museum of Naples, in addition to some other important ancient works, more than 110 artworks by the great artist, including 12 extraordinary marbles, great models and plaster casts, bas-reliefs, plaster and terracotta models, drawings, paintings, monochromes and tempera, in dialogue with works from MANN collections, partly included in the exhibition itinerary, partly reported in the museum rooms.

International loans characterize the event: the exceptional core of six marbles from The State Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg, which boasts the largest Canova collection in the world – the Winged Cupid, the Hebe, the Dancer with her hands on her hips, standing Cupid and Psyche, the Head of the Genius of Death and the famous and revolutionary sculpture of The Three Graces - but also the imposing statue, almost three meters high, depicting Peace, coming from Kiev and Apollo crowning himself from the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. To these are to be added, among the marble masterpieces that thrilled writers like Stendhal and Foscolo and now gathered in the Salone della Meridiana of the Neapolitan Archaeological Museum, the beautiful Penitent Magdalene from Genoa, the Mellerio Stele, unmatchable apex of formal rarefaction and pathos.

And again, the extraordinary presence of some delicate big plasters such as the Campbell Cupid and the Triumphant Perseus, the latter restored on the occasion of the exhibition and hosted at Palazzo Papafava in Padua - both from private collections - or the Theseus and the Minotaur and the Sleeping Endymion from the Possagno Gypsotheca (Canova's birthplace) which has granted, with great generosity, extremely significant loans.

In this sense also the support of the ABAP Superintendency of the metropolitan area of Venice and of the provinces of Belluno, Padua and Treviso, which in recent years has been conducting a delicate action on the territory, not only in terms of protection of works of art, but also of safeguard and affirmation of their testimonial value respectfully to the dramatic events of the First World War, which saw them tragically protagonists, sometimes suffering wounds whose memory must be kept alive.

Still in the context of the collaboration with the Possagno Institution, another peculiar element of the exhibition is the possibility of admiring, all together and after a careful restoration, the 34 tempera on paper with a black background preserved in the birthplace of the artist: those “various thoughts of dances and jokes of Nymphs with cupids, of Muses and Philosophers etc, designed for the sole study and delight of the Artist "- as stated in the catalogue of Canovian edited in 1816 - clearly inspired by the Pompeian paintings on a plain background and, in particular, to the Dancers.

With these tempera, the sculptor of the pure white Carrara marble experimented, in the wake of those ancient examples, its opposite, the "black fields", with the intention to act as a revived painter of the Pompeian refinements admired throughout Europe, to which, for the first time , those "thoughts" can now be put side by side.

Precisely this comparison, by analogy and opposition, between works by Canova and classical works, constitutes the absolute novelty of this exhibition indeed, highlighting a unique relationship between a modern artist and ancient art.

Canova always refused to make copies of ancient sculptures, deeming it unworthy of a creative artist. His conversation with the classical world was profound and affected crucial issues, first of all the desire to revive the Ancient in the Modern and to shape the Modern through the filter of the Ancient: creative instances, precisely, in the full sense of the term.

The Ancient, as he himself noted down, "was necessary to be learnt by heart, to be experienced it in the blood, until it becomes as natural as life itself".

Here, then, is the possibility of comparing, for example, the proud Boxers depicting Creugas and Damoxenos – the plaster casts from Possagno of the monumental Vatican marbles purchased by Pius VII in 1802 - with the classical sculpture studied for a long time by the artist: from the Farnese Hercules to the Tyrannicides; or the Canova’s Paride with the Paride from Capua, a Roman marble from the end of the 2nd century AD; or again, the bust of Emperor Francis II dressed ancient style, with an armour and a chlamys like a Roman emperor, with the Portrait of Antoninus Pius: all ancient marbles preserved at MANN. The Theseus on the Minotaur will have, as its classical comparison, the Ludovisi Ares - whose chalk is lent by the Naples Academy of Fine Arts - and the bronze of Mercury from Herculaneum, admired by Canova in the then Portici Museum already in 1780; likewise, in the model for Maria Louise of Habsburg as Concordia there is a reference to the Pompeian painting depicting Ceres, coming form the collections of the Neapolitan Archaeological Museum as well.

Leopoldo Cicognara appropriately noted down that "of the Ancient, Canova truly was a devout, not a superstitious", and the mater himself once said: "I take pride to be a worshipper of the ancient, but not an idoliser of all the ancient things".

To imitate, therefore, not to copy the ancients, up to the apex of creative autonomy, up to radical peaks of innovation, as in the case of the Three Graces, all of them represented frontally: "the ingenious and new embrace of three female figures, so that from any side we look at it, turning around it – wrote Quatremère de Quincy - it reveals, with ever-changing aspects, a multiplicity of positions, forms, contours, ideas and ways of feeling ... ". .

Or, the case of Penitent Magdalene, "a work entirely a fruit of the heart"; for the crows attending the Paris Salon in 1808 "something new, out of the ordinary, that seemed to have something miraculous".

Such an expressive freedom was never seen before.

Brilliant Canova!
Naples relights the spotlight on the master who, with the Neapolitan city - "truly situated in one of the most pleasant situations in the world" - had a long and constant relationship: firstly as a young traveler eager to admire its beauties and works of art and the “herculeanensis" and Paestum antiquities; then for the many and significant commissions from both the rulers (both of the ancient regime and of the Napoleonic age) and the Neapolitan aristocracy.

At the exhibition, it is possible to admire the great plaster of the group of Adonis and Venus, from the collection of Giovanni Falier, the discoverer of the talent of Antonio Canova: the marble taken from this cast is the first work of the artist that got to Naples, at the beginning of 1795, purchased by the young Marquis Francesco Berio.
The sculpture (now preserved in the Geneva Museum and immovable) provoked enthusiastic frenzies, articles, publications, continuous visits in Naples, to the point of forcing to close the temple in the garden of Palazzo Berio, due to the crowding of people. The plaster, now on display, was personally donated by Canova to his patron Falier, perhaps to astonish his compatriots at home as well.

"Canova e l'Antico" is not only be a great event, but a proper journey of knowledge in the universe of the sculptor: the itineraries proposed on the occasion by the Museum will allow the rediscovery of the links between the artist and the city of Naples, while there will be a vast offer of workshops and educational activities to recount the exhibition, the artist's modus operandi and the innovation of his art even to the little ones.

In particular, in addition to the important Electa catalogue that accompanies the exhibition – rich in essays and sheets featuring comparisons between Canovian works and the ancient works - the illustrated series conceived for the young visitors of MANN starring the young Nico, this time to the discovery of Canova, and published by Electa, returns on the occasion. The authors are Blasco Pisapia and Valentina Moscon.

However, it’s not over for the great neoclassical sculptor, which on the occasion of the exhibition in Naples he is here in the fantastic world of Topolino. The weekly magazine of Panini Editore will publish (on newsstands from May 1st) the comic story "Topolinio Canova and the poetic spark". An adventure in the educational front, written and designed by Blasco Pisapia, to revive the Neapolitan journey of Topolinio Canova and his friend and colleague Pippin.

Finally, multimedia innovation and the fascination of immersive stories will be at MANN with C + by Magister, a variation of Magister Canova: two immersive installations with a high scientific content and great emotional power, produced by Cose Belle d’Italia Media Entertainment and presented on this special occasion.