Antonio D'Este, Memoirs of Antonio Canova. Edited by Paolo Mariuz

Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro
CLICK HERE FOR ITALIAN VERSION

Antonio D'Este

Memorie di Antonio Canova
[Memoirs of Antonio Canova]

Edited by Paolo Mariuz

Indices curated by Maria Gabriella Toniato

Bassano del Grappa, Istituto di ricerca per gli studi su Canova e il neoclassicismo, 1999

Antonio Canova, Ebe, St. Petersburg, Hermitage Museum

N.B. On Antonio Canova see also in this blog: Consiglia Giugliano, Canova’s Biographies in the XIX Century; Pietro Giordani, Panegyric to Antonio Canova; Melchior Missirini, On the Life of Antonio Canova, Artworks seized in Italy during Napoleonic Campaigns 1796-1814 and Recovered by Antonio Canova 1815 and The Artist and his Death. Wills by European Artists from the Late Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century.

[1] Antonio D'Este (1754-1837) was very closely connected to Antonio Canova. Their friendship lasted for life. D'Este made Canova’s acquaintance in 1769, when both were teenagers and apprentices at the Venetian sculptor Giuseppe Bernardi, better known as the Torretti. The two did never loosen their contacts. D'Este moved before Canova to Rome, where he exercised the activity of sculptor, but – soon after was joined by Canova - he devoted himself increasingly to the management of the affairs of the latter. In 1798, at the time of the proclamation of the Roman Republic, Canova walked away temporarily from Rome, not feeling in line with the new political leadership of the city; thus, D'Este himself took over the weight of the workshop of his friend. Since that moment, where is Canova, there is always also Antonio D'Este. The latter assists Canova in countless business and commissions, in the recovery of the art works seized by Napoleon, the conservation of papal assets once the Restoration got back to power (he is director of the Vatican Museums). In short, a partnership that is perpetuated until the death of the sculptor from Possagno, which took place in 1822. After his death, D'Este falls rapidly back in the shadows until 1837, when he passes away.

Antonio Canova, Cenotaph of Archduchess Maria Christina, Augustinerkirche, Wien

[2] Why does Antonio D'Este write his Memoirs? Paolo Mariuz presents a couple of hypotheses. In 1824 is printed in Pisa the "official" biography of Antonio Canova (Della vita di Antonio Canova - Of the life of Antonio Canova), a work by Melchior Missirini: "...reading this text... D'Este, as he himself points out, was caught by a sense of bitterness and disappointment: Missirini had neglected to tell many family anecdotes that he had told him, considering them "popular", and thus not worthy of being reported. Just in opposition to the work of Missirini, who had proposed to stress in particular the aspects related to the artist, D'Este decided to undertake the preparation of the Memorie: his aim was to portray the family man Canova, neglected by the other biographer, i.e. the person whom he had known in the most secret aspects, and whom he had beloved from his youth"(pp. XVIII-XIX). A second trigger may have been the conflict with the other great alter-ego of Canova, the half-brother Giambattista Sartori. Notoriously, with a non-cupative will in the deathbed Canova left almost all his properties to the half-brother, while it is also known that previous provisions of the sculptor’s will did not fail to remember generously D'Este. The latter comes up to insinuate that the will at the death point had actually followed the death of the artist. "It is conceivable that one of the reasons that led him to write the Memoirs was also to denounce the bad faith of the abbot Sartori, guilty, as he suggests, to have plagiarized the companion of all life in his last moments, making him unrecognizable to him" (p. XIII).

Monument to Antonio Canova, Venice, Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari

[3] D'Este never saw the release of the Memoirs. The latter were published only in 1864, by the grandson, Alessandro D'Este and, although published in times of crisis for the neoclassical style, were nonetheless a quite successful publication. Alessandro publishes the Memories and adds a large section of Documents. They include texts which are not to be overlooked, like the Catalogo delle opere del Canova (Catalogue of the works of Canova), the Catalogo cronologico delle sculture di Antonio Canova pubblicato dietro richiesta di S.A.R. il Principe di Baviera (Chronological catalogue of sculptures by Antonio Canova, published at the request of HM Prince of Bavaria), as well as several letters, either of a private nature or related to the public commitments of the sculptor. However, it must be said that the texts of several letters addressed by Canova to various recipients, and also marked within the documents, are indeed not reported. Alessandro D'Este had indeed in mind to publish the full collection of letters by Antonio Canova, but the project, unfortunately, never went through.