No common or garden sculptor
Michael Prodger | The Critic | 15th October 2022
By late 1700’s, Baroque sculpture, with its wrought emotions and twisted forms, had been eclipsed by the refinement of neoclassicism. This style looked to the simplicity and calm repose of the ancients and in Canova found its undisputed star. His sculptures boasted “movement and purity of form”, their polished surfaces having the look of “living softness”. Since his death in 1822, his renown has waxed and waned; he now receives “less than his due” compared to contemporaries such as Delacroix.