Canova in the Royal Court: Masterpieces from the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg
21 February 2008 – 1 June 2008

On 21 February 2008, at the Palazzo Reale (the Royal Palace), Milan, a new exhibition Canova in the Royal Court: Masterpieces from the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg was opened, which consists of 34 sculptures executed in marble, the work of Italian masters (including groups, statues and busts), and eight chalices from Russian coloured stone, made in Russia from the State Hermitage Museum’s collection.

The time frame of the exhibition encompasses an entire century, from approximately 1760 to 1860, during which period neo-classicalism was predominant. The State Hermitage Museum’s collection of neo-classical plastics is the best in the world. It impresses not only with its size, but quality. The first works from those exhibited at the exposition is the Seasons series, the work of Giovanni Antonio Cibei and two statues by Carlo Albacini, attesting to the rebirth of classicism. They were acquired during the reign of Catherine the Great, furthermore the dating of Flora and Isis by Albacini has until recently remained unknown. It has been possible to prove that they were acquired in 1768, in Rome by I.I. Shuvalov for the Russian Empress only recently. The four statues by Canova (from which The Dancer is being exhibited) Emperor Alexander I purchased in 1815 from the heir of Josephine de Beauharnais, Napoleon’s first wife, and a further two works (The Three Graces and Repentant Maria Magdalene) had been included in the collection by the twentieth century from the descendents of the Beauharnais family. In 1838 Grand Prince Alexander Nikolaevich, (the future Alexander II), and in 1845 Nicholas I, who at the time was building the New Hermitage, visited Italy. They both visited the workshops of the leading sculptors, purchasing and commissioning statues. In this way the statues Flora by Pietro Tenerani, Zephyr and Amour with Doves by Luigi Bienaime, Diana by Emil Wolff, Venus in a Shell by Carlo Finelli, Nymph with a Scorpion by Lorenzo Bartolini and others were acquired, which are on display at the exhibition. The majority of them adorned adorned the hall of contemporary sculpture in the New Hermitage, built to the order of Nicholas I.

The exhibition on display in the gala halls of Palazzo Reale bears a festive, truly palatial character. Not only the statues have created a large amount of interest but also the magnificent vases and chalices from coloured stone (malachite, green stone, jade), executed by the stonecutters in factories at Peterhof Yekaterinburg and Kolyvan. As a rule there were cut according to the drawings of leading Russian architects who were also using the neo-classical style for Imperial palaces and the New Hermitage which was designed to fulfill the functions of a museum-palace.

For the exhibition an academic, illustrated catalogue has been prepared, published by Federico Motta Press, Milan, under the editorship of S.O. Androsov, a doctor of Art History and head of the Department of Western European Art at the State Hermitage Museum, and Fernando Mazzocca, a professor at the University of Milan. The catalogue includes photographs of the sculptures specially photographed for the publication by Italian photographer Aurelio Amendola.

The Repentant Mary Magdalene
Antonio Canova
Larger view

Dancer
Antonio Canova
Larger view

Flora
Pietro Tenerani
Larger view

Nymph with a Scorpion
Lorenzo Bartolini
Larger view